Feedback Really is a Good Thing

I started my career in the military, working on avionics for the United States Marine Corps Harrier AV-8B Night Attack program (VMA-211).  In avionics, you quickly learn that feedback is a bad thing. Its negative connotation stems from electronic sound distortion caused by a signal input from the same device, the electronic noise (squeal) that you experience from a microphone being too close to a speaker of the same source.  The most entertaining example form of system feedback is best managed by The Culps as they set-up to start singing to a medley of songs (not the pros, but close enough!)

Alas, the real feedback is good. The intent of feedback is to reinforce good behavior and is the easiest way to learn how to provide feedback.  Look for others doing good around you, recognize that good action, and reinforce these actions with positive feedback, which will lead to that good action being repeated in the future.  That positive reinforcement form of feedback is usually the most accepted and leads to continued positive behavior. What feedback is NOT is “Hey John, good meeting.” It is a platitude - a nicety, sound with no action.  

Most people do not know how to deliver feedback, positive or negative, in any sort of consistent form. Much like my previous post regarding poison pen letters, which happens to be a really bad form of negative feedback, usually results in a negative outcome.  Negative feedback is much harder to deal with, it is harder to deliver and is certainly harder to accept.  Most often when you receive criticism in the form of negative feedback, one’s immediate response is to defend our decisions or actions, letting the lizard brain protect us.  It does not help that negative feedback is usually delivered poorly, muddling the message and destroying any semblance of communication. Yet this focus will be on positive feedback.

The proper way of delivering feedback is best heard in action by Mark Horstman of Manager-Tools.com.  Feedback can be simple and effective with actionable statements and is delivered in four parts.  Asking someone if you can give them some feedback is first. Recognize, that simple statement gets them mentally aligned (hopefully) to receive feedback.  Yet, it is ok if the person says “no” - you will get the chance another day. If the intended recipient says “yes” then they are willing to accept that feedback.  Provide them with actionable statements detailing what was recognized behavior, how that behavior affected the results, and reinforce them to do it again in the future.  As an example, “Shane, can I give you some feedback?   By creating the production interruption schedules quickly and including it with the agenda, allowed everyone to schedule effectively! Great job and thanks!”

That feedback statement takes anywhere between seven and nine seconds and it provides an example of the behavior of the specific action that he had done and a result.  Although the statements did not ask him to see him continue those same actions in the future, the positive reinforcement will solidify that behavior in the future.

Practice positive feedback everyday for over a month, three to five times a day.  Keep score of providing feedback to those people doing the right thing, because keeping score also changes behavior.  Keep five pennies in your left pocket and for every positive feedback, move one of the pennies to the right pocket and hopefully by the end of the day there will be five pennies in the right hand pocket.  If you don't have pockets you could use forms of jewelry or a rubber band on one wrist, transferring it to the other. Over time, it will become a common habit and it will allow you to understand how to to respectfully deliver positive feedback.

We focus on positive feedback as it reinforces the good behavior that we want to see people repeat in the future.   There are times we may need to deliver negative feedback, but recognize that delivering negative feedback does not deviate from the feedback model.  For instance, Mike, when you are late for meetings where you are expected to chair causes unnecessary delays. Next time, please make sure you are better prepared and at your meetings you schedule on time. Thanks.  Hopefully, you provide enough positive feedback that those good behaviors are the only ones you ever see!

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Disclaimer: I could never do Manager-tools.com team justice in this brief blog about the feedback model or any other management precepts.  They have tons of podcasts around management and career advice and are, by far, the best available anywhere.  Be sure to visit the link to their site, download their podcasts to your phone or stream them to your car for your commute.  You will be glad you did!