Adventures WorldRace SethBarnes Sponsorship Giving

| by archiveworldraceblogs

It may seem odd but until I arrived at World Race training camp in October 2010 I was not aware that one of the few mandatory rules racers were asked to honour was a daily get together called “feedback”. 

Those of you reading this who have gone through a World Race training camp experience know that it is a seriously awesome, overwhelming, painful, challenging and beautiful slap in the face. My emotions were off the radar and it felt like every single message that I heard was prepared with me in mind. Healing was happening, Holy Spirit was rocking my world and the snot was running. 

Somewhere in all of that someone at some point made the first reference that I heard about these mandatory times of “feedback”. They made it sound like the very best part of every single day on the race. 

“I love feedback! It’s so awesome, you get so fed! You’re going to love it!” 

At that point in time I still had no idea what on earth we were actually talking about so I just forgot about it and returned my attention to wiping my nose. I kind of just stored the idea of feedback away in the back of my mind and I didn’t think much about it until my team was at our ministry site in Thailand. 


Our first feedback sessions were… well lets just say they were not exactly deep. 

I think at the time the task of giving feedback was so new that we really had no idea where or how to start actually doing it. We knew having heard previous stories that it was meant to be a really positive and productive time but figuring out exactly how to “DO” feedback left us drawing blanks. Eventually we kind of found a groove as a team and figured out what worked for us. When the teams changed at the end of March I found it a lot easier to slip into a pattern of productive feedback. 

At the end of the race I could honestly say that I loved feedback. 


The thing is I have been home for an entire year now. I don’t live in constant community with the same 5 people each and every day anymore. My community is a lot wider. As much as I would love to get together each night with the people from each of those areas of my life to do daily feedback it just simply isn’t possible. That poses a really big challenge. 

How do I incorporate feedback into my life at home? 

I am currently enrolled in a social service work program and the classes that I have been taking have a large focus on clear communication and feedback. Knowing how to empower people, encourage them to communicate their feelings and enable them to work out their problems is key to effective social work. Which makes having tools for effective feedback crucial. 

So in the past 4 months I have learned a lot about feedback, what makes it effective and different ways to use and do feedback. I keep reflecting back to my experiences on the race as I learn and I can’t help but wish that I could try a few of the things I’m learning with my World Race team. 


Thing is my race is over.

But yours might not be and even if it is thinking about some out of the box ways to incorporate feedback might be the catalyst you need to keep on trying. 

So that’s what this blog series is about.

Feedback… In all of its beauty and challenge. 

This is also an open invitation to start a discussion in the comment thread below. We always talk about how we want our ceiling to be the floor of future racers so lets help make that happen. 

If you have a short story, a piece of advice, a tip or a helpful tool or activity about feedback (on or after the race) feel free to post it below.