This. and: It really helps if you work in a culture that values critical feedback on thinking and writing. Too many readers will pass on an opportunity to offer critical feedback, either because they don’t want to offend or because they didn’t read it carefully and critically enough. Having someone read a doc and tell you it’s good feels good, but in general doesn’t help you improve (and is actively harmful if the document is mediocre).
One way to encourage this helpful criticism is for authors to accept feedback gracefully and have a policy to ask questions only for clarification of the feedback (to understand the feedback better) and never to engage in the debate response of explaining why what they wrote is good enough.
(The minute you debate them on the first of seven points they have, they’re going to deprive you of much of the value of their feedback on the next six because you’re seeming defensive at worst or exhausting at the least.)
One way to encourage this helpful criticism is for authors to accept feedback gracefully and have a policy to ask questions only for clarification of the feedback (to understand the feedback better) and never to engage in the debate response of explaining why what they wrote is good enough.
(The minute you debate them on the first of seven points they have, they’re going to deprive you of much of the value of their feedback on the next six because you’re seeming defensive at worst or exhausting at the least.)