Spoken Feedback or Written Feedback

When you are receiving feedback do you prefer someone to relay it to you by writing or by verbal, face to face communication? I personally prefer written feedback for the following reasons:

•  Written feedback can be delivered without emotion or tone.
•  I feel that I can reflect on the feedback with objectivity. 
• Another plus of written feedback is that you can return to it later when working on a project. This will help you remember what it is that needed correction or what it was that stood out in a positive way. You can capitalize on the good and correct the bad.
•  Verbal feedback is effective only as long as the person giving feedback has the ability to choose constructive and helpful words on the spot. When writing you have time to evaluate what you have written to a person to determine whether you are coming across constructive or just critical. We want to always aim for constructive.

Creating a feedback ladder is a great way to give written feedback or verbal feedback. When giving verbal feedback with the written guidelines in place you avoid straying into unproductive talk. The goal of constructive feedback is to affirm another’s work, give helpful insight that could improve the work and to help rethink things that detract from the work.

Verbal feedback can be useful in several ways. For example, if you do not quite understand what a person is trying to convey you can ask for clarification right then. You also have the opportunity to bounce thoughts off of one another and brainstorm new ideas for improvement. 

 Regardless of how you prefer feedback it is very important to be open to ideas from others in an effort to produce a quality, final product.