framing feedback

Feedback isn’t about being mean or critical. It’s about sharing information other teams didn’t know they needed.  

~ Sports people have coaches 

~ Musicians have teachers 

~ Authors have editors 

Every comment, suggestion and nugget of information is an opportunity to refine a skill and continuously improve.  

 Feedback can come in many shape and sizes. It can be a phone call, an email, a direct message, a meeting/group conversation. It can be delivered to one person or a group of people. 

Now not everyone is going to be receptive to feedback... the world has plenty of rams, mules, even brick walls. 

That's why when presenting feedback, we must be clear, concise and get straight to the point.  

In the corporate world of emails with the option to meet and discuss, I have found it is more effective to follow a simple framework: 

~ call to action 

~ observation 

~ impact or consequences 

When I imagine people seeing my name at the start of an email, I can hear the ‘what does she want’ eye roll, so I get to the point and declare the call to action. 

Then I give them the why, the observation, the breakdown, where we fell on our swords. 

Finally, I demonstrate the impact or consequence of the behaviour, why it matters and what will happen if we don’t address it.  

It’s about ordering the information in the need-to-know basis. The reader can choose when to stop.