Are Surveys Pointless?
As a facilitator, it’s generally my own instinct which guides me from one stage to another in a presentation/workshop/strategy day. I have a full run-sheet which is a 5-minute breakdown of the 4-hour program but sometimes I need to go “off piste” depending on responses and the mood of the room.
I’ve run strategy days for teams of up to 18 co-workers and groups of between 6 – 20 who don’t know each other at all. I am required to read the room which keeps me on my toes. I love the mix of adrenaline, fast thinking and my “bag of tricks” which enables me to move with the flow.
After each session, Sarah sends out a brief survey, 5 – 10 questions about quality, content, the facilitator, and resulting outcomes for the individual. We usually receive 75% – 100% returns. The majority are positive, marked in the top 10% grades. (Except for the time we were testing, and my dog gave me below 10% on everything – which skewed the survey appallingly!) We always include space for free writing to allow further detailed comments.
But, I wonder what happens to the non-responders? Sarah thinks that some people just don’t like doing surveys, but I wonder if there’s more to it than that. Is it that they can’t be bothered, haven’t got time or don’t know how to give negative or constructive feedback? I tend to feel that a hard copy given on the day is more confronting, so I avoid that … but am I presuming, and should participants be given the option? Should we do both?
So here is a link to a survey about a survey! It will take approximately 1 – 2 mins to complete, all feedback is valuable and anonymous!