After spending days and hours completing the mood boards, our class was compared within each other, the best ones were identified, and feedback was given based on that.
Although content wise, I was able to takeaway what my work was missing and areas where I could work on. At the end of the day, it came down to further research to be able to pin point the prevailing trends.
However, something didn’t quite sit well with me, and I’m not exactly sure how. I’m taking this blog as an opportunity to reflect on this experience.
Perhaps it was the amount of time spend on the work, although professor did look at everyone’s and offered individual feedback at the end of the session, I felt that my work was for nothing. I don’t think I would blame the professor for my experience, but I am struggling to understand why I feel this way. Would I have felt better if our work was collected? Would I feel better if professor made individual comments on our work? I believe so. Although feedback content wise, I have no issues. I just feel rather disappointed. I think I would feel just a bit better if the professor had their own answer key that I could compare myself against.
Extrapolating these thoughts for the future when I have my own staff, how would I avoid making people feel the way I felt? Certainly, I should not compare all of their work, highlight who did the best, and turn back all the work that was done by everyone else. I would highlight good points of each of their work, making sure each of them feels recognized for the work they put in. It’s ok to learn from each other, but it’s not ok for everyone to learn from one or two people, it makes everyone else feel worthless.
I wonder how this reflects on my personal psychology. I’m not sure I’m able to answer this question for myself today. Do I feel worthless if my work has no good points to be identified or shown off? Perhaps so. All I know is, I felt that my work was for nothing that day.