Using Feedback: Micro

Episode Transcript

The Using Feedback Micro card states, “Acting on adopted feedback may be harder than you thought. If you get stuck, try breaking it into smaller pieces and working on one at a time.” And the card invites you to practice the atom, which you can do by asking yourself, “If this feedback were broken into pieces, what would they be? If I ordered them, which would I work on first? Why?”

Let’s build on where we’ve been. So you’ve worked through some of the thinking on processing. You may remember two moves that feel similar to this one. We sorted feedback into bins, and then we sifted for the biggest rock, the piece of feedback that, if truly worked on, could have the biggest impact on your growth. This card picks up exactly there, because now the question becomes, how do you actually take on that big rock?

And here’s what many people discover. The rock is heavier than it looked. You committed to it, you meant it, but then maybe you tried to lift the whole thing at once and got stuck. I’ve done this so many times, I can’t even count anymore. That stuck feeling is sometimes a motivational problem, but it’s also a size problem, which we can address by kind of atomizing it.

Say your big rock is improving your ability as a public speaker. That sounds like one skill, but it’s really a bundle of all kinds of skills. Break it open and you might find your opening, those first 90 seconds where the nerves peak and the audience decides whether to lean in. Your pacing, the tendency to speed up when anxious, leaving no space for points to land. Your body, where your hands go, whether your feet are planted or wandering. Your vocal variety, the difference between a monotone delivery and one that rises, falls, pauses with intention. And your audience connection, actually reading the room and adjusting rather than performing at people.

This is just an example, but you can see that the big rock is already now at five pebbles. Suddenly, “become a public speaker,” which is vague, enormous, and can feel kind of unstartable, becomes, “This month I’m working on my pacing.” That’s a piece you can practice in a single meeting.

And here’s the second gift of atomizing. Progress becomes visible. Improving as a public speaker is hard to perceive week to week, but pacing, you can feel that. The moment you deliberately pause after an important point and let the silence do its work, and you notice the room actually absorbing what you said, that’s meaningful improvement you can recognize the day it happens. And recognizable progress feeds the motivation that carries you to the next piece.

That’s card 03 of the Using Feedback suit. If a piece of feedback you genuinely committed to has you stuck, the commitment probably isn’t the problem. It might be the size. Break it down into atoms. Order them. Pick one. A rock that was too heavy to lift can almost always be moved a piece at a time.