Is It Really Common Sense?

Do you ever get feedback that doesn't make any sense to you?

I do. Sometimes when I'm training a group of people I can spot a person who simply refuses to learn. That person will show with their body language that they don't want to be there. They have very few comments and the things that they do say are caustic.

They are probably what trainers call "prisoners" in the room. They didn't want to be there in the first place. Some leader has sent them there because they need to change some key parts of their performance. But since they have refused to so far sending them to training probably won't reform them. Even when they know what to do, they won't let go of their nonproductive or abrasive habits.

Sometimes they'll leave a comment on the evaluation form around how the whole thing was just "common sense". Heaven forbid they should actually learn something, so they must minimize the content. I say this with some edge because I know that it's always one person out of a room filled with people with the rest of the people sharing responsibility for success and taking charge of their own learning so they enjoy it, they benefit from it, and they put it to use. They don't blame their lack of growth on "common sense" content.

Don't call it common sense if you're not using it.

Nobody is fooled by that.

-- Doug Smith

P.S.
I wrote the "grab line" on this: don't call it common sense if you're not using it, in 2013. Since that time I don't think a single person has devalued any of my workshops with a comment that it was just "common sense" so maybe the feedback, as abrasive as it was, was useful after all. I do all that I can now to encourage learners to take whatever the content is to the next level. And, thankfully, it seems that they are.

What do you do with feedback you don't enjoy?

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