Feedback Strategies
The two articles I will be discussing in this post are:
- "How to Give Bad Feedback Without Being a Jerk" - Adam Grant, Next Big Idea Club
- "Try Feedforward Instead of Feedback" - Marshall Goldsmith
My thoughts:
Grant's article discusses the issue I think we all have when it comes to giving bad feedback: how to give feedback without the other person getting defensive or upset with you. He talks about the most common technique, the compliment sandwich. Stick your criticism between two compliments, and that helps to soften the blow of the critique. But the data shows that isn't necessarily effective. People either think the compliments are insincere, or don't remember the criticism at all because of primacy and recency effects (i.e. we remember best what he heard first and what he heard last, not what was in the middle.
This first section resonated a lot with me. In my grad classes, we sometimes are asked to read each other's work and offer feedback on it. Those are usually my least favorite assignments, because my classmates are often my friends outside of class, and I worry that by giving them any kind of negative feedback, they'll hate me. It's probably a dramatic conclusion for me to arrive at, but that's just the assumption my brain makes. That fear makes me minimize my critiques to be as inoffensive as possible. While possibly sparing my classmates' feelings, that practice also makes the assignment ineffective; if I'm not offering constructive criticism so that they can improve their work, what's the point of a peer review?
Grant's suggestions for how to offer feedback without putting the other person on the defensive made a lot of sense to me. Number one is explaining why you're giving that person the feedback. In my case, that might be unnecessary, because the reasoning is usually just, "The professor told me to." But, since these are people I actually care about and want to see succeed, I could add, "I'm giving you these comments to help you achieve your goals." Instead of feeling attacked, the recipient of the feedback is now assured that you're on their side. Another one of Grant's techniques is to help the recipient take ownership of the feedback by first asking them if they even want it. Once they say yes, they might feel less defensive about whatever you say, because they've taken it into their own hands by agreeing to it. Obviously, that isn't an excuse to be rude with your feedback, but it does help you to make constructive, fair comments, without feeling like a total jerk or offending the other person.
Goldsmith's article in a lot of ways seems to line up with the Growth Mindset literature we've read in this class. While this article seems to be directed at people in leadership positions (I'm pretty sure, based on the site, that Marshall Goldsmith is a leadership coach), it is helpful in the different perspective it offers on feedback. Goldsmith points that feedback the way we tend to think of it is very static, it tends to focus on the past and what has already been done. Feedforward, Goldsmith's technique, focuses on what can be done, and as such is dynamic and flexible. Instead of focusing on the mistakes made, he argues, we should focus on ways to improve in the future. I like this idea just because it gives a positive spin to something I think we all usually dread. It fits into the Growth Mindset, at least in my mind, because it seems to imply a focus on each individual's particular opportunities for growth. It also helps to offer the recipients actual examples of how they can correct whatever issue they had, instead of just pointing out the issue and leaving them wondering how they're supposed to fix it. Some mistakes can be attributed to effort and things like that, but I think a lot of people make mistakes because they simply do not know what is expected of them, or how to most efficiently do what they've been asked to do. This kind of technique helps to address those kinds of mistakes.
Grant's article discusses the issue I think we all have when it comes to giving bad feedback: how to give feedback without the other person getting defensive or upset with you. He talks about the most common technique, the compliment sandwich. Stick your criticism between two compliments, and that helps to soften the blow of the critique. But the data shows that isn't necessarily effective. People either think the compliments are insincere, or don't remember the criticism at all because of primacy and recency effects (i.e. we remember best what he heard first and what he heard last, not what was in the middle.
This first section resonated a lot with me. In my grad classes, we sometimes are asked to read each other's work and offer feedback on it. Those are usually my least favorite assignments, because my classmates are often my friends outside of class, and I worry that by giving them any kind of negative feedback, they'll hate me. It's probably a dramatic conclusion for me to arrive at, but that's just the assumption my brain makes. That fear makes me minimize my critiques to be as inoffensive as possible. While possibly sparing my classmates' feelings, that practice also makes the assignment ineffective; if I'm not offering constructive criticism so that they can improve their work, what's the point of a peer review?
Grant's suggestions for how to offer feedback without putting the other person on the defensive made a lot of sense to me. Number one is explaining why you're giving that person the feedback. In my case, that might be unnecessary, because the reasoning is usually just, "The professor told me to." But, since these are people I actually care about and want to see succeed, I could add, "I'm giving you these comments to help you achieve your goals." Instead of feeling attacked, the recipient of the feedback is now assured that you're on their side. Another one of Grant's techniques is to help the recipient take ownership of the feedback by first asking them if they even want it. Once they say yes, they might feel less defensive about whatever you say, because they've taken it into their own hands by agreeing to it. Obviously, that isn't an excuse to be rude with your feedback, but it does help you to make constructive, fair comments, without feeling like a total jerk or offending the other person.
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| Feedback versus Feedforward (Source: Cult of Pedagogy) |
Goldsmith's article in a lot of ways seems to line up with the Growth Mindset literature we've read in this class. While this article seems to be directed at people in leadership positions (I'm pretty sure, based on the site, that Marshall Goldsmith is a leadership coach), it is helpful in the different perspective it offers on feedback. Goldsmith points that feedback the way we tend to think of it is very static, it tends to focus on the past and what has already been done. Feedforward, Goldsmith's technique, focuses on what can be done, and as such is dynamic and flexible. Instead of focusing on the mistakes made, he argues, we should focus on ways to improve in the future. I like this idea just because it gives a positive spin to something I think we all usually dread. It fits into the Growth Mindset, at least in my mind, because it seems to imply a focus on each individual's particular opportunities for growth. It also helps to offer the recipients actual examples of how they can correct whatever issue they had, instead of just pointing out the issue and leaving them wondering how they're supposed to fix it. Some mistakes can be attributed to effort and things like that, but I think a lot of people make mistakes because they simply do not know what is expected of them, or how to most efficiently do what they've been asked to do. This kind of technique helps to address those kinds of mistakes.
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