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Joseph D. Baldonado
Professor Jenia De Silva, M.Ed
NAV 501
16 March 2016
Is Criticism Beneficial?
In every part of the organization, there will always be criticism involved from someone else whether that criticism is regarding business, politics, sports and among others. Most of the time people consider criticism in a negative aspect since it usually creates anger, resentment, frustration and among others to the one who usually received the criticism. Therefore, whenever we receive criticism from someone else, we immediately create an unfavorable outcome towards that person.
But did you know that not all criticisms are harmful or produced a negative consequence; in fact, it would still be beneficial to the person who received the criticism? There are two types of criticism namely constructive and destructive criticism. Constructive criticism is the one that intends only to give feedback for improvement/suggestion whether positive or negative about a particular product, service or event/performance. On the contrary, destructive criticism does not intend to give feedback for improvement/suggestion to someone else’s work but rather it intends to harm someone’s feelings by giving direct insult to his/her work or personality. Both types of criticism can be beneficial; it just depends on how it was handled by someone else when the situation arises. The criticism if properly managed can give several benefits to someone who usually received the criticism from other people such as it can help improve someone else’s work, it can obtain solutions to the problem, and it can give the competitive advantage over his/her competitors.

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Criticism from someone else can spark an exchange of thoughts, views and opinions from other people thus this exchange of ideas can help improve someone else’s work through various feedback. A valid feedback can either be positive or negative, and this can help someone on assessing whether his/her product, service or event/performance needs improvement on certain matters. An example to further explain this argument is when we attended the SNEEF event that talked about the product of an entrepreneur. The name of the presenter is Hanson Grant, and the name of his product is called Think Board wherein it aims to transform any smooth surface into a dry erase canvas for creativity. After the product presentation, Hanson Grant received both positive and negative feedback regarding his product. One of the principal concerns regarding
Think Board is expansion and innovation and Grant addressed these concerns by “creating additional products, partnering with retail stores and improving the design of the product.” The criticism that Hanson Grant received regarding his product created an exchange of thoughts, views and opinions from the audience thus this exchange of ideas can help him improve his product through the various feedback from the people. For example, someone suggested that an extensive research should be done to address the concerns of the public. Another one suggested that Hanson should think on how to make his product sustainable since he intends to market his product in the third world countries. All of these ideas from the audience gave Hanson a new perspective and valuable insight on how to improve his product Think Board. Hence, not all criticisms are harmful; in fact, it would still be beneficial to the person who received the criticism as exemplified in Hanson’s product presentation and analysis from the audience.
Our response to criticism is very significant; it can help or harm us depending on how well we respond to criticisms. As much as possible, we should try to avoid any argument with someone who criticized us but rather see this as an opportunity to obtain solutions to the

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problem. As I’ve mentioned in the first paragraph, in every part of the organization, there will always be criticism involved from someone else either it regards to business, politics, sports and among others. In this case, we would try to see how a sports figure named Derek Fisher handled the criticism against him back in the year 2010. Criticism can obtain solutions to the problem if we respond to it in a positive way and it exemplified by Derek Fisher’s response to his critics back then. As Simers stated in his article, “He knew it before you did, before you began to question the Lakers' apparent weakness, before you hit the message boards with mounting criticism of Derek Fisher.” This statement only shows that Derek Fisher responded positively to his critics by admitting beforehand the real reason of the team’s weakness. Therefore, Fisher’s positive response to his critics enabled him to obtain a solution to his problem, which is by
“focusing on the positive things that happen, not the other things that don’t” (Simers). This positive mentality of Fisher towards playing basketball enabled them to win the championship during that year thus his solution of being positive enabled him to solve his problems on the court. The solution may not be that concrete as compared to Hanson’s case, but it clearly shows that criticisms can obtain solutions to the problem if perceived in a positive way. Hence, not all criticisms are harmful; in fact, it would still be beneficial to the person who received the criticism especially in obtaining solutions to the problem as shown in Fisher’s success story in dealing with it.
Therefore, this essay has illustrated that the criticism if properly managed can give various benefits to someone who usually received the criticism. These various benefits are to improve someone else’s work, to obtain solutions to the problem and to give competitive advantage over his/her competitors.

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Works Cited
Grant, Hanson. "Think Board." Southern New England Entrepreneurs Forum. Umass Dartmouth
Center for Innovation & Entrepreneurship, Fall River. 11 Feb. 2016. Speech.
Simers, T.J. "Derek Fisher Can Handle the Criticism." Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times,
28 Mar. 2010. Web. 18 Mar. 2016.