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Most organizations tend to lack in good feedback practices and even though they say the have a great feedback culture, that is seldom the case. So here is an article outlining the reasons you need to get cracking on that culture and some tips on how to get started.
frog design replace their logo with 50 new ones to celebrate their 50th anniversary. Does it show off their creativity culture or is the lack of design qualityi diluting their brand?
Feedback is a word that holds a lot of meaning. Some people view it as an organization's yearly review or randomly expressed opinions when you don't like what someone is doing.
What I am referring to as feedback is a consensual conversation with constructive thoughts based on specific activities. Feedback given in this way is one of the most important ingredients in building constructive relationships and thriving teams.
It will help you:
In an organization it will help:
Negative feedback might be hard to take, but it can be a great map for self-improvement.
To receive a positive feedback feels great. It makes you more self-confident and like you’re on the right track. But it doesn’t give you direction for improvement. It only tells us what we should keep doing.
Negative feedback on the other hand.
Yes it might hurt your feelings and make you feel demoralized, but this is where the power lays. Negative feedback, given correctly, is the true source of improvement. It provides us with the insights of what went wrong and highlights areas that can be changed and improved upon.
To receive and give feedback requires self reflection, humility and transparency. Don’t get me wrong, it’s easier to write than to practice. I still question myself after some negative feedback. Try to stay humble and don’t automatically assume you are more knowledgeable than the person in-front of you.
I remember the first time I had an issue with a boss after starting at a new company many years ago. I thought, perfect, we just need to be more open with each other. If she understands me and I understand her our team will become a well oiled machine. I was still young and naive then. After multiple attempts I realized the most important rule for feedback.
You need to be open to feedback for it to actually work!
The higher up in the hierarchy you are the more likely it is that you need to work harder to be open to improve. After all you feel like you’ve gotten there for a reason. You are great at what you are doing, so why should you listen to some new puppy out of Uni (this podcast from WorkLife about Bridgewater Associates brings up this point and is worth listening to).
I feel like Johari window is a good illustration for why feedback is important. The basic principles of it is that we have 4 different kinds of information about a person.
The Johari window is a technique that helps people better understand their relationship with themselves and others.
What you want is to make the first window (point) as large as possible. The more of a shared understanding you have of who you are the less of a risk you’ll have for misunderstandings and issues.
A couple of years ago someone shared with me in a feedback session that I sometimes look angry and dithering when listening to ideas and suggestions. After getting it confirmed from other people I realized that I have a listening bitch-face.
Thanks to the feedback I could now make the first window larger. I acquired the same information about myself as everyone else and could act accordingly. Now when I work with new people, I tell them that I might look angry when I’m concentrating. This minimize the risk of issues based on this behavior of mine.
Of course sharing every personal detail about yourself might not be important or even good depending on different cultural backgrounds, but in my experience the better you understand each-other the better you’ll work together.
In general, the more you practice feedbacking, the easier it gets, and the more you get out of it. But there are a couple of rules I’ve picked up along that you should follow, for it to work.
Feedback isn't a weapon, you're supposed to help each-other.
I got a jump start into feedback culture when I studied at Hyper Island. Because of this I mainly use tools I learned there, but there are plenty of other ones if you just google a bit.
You might want to start by defining what helpful feedback means in your organization. This way you can ensure that everybody gets more out of the feedback sessions. This exercise from Hyper Island is a great way to get started.
I also tend to start every session I do with a question of what kind of feedback the person I’m talking to actually want to ensure that they’re open to the feedback they’re getting.
One of the best ways to start working on a feedback culture in your company is to start with yourself. At my previous company I had two junior designers that constantly asked for feedback. But you can’t just say; do you have some feedback for me. That is way to vague. A better example would be:
What is one thing that I’m doing (or failing to do) that is getting in my way?
It is a question that automatically is assuming that there is something you can improve (and believe me there is), but it can also be shaped depending on the circumstances. Let’s say you are holding a development meeting every week. Ask a participant; What is one thing that I can change or improve to make this meeting more efficient?
Start, stop, continue. I think most people that have done Agile development are familiar to this one to a certain degree. It’s quite common to do something similar in Retrospectives, but it works just as well in one on ones.
The basic idea of it is to tell the person you are talking to:
What I would like to see more from you is _______. I think you should stop _______. And I would love it, if you did more _______.
In the beginning it might be tough to do the stop one, since it could feel to confrontational. If that’s the case, start with the other to and build up to that one.
Before you start sharing, spend a couple of min to reflect on the feedback you want to give. I suggest writing it down on post-its. Not only to remember what you want to say, but that way you can give the feedback physically to the person as well.
And remember. Listen, don’t answer. Though you can always ask questions later.
Hyper Island has another exercise named Personal SWOB Assessment. To me this is a great way to do some self-reflection and it’s also a great tool if you’re a manager to help your team develop.
What are you waiting for, try one of the exercises above and start your journey towards self-improvement.
I didn’t mean for the article to get this long, but if you made it all the way down here I assume you at least got something out of it. So in the spirit of feedback let me know if there is anything you don’t agree with or that I could do better. Also if you have any other tips I’d love to hear about them.
Also wrote this article about the reasons why organizations seem to fail in creating a great feedback culture.
TEDx talk — How to use others’ feedback to learn and grow (video)
WorkLife’s — How to love criticism (podcast)
Hyper Island Toolbox (collection of exercises)
Freakonomics — When Is a Negative a Positive? (podcast)
Johan Heikensten, Design Director & Strategy Consultant from Sweden
Johan Heikensten,
Design Lead & Strategy Consultant from Sweden
Johan Heikensten, Design Lead & Strategy Consultant from Sweden
©2019 ymer design
©2019 ymer design
©2019 ymer design