By Becky Westwood, Organisational Psychologist at Monkey Puzzle Training and Consultancy, and author of ‘Can I Offer You Something?
Expert Ways to Unpack the Horrors of Organisational Feedback’
If you run a business or organisation, you have goals to be achieved. And that means encouraging your team to perform at their best and supporting them with their development. The tool you most likely use to do this is feedback. Feedback has long been held up as the cure-all when it comes to maintaining or improving organisational performance. That’s why time, energy and resources are invested into feedback processes, software and training courses. However, it’s a word and a practice that often inspires anxiety, frustration and confusion.
Feedback’s wasted opportunity
Does this sound like your organisation? Instead of feedback being used effectively to highlight possibilities, in many teams it’s a practice that happens a few times a year and people try to ‘get through’ it as quickly as possible. This not only incurs a loss of investment, more importantly it leads to missed opportunities for your people to grow and your organisation to perform sustainably.
So, why does this happen? When conducting the research for my book Can I Offer You Something? I discovered that this is most often due to the reactions the word itself provokes and the ambiguity created when different things get packaged up as ‘feedback’.
Why feedback leads to anxiety and confusion
If you were to walk into your next meeting and simply say the word ‘feedback’, some people might be elated at the thought of ‘feedback’, but the most common response will be anxiety. That’s because people’s fight, flight and freeze responses will kick into action. This sudden flood of chemicals stops people being present in the current conversation, instead looking for the quickest way to minimise or avoid the threat their system is perceiving – that of feedback. As a result, people try to rush through feedback conversations or avoid them all together, and all of this leads to the whole thing feeling transactional.
The second challenge is that since the concept of feedback was first connected to people in the 1950’s, it’s been through a myriad of developments in both name and approach. The word feedback has evolved into a catch-all term for directions, instructions, opinions, judgements, criticisms, praise and more. You only need to do a quick web search to find more than 35 different labels for feedback and it’s no wonder all this leads to confusion.
Feedback ‘horror stories’
Through my experience of working as an organisational psychologist I’ve heard many horror stories. For example, people have believed they are exchanging ‘feedback’ clearly, only to find out later the opposite is true. In an effort not to come across as micromanaging or too direct, feedback can become diluted and it’s unclear what you are truly asking the person to do with your comments.
As a result, you may be left feeling irritated that things are not getting done, that you need to repeat meetings or become concerned that people are focused on the wrong priorities.
For individuals on the receiving end, they too can be left feeling frustrated: frustrated that expectations are not clear, that they get told too late when something critical to their career development needs to change or told too few times, if at all, when they are doing a good job.
All this can leave them feeling undervalued and demotivated. For both provider and recipient in organisations they can be left with the sense that feedback is being forced upon them or done to them.
There is another way
As I found out in my research, what most people want is a relational not transactional experience with feedback. A conversation, based on a relationship, that provides them with the clarity they need to perform, has a positive impact and uses perspectives to leverage opportunities. This starts with leaving the word ‘feedback’ behind and getting clear on what you are offering someone.
Here are 3 key steps that you might find helpful:
Your Outcome
Start by defining your outcome for what you are intending to share. Is it something that the person must action or deliver on, or are you simply sharing your experience of something that they can take or leave? Three of the most common outcomes that get muddled under the label of ‘feedback’ are when giving a direction, instruction or perspective.
If you know you want someone to action your comments, it’s better for all involved if you can be clear about this upfront rather than try to nudge people there. By becoming more intentional and clearly defining your outcome you will be able to choose the most effective approach for what you are giving, setting expectations clearly, minimising ambiguity and saving yourself and others unhelpful stress and anxiety.
Your Approach
Direction – Be explicit with your people that what you are asking them to do has to be done, but they have autonomy and support, if needed, to decide how it’s done. When giving someone a direction there is usually a consequence to the work, organisation or individuals if the things are not completed.
Instruction – Be explicit with your people about how something needs to be done, the process or steps that need to be completed. For example, this could be related to a process that needs to be followed in a certain way for compliance or safety reasons. When the process or steps are not followed there may be a detrimental consequence to the work, organisation or individuals.
Perspective – Convey how you see, hear, or experience things from your point of view. The person on the receiving end has the autonomy and choice of what to do with it, without concern of punitive consequence. A perspective is neither true or false, right or wrong, but it may be useful to consider for the good of relationships, wellbeing and performance.
The Human in Front of You
Once you are clear about your outcome and the approach you need to take to give you the best chance of achieving it, it’s time to think about the people in front of you. In my experience, people generally know how they best receive feedback and what their preferences
are. But the vast majority have never shared their preferences with their leader or colleagues and likewise, few have been asked about their preferences by someone else at work.
For example, some people prefer to receive your comments in writing first so they can reflect, some want to talk about it and follow up with questions later. Your people know what works for them and so with one simple question to them you can get much of the data you need to save you time, energy and stress when sharing perspectives.
The question you need to ask is: ‘What’s your preferred way for me to share perspectives with you?’
In conclusion
Feedback is a provocative term that inspires anxiety and uncertainty, but this doesn’t mean people don’t want it. People want to contribute, be effective and have opportunities to develop in their careers. If we want to get the best out of our people, we need to stop giving feedback and start using perspectives. We need to put the human back in exchanging those perspectives and start using perspectives to create possibilities.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Becky Westwood is an Organisational Psychologist, and Chief Experience Officer of Monkey Puzzle Training and Consultancy. Becky is author of ‘Can I Offer You Something? Expert Ways to Unpack the Horrors of Organisational Feedback’
Web: https://monkeypuzzletraining.co.uk/books/can-i-offer-you-something
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/beckywestwood/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/monkey-puzzle-training-and-consultancy-limited/
