Using Feedback: Outcome

Episode Transcript

The Using Feedback Outcome card states, “Adopting challenging feedback may make you worse before you get better, but the end result of implementing it must be improvement.” And the card invites you to run the progress check, which you can do by asking yourself and those you trust, “Since making this change, has my performance improved? And if it got worse, am I on the right path?”

Let me tell you about a 15-year-old Steph Curry and the worst summer of his life. So there’s an article in The Ringer I keep coming back to, “It’s More Than Just a Shot,” and it’s about Steph Curry, but not the NBA champion Steph Curry you think you know. It’s about the 15-year-old version, 5’6″, 130-something pounds, playing JV basketball at Charlotte Christian High School in North Carolina. Steph was already a good shooter. Making shots was never the issue. But his father, Dell Curry, who had just retired after 16 seasons in the NBA, noticed something that was going to become a serious problem as the competition got tougher. Steph’s release was way too low. He was essentially pushing the ball from his chin, and against longer, stronger athletes, it would get blocked. So Dell told his son, “We need to rebuild your shot completely this summer.”

Steph later described that summer as the worst summer of his life, basketball speaking. For about three months, he shot almost exclusively from the paint, because he couldn’t yet shoot from any further out with this new form. He didn’t have the strength or the muscle memory yet. Imagine that. Going from a shot that had worked for him, the one that allowed him to begin separating himself from just about everyone around him, to getting measurably, visibly worse, and then gradually, painfully, he got better. Better in ways the old form never would have allowed. And we know what followed. Davidson, the Warriors, MVP awards, four championships, and not just becoming the greatest shooter in basketball history, but sparking a revolution that changed how basketball is even played.

Here’s what I keep coming back to. Several things had to be true for Steph to stick it out that summer. First, the feedback came from someone with legitimate expertise. Dell had 16 seasons of shooting at the highest level in the world. He wasn’t guessing. Second, Dell had to deliver that feedback with sufficient care and detail. Had he vaguely said, “Your shot is terrible, won’t work in college,” it would’ve likely left a 15-year-old confused, maybe disheartened. And third, the part this card lives in, Steph had to have the grit and patience to stay in the discomfort long enough for the new form to take hold. He didn’t bail when things got worse, and they did get worse.

This is one of the most underappreciated aspects of being feedback literate. Sometimes genuinely good feedback from a genuinely qualified source will make you worse before it makes you better. And most of us, when we notice that performance dip, take it as evidence that the feedback was wrong or just not for us, and we retreat back to what was comfortable. That’s exactly what the progress check is for. It doesn’t pretend the dip isn’t happening. It asks the more precise question: Has my performance improved? And if it’s currently worse, am I on the right path? A dip with a sound source, a clear why, early signs of the new form emerging is a Curry summer. The check, run it by people you trust, helps you tell the difference between a dip that’s part of the path and a path that’s actually wrong.

That’s card 10, the final card of the Using Feedback suit. Think of one skill you’re currently developing and ask yourself two questions. Is the feedback coming from someone with genuine expertise in this specific area? Not just general credibility, but real lived experience. And am I willing to get worse before I get better? If the answer to both is yes, stay with it a little longer than seems reasonable. You might eventually decide to drop it, and that’s fine. But it could also turn out to be your version of Steph Curry’s worst, but arguably most important, summer.