I am never short of an idea or two on the microbiological front, with the ideas usually arriving out of normal working hours, in bed, on the toilet, on the bus, after a couple of beers etc.

Some of my ideas are rubbish, some mediocre and a few good (I like to think I have the occasional good idea from time to time!). But how does one work out which ideas have some legs in them?

One of the best ways to do this is to seek feedback on your idea, put it out there to your peers, and see what they think of it.

You might get various responses which might be constructive ( “Yes I like/dislike your idea. However I think you could improve it by doing A, B &C“) or non-constructive (“I like the idea” or “I hate the idea“)

But sometimes you will encounter no feedback at all. This made me think of all the potential reasons for no feedback, which I have listed below:

• “Other people/stakeholders will give the feedback.”
• “The person may be offended if I give negative feedback.”
• “I might be regarded as submissive if I give positive feedback.”
• “I am too busy to review and feedback on this topic.”
• “I am not interested enough in this topic to give feedback.”
• “I don’t know enough about this topic to give feedback.”
• “I am not in a sufficiently senior position to feedback on this topic.
• “If I feedback I may get caught up in the politics of the idea/topic.”
• “I don’t think the idea will work, but if I don’t feedback then it is not my problem.”

and there are probably more..

I always try and work out the reasons for the lack of feedback, particularly if I get no feedback at all on a particular suggestion.

I love feedback, of all kinds.

Positive feedback is useful in suggesting your idea might have mileage.

Negative feedback is equally useful and potentially more so, as it may prevent a bad idea from getting off the ground.

Constructive feedback is the most useful of all as it can cause an idea to evolve and grow.

Encourage feedback at every opportunity, and in return give as much as you can to other people’s ideas. Embrace all types of feedback and don’t shy away from it. Most importantly, the receiving of feedback shows that people care…

Michael