Do You Consider Feedback Negative? Try Feedforward!!!

Do You Consider Feedback Negative? Try Feedforward!!!

By

Sowmya C.S.
Asst. Professor
Indian Business Academy
Bangalore

Feedback is an essential part of learning and growth in individuals in all work situations. It helps individuals to maximize their potential, raise their awareness of strengths and areas for improvement, and identify actions to be taken to improve performance. Feedback is also the return of information about the result of a process, activity, or experience, usually relating to an individual's performance within a company.

Performance feedback is an essential element of the supervisor/subordinate relationship. The vast majority of people want to make a difference in their place of work, they want to be recognized for their accomplishments and learn how to become even better. They want to know where they stand. People crave feedback that is positive, objective, and fair. Information about performance that falls short of the standard (typically termed negative feedback) is a necessary but not sufficient condition for corrective action. However, reactions to negative feedback frequently do not produce the desired effect of improving performance even in cases where the person is capable of better performance.

Giving negative performance feedback at work is one of the hardest things to do well. Managers either destroy the confidence of employees by being too heavy-handed or they avoid giving negative feedback altogether. Because it is hard to do well, managers put it off. Dealing with poor performance infrequently or on an adhoc basis only makes the exchange worse because the recipient is unprepared. Naturally, employees are defensive when feedback is unexpected. An angry reaction is all too likely, making it much harder for managers to raise difficult issues in the future. So, they resort to sarcastic comments and hints.

Also there are three main obstacles to giving effective feedback in today's leadership environment. First is the pace of operations; supervisors often say they are so busy they don't have the time to devote to giving feedback properly. Second is the collegial atmosphere in many modern workplaces. The good news is that many supervisors have taken time to know their subordinates and their families. Their "door is always open." The bad news is that this familiarity can make it hard to look someone in the eye and tell him or her they could be more effective. The third obstacle might be the readiness of the subordinate to receive feedback. Subordinates might have trouble recognizing there are areas in which they can improve. They might be defensive or concerned for their jobs. There might be personality differences or other issues between the supervisors and subordinate that interferes with communication. An effective supervisor must be aware of all the dynamics of the relationship and make appropriate adjustments in the approach to feedback.

Learners value feedback, especially when it is given by someone credible who they respect as a role model or for their knowledge, attitudes or competence. Failing to give feedback sends a non-verbal communication in itself and can lead to mixed messages and false assessment by the learner of their own abilities, as well as a lack of trust in the teacher or clinician.

What is the way out of this dilemma?

Before we go to that, let us consider the different types of feedback.

There are different types of feedback.

1. Informal feedback as in day-to-day encounters between teachers and students or trainees, between peers or between supervisor and subordinate.

2. Formal feedback as part of written or clinical assessment of performance in any situation.

3. Evaluative feedback makes a judgment about the other person, evaluating worth or goodness. There is a big difference between judging a person and their actions. A personal evaluation judges the whole person and implies that this is a personal and unchangeable attribute. Negative personal evaluation can be very uncomfortable for the other person. Positive personal evaluation, on the other hand, is very flattering.

4. In Interpretive feedback, you seek to test your understanding of what has been said by interpreting and paraphrasing back to the other person what you think has been said. This is typically followed by a question to allow the other person to agree with your interpretation or offer a correction.

5. In Supportive feedback, you seek to support the other person in some way. In flattery, you support the other person's ego by telling them they are good in some way (whether or not this is true).

6. Silence is another type of feedback in which there is no response. The intent is to maintain status quo. It decreases long term confidence and reduces performance. It creates surprise during performance appraisals.

7. Negative feedback identifies behaviors or results that were undesirable, not up to standard. It stops undesirable behavior/results. It generates excuses, decreases confidence and leads to avoidance. It also hurts relationship.

8. Positive feedback identifies behaviors/results that were desired, up to or exceeding standards. Its intent is to increase desired performance/results. It increases confidence, performance and motivation.

9. Upward feedback is the process by which superiors or management is rated by employees or subordinates.

10. Downward feedback is the flow of information from superiors or management to employees or subordinates.

11. 360 degree feedback happens when information about performance is gathered from sources such as subordinates, peers, and internal or external customers. This is also referred to as multi-source feedback when evaluations are collected from more than one source.

But there is a fundamental problem with all types of feedback: it focuses on a past , on what has already occurred—not on the infinite variety of opportunities that can happen in the future. As such, feedback can be limited and static, as opposed to expansive and dynamic.

