Why it's important to give frequent, spontaneous feedback

"Feedback isn't welcomed here".

I was shocked when one of my clients told me that their organisation insists that their managers have to ask permission before giving feedback to a member of their team.

And in this organisation, if the person says no, then you can't give them feedback except at the official mid-year and end-of-year reviews. 

This is my take on that policy:

• It’s good practice to check that the timing is convenient, but not to ask before giving any feedback at all. 
• If this policy is applied before giving praise (as well as before giving criticism), then there must be very little praise handed out. 
• If it isn’t, then there is a very clear inconsistency and prejudgement that “feedback” is only negative. 
• Managers are being disempowered from supporting their teams to grow and improve.
• People who refuse when feedback is offered to them will be denying themselves any opportunity to improve between formal reviews.
• People will stop giving spontaneous praise.
• People will stop offering in-the-moment suggestions for improvement.
• People will stop offering feedback at all.
• The net effect will be the opposite of a growth mindset. The opposite of a learning organisation.

Frequent and spontaneous feedback is absolutely essential

The healthiest organisations encourage frequent feedback, outside of any formal review process. The best feedback is given spontaneously, in the moment when something is observed that is:

• Good, and deserving of praise and recognition. This can be described as Appreciative Feedback.
• Unhelpful, problematic, or falling short of expectations. The sooner this feedback is given, the more the recipient can be supported to improve, or make good the shortfall. This turns criticism into something more useful, which can be described as Developmental Feedback.

As a rough guide, there should be at least a 3 to 1 ratio of appreciative feedback, to developmental feedback. Most people will reject developmental (or critical) feedback is they do not feel that the person giving them feedback has also noticed and appreciated their strengths.

So developing a culture of frequent appreciative feedback, has the added benefit of increasing the openness to developmental feedback.

What's your organisation's attitude to feedback? 

Comment below and join in the conversation.

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