Try Feedforward Instead of Feedback by Marshall Goldsmith
(Adapted from
Leader to Leader, Summer, 2002)
Originally published in the November 2002 Issue of Link &
Learn.
Giving and receiving feedback has long been considered an essential skill for leaders. As they strive to achieve the goals of the organization, employees need to know how they are doing. They need to know if their performance is what their leaders expect from them and, if not, they need suggestions on how to improve it. Traditionally, this information has been communicated in the form of feedback from leaders to their employees. And leaders, themselves, need feedback from their employees, in the form of suggestions for how to improve procedures and processes, innovative ideas for new products and services, and input on their own leadership styles. This has become increasingly common with the advent of 360° feedback.
But there is a fundamental problem with feedback: it focuses on thepast, on what has already occurred-not on the infinite variety of things that can be, in the future. As such, feedback can be limited and static, as opposed to expansive and dynamic.
Over
the past several years, I have observed more than five
thousand leaders participate in a fascinating experiential
exercise. In the exercise, participants are each asked
to play two roles. In one role, they are asked provide
feedforward(1)-that is, to give someone else suggestions
for the future and help as much as they can.
In the second role, they are asked to accept feedforward-that
is, to listen to the suggestions for the future and
learn as much as they can. The exercise typically lasts
10-15 minutes, and the average participant has 6-7 dialogue
sessions. In the exercise participants are asked to:
-
Pick one behavior that you would like to change. Change in this behavior should
make a significant, positive difference in their life.
-
Describe this behavior to randomly selected fellow participants. This is done in
one-on-one dialogues and may be done simply (e.g. "I want to be a better
listener").
-
Ask for feedforward-request two suggestions for the future that might help you
achieve a positive change in your selected behavior. If participants have worked
together in the past, they are not allowed to give ANY feedback about the past.
They are only allowed to give ideas for the future.
-
Listen attentively to the suggestions and take notes. Participants are not
allowed to comment on the suggestions in any way. They are not allowed to
critique the suggestions or even to make positive judgmental statements, such
as, "That's a good idea."
-
Thank the other participants for their suggestions.
-
Ask the other persons what they would like to change.
-
Provide feedforward - two suggestions aimed at helping them change.
-
Say, "You are welcome." when thanked for the suggestions. The entire process of
both giving and receiving feedforward usually takes about two minutes.
-
Find another participant and keep repeating the process until the exercise is
stopped.
When the exercise is finished, I ask participants to provide one word that best describes their reaction to this experience. I ask them to complete the sentence, "This exercise was .". The words provided are almost always extremely positive, such as "great," "energizing," "useful," or "helpful." The most common word mentioned is "fun!"
What is the last word that most of us think about when we receive coaching and developmental ideas? Fun!
Ten Reasons to Try Feedforward
Participants are then asked why this exercise is seen as fun and helpful as opposed to painful, embarrassing or uncomfortable. Their answers provide a great explanation of why feedforward can often be more useful than feedback.
-
We can change the future. We can't change the past. Feedforward
helps people envision and focus on a positive future, not a failed past.
Athletes are often trained using feedforward. Racecar drivers are taught to
"look at the road, not the wall." Basketball players are taught to envision the
ball going in the hoop and to imagine the perfect shot. By giving people ideas
on how they can be even more successful, we can increase their chances of
achieving this success in the future.
-
It can be more productive to help people be "right," than prove they were
"wrong." Negative feedback often becomes an exercise in "let me
prove you were wrong." This tends to produce defensiveness on the part of the
receiver and discomfort on the part of the sender. Even constructively
delivered feedback is often seen as negative as it necessarily involves a
discussion of mistakes, shortfalls, and problems. Feedforward, on the other
hand, is almost always seen positively because it focuses on solutions.
-
Feedforward is especially suited to successful people. Successful
people like getting ideas that are aimed at helping them achieve their goals.
They tend to resist negative judgment. We all tend to accept feedback that is
consistent with the way we see ourselves. We also tend to reject or deny
feedback that is inconsistent with the way we see ourselves. Successful people
tend to have a very positive self-image. I have observed many successful
executives respond to (and even enjoy) feedforward. I am not sure that these
same people would have had such a positive reaction to feedback.
