As you review participants’ suggestions, keep a few things in mind:

  1. Stay calm and objective. Reviewing critiques of your work from others can sometimes be stressful and emotional. Focus on the substance of each suggestion and resist the temptation to look for hidden meaning or intent. If you find yourself getting frustrated or feeling down, take a break, recenter, and remind yourself that judgements of the work are not judgements of you.
  2. Implement suggestions as you see fit, not as you feel obligated to. As the proposer, you have the freedom to accept or decline suggestions from participants. Don’t implement a suggestion if it would make the proposal unsafe for you to try. But, remember that perfection isn’t the goal. If the proposal would still be safe-to-try for you after implementing the suggestion, consider making the change to make it safe-to-try for others.
  3. Respond to every suggestion. Add a quick response to every suggestion to indicate what you did with it. If you thought it was a great idea, say so, and let folks know that you made the change. If you decided not to implement it, give a brief explanation as to why.

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