01/12/2018

Collect Better Feedback About Your Meetings

Here are some ideas on how to collect it

Quite a few years ago, we had a publications review done of Associations Now. A publishing expert and journalism professor paged through a few issues of our print magazine—we didn’t have a digital presence at the time—and sent us an almost hourlong recording of what was great, good, not so good, and required immediate improvement.

I remember walking into the conference room with my colleagues to hear that recording for the first time and feeling simultaneously anxious and excited. Part anxious, because I was thinking about the possibility that he might not have liked the magazine at all or might have concluded that we were way off base. Part excited, because I wanted to know what he thought the best elements were. After all, who doesn’t like to hear the work they’re doing is good?

And, while we conducted regular reader surveys, there was something about this feedback that just felt a little different. Maybe it was because it was coming from an industry expert who—before opening one of those issues—had never seen or heard of the magazine. Or maybe it was because I knew his feedback would probably be some of the most honest we’d ever received. Unlike readers and members who may have worried that criticism could somehow come back to bite them, this reviewer had nothing to lose. In fact, we were paying him to critique our work.

Please click here to read the complete article from Associations Now.