-
Feedforward can come from anyone who knows about the task. It does not
require personal experience with the individual. One very common
positive reaction to the previously described exercise is that participants are
amazed by how much they can learn from people that they don't even know! For
example, if you want to be a better listener, almost any fellow leader can give
you ideas on how you can improve. They don't have to know you. Feedback
requires knowing about the person. Feedforward just requires having good ideas
for achieving the task.
-
People do not take feedforward as personally as feedback. In
theory, constructive feedback is supposed to "focus on the performance, not the
person." In practice, almost all feedback is taken personally (no matter how it
is delivered). Successful people's sense of identity is highly connected with
their work. The more successful people are, the more this tends to be true. It
is hard to give a dedicated professional feedback that is not taken personally.
Feedforward cannot involve a personal critique, since it is discussing
something that has not yet happened!
-
Feedback can reinforce personal stereotyping and negative self-fulfilling
prophecies. Feedforward can reinforce the possibility of change.
Feedback can reinforce the feeling of failure. How many of us have been
"helped" by a spouse, significant other, or friend, who seems to have a
near-photographic memory of our previous "sins" that they share with us in
order to point out the history of our shortcomings. Negative feedback can be
used to reinforce the message, "this is just the way you are." Feedforward is
based on the assumption that people can make positive changes in the future.
-
Face it! Most of us hate getting negative feedback, and we don't like to give it.
I have reviewed summary 360° feedback reports for over 50 companies. The items,
"provides developmental feedback in a timely manner" and "encourages and
accepts constructive criticism" almost always score near the bottom on
co-worker satisfaction with leaders. Traditional training does not seem to make
a great deal of difference. If leaders got better at providing feedback every
time the performance appraisal forms were "improved," most should be perfect by
now! Leaders are not very good at giving or receiving negative feedback. It is
unlikely that this will change in the near future.
-
Feedforward can cover almost all of the same "material" as feedback.
Imagine that you have just made a terrible presentation in front of the
executive committee. Your manager is in the room. Rather than make you "relive"
this humiliating experience, your manager might help you prepare for future
presentations by giving you suggestions for the future. These suggestions can
be very specific and still delivered in a positive way. In this way your
manager can "cover the same points" without feeling as embarrassed and without
making you feel even more humiliated.
-
Feedforward tends to be much faster and more efficient than feedback.
An excellent technique for giving ideas to successful people is to say, "Here
are four ideas for the future. Please accept these in the positive spirit that
they are given. If you can only use two of the ideas, you are still two ahead.
Just ignore what doesn't make sense for you." With this approach almost no time
gets wasted on judging the quality of the ideas or "proving that the ideas are
wrong." This "debate" time is usually negative; it can take up a lot of time,
and it is often not very productive. By eliminating judgment of the ideas, the
process becomes much more positive for the sender, as well as the receiver.
Successful people tend to have a high need for self-determination and will tend
to accept ideas that they "buy" while rejecting ideas that feel "forced" upon
them.
-
Feedforward can be a useful tool to apply with managers, peers, and team members.
Rightly or wrongly, feedback is associated with judgment. This can lead to very
negative unintended consequences when applied to managers or peers. Feedforward
does not imply superiority of judgment. It is more focused on being a helpful
"fellow traveler" than an "expert." As such it can be easier to hear from a
person who is not in a position of power or authority. An excellent team
building exercise is to have each team member ask, "How can I better help our
team in the future?" and listen to feedforward from fellow team members (in
one-on-one dialogues.)
In summary, the intent of this article is not to imply that leaders should never give feedback or that performance appraisals should be abandoned. The intent is to show how feedforward can often be preferable to feedback in day-to-day interactions. Aside from its effectiveness and efficiency, feedforward can make life a lot more enjoyable. When managers are asked, "How did you feel the last time you received feedback?," their most common responses are very negative. When managers are asked how they felt after receiving feedforward, they reply that feedforward was not only useful, it was also fun!
Quality communication-between and among people at all levels and every department and division-is the glue that holds organizations together. By using feedforward-and by encouraging others to use it-leaders can dramatically improve the quality of communication in their organizations, ensuring that the right message is conveyed, and that those who receive it are receptive to its content. The result is a much more dynamic, much more open organization-one whose employees focus on the promise of the future rather than the mistakes of the past.
(1)The term "feedforward" was coined in a discussion that I had with Jon Katzenbach, author of The Wisdom of
Teams, Real Change Leaders and Peak Performance.
###
|
Event
Calendar