Focusing on solutions, rather than mistakes, on the future, rather than the past, will enhance the self-image of business leaders and employees alike and propel them on the road to success. It is in this context that Marshall Goldsmith advocates the use of FEED FORWARD instead of feedback.

Dr. Marshall Goldsmith is a world authority in helping successful leaders get even better – by achieving positive, lasting change in behavior: for themselves, their people and their teams. What Got You Here Won't Get You There is a New York Times best seller, Wall Street Journal #1 business book and winner of the Harold Longman award for Best Business Book of the Year. It has been translated into 23 languages and is a listed best seller in six different countries. Marshall has been ranked as #14 of the Top 50 Thinkers globally. The American Management Association named Dr. Goldsmith as one of 50 great thinkers and leaders who have influenced the field of management over the past 80 years. Dr. Goldsmith's Ph.D. is from UCLA. He teaches executive education at Dartmouth's Tuck School and frequently speaks at leading business schools. Marshall's twenty-seven books include: The Leader of the Future (a Business Week best-seller), Coaching for Leadership and Succession: Are You Ready? (In the Harvard Business Memo to the CEO series).

The term "feedforward" was coined in a discussion that he had with Jon Katzenbach, author of The Wisdom of Teams, Real Change Leaders and Peak Performance.

Over the past several years, he has observed more than ten thousand leaders as they participated in a fascinating experiential exercise. In the exercise, participants are each asked to play two roles. In one role, they are asked provide feedforward - 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 for 10-15 minutes, and the average participant has 6-7 dialogue sessions. In the exercise participants are asked to:

Pick one behavior that they would like to change. Change in this behavior should make a significant, positive difference in their lives.

Describe this behavior to randomly selected fellow participants. This is done in one-on-one dialogues. It can be done quite simply, such as, "I want to be a better listener."

Ask for feedforward—for two suggestions for the future that might help them achieve a positive change in their 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 the other person 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, he asked participants to provide one word that best describes their reaction to this experience. He asked 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 feedback, coaching and developmental ideas? Fun!

Nine 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 as a developmental tool.

1. 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 ahead, not at 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. Feedforward, on the other hand, is almost always seen as positive because it focuses on solutions – not problems.

2. 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.

3. 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 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.

4. 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! Positive suggestions tend to be seen as objective advice – personal critiques are often viewed as personal attacks.

5. Feedback can reinforce personal stereotyping and negative self-fulfilling prophecies. Feedforward can reinforce the possibility of change. Feedback can reinforce the feeling of failure. Negative feedback can be used to reinforce the message, "this is just the way you are". Feedforward is based on the assumption that the receiver of suggestions can make positive changes in the future.

6. 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 embarrassed and without making you feel even more humiliated.

7. 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.

8. 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 – or even career-limiting - 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).

9. People tend to listen more attentively to feedforward than feedback. One participant is the feedforward exercise noted, "I think that I listened more effectively in this exercise than I ever do at work!" When asked why, he responded, "Normally, when others are speaking, I am so busy composing a reply that will make sure that I sound smart – that I am not fully listening to what the other person is saying. In feedforward the only reply that I am allowed to make is 'thank you'. Since I don't have to worry about composing a clever reply – I can focus all of my energy on listening to the other person!"

Thus we see that feedforward focuses on solutions, rather than mistakes, on the future, rather than the past. This will enhance the self-image of business leaders and employees alike and propel them on the road to success.

To conclude, TRY FEEDFORWARD for yourself and for your subordinates. You can change the future. You can't change the past. Marshall Goldsmith's FeedForward helps you to envision and focus on a positive future, not a failed past. By giving you ideas on how you can be even more successful, the Marshall Goldsmith FeedForward tool can increase your chances of achieving this success in the future.

Because the only person who is hindering your growth is YOU.

References:

1. How to provide feedback that has an impact. By Susan M Heathfield About.com guide

2. Want to give feedback? Rather try feedforward by Marshall Goldsmith.

3. Carl Rogers – Five feedback types – Changing minds.org

4. Feedback, from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

5. Four types of feedback, MIT performance Development

6. Feedback is not synonymous with negative feedback BIPM Institute

7. Feedback eNotes.com

Sowmya C.S.
Asst. Professor
Indian Business Academy
Bangalore

Source: E-mail November 19, 2009