Cultivating virtuosity

Failure is still with us. There are at least two reasons for this, which have their origin in an essential requirement that we need for learning: feedback.

What are the reasons for this?

1. We don’t get any feedback.
2. We receive feedback that is ambiguous and therefore difficult to interpret.

In many cases, we can overcome the first difficulty by sharpening our perception and paying more attention to observing what is happening.

We can overcome the second difficulty in different ways

Sometimes, especially in communication, it makes sense to ask questions to clarify ambiguities.

If this isn’t possible or if we do not yet dare to make use of it in certain contexts, then we can form hypotheses and test these hypotheses in the next run of our experiment.

But sometimes with feedback that is difficult to interpret it is important to let things rest and mature. This is often the case when the solution is not on the outside but requires an epiphany on the inside. Perhaps you can recall the two topics we have already touched on with regards to this: Kairos, the right moment to act, and positive procrastination.

Resting and maturing can also be worthwhile in interpersonal relationships

This applies, when we are dealing with a counterpart in communication situations, which ignites communicative smog grenades, refuses honest feedback, or avoids the meta-level of communication like the devil avoids holy water.

Of course, this is also feedback. However, that’s the kind that invites us to leave the current context of interaction. And if we follow this disguised invitation, then the temporary distance can lead to more productive experiences and experiments of exchange later.

If we remain faithful to our learning orientation despite these obstacles, then we can also use the feedback of dealing with feedback and missing feedback for our learning. We can become aware that we are dependent on feedback if we want to act successfully or, in case of extended self-efficacy, learn continuously.

As a result, as already described, we can improve our perception. Or we can think about our experimental set-up in challenging fields and think about new strategies to deal with ambiguity.