Peter Allen shares an article that explores two approaches to giving feedback, how it is received, and tips on how to build a culture of frequent, balanced, and skilful feedback.
How does your organization handle feedback?
Confrontation or avoidance?
There’s a broad spectrum of approaches to telling employees what’s working and what’s not. Some companies are famous for being highly confrontational, with feedback being given quite publicly, just like old-fashioned schools, which would post exam results for all to see. (My high school biology teacher embraced this practice: He announced our grades and our names as he handed papers back to us in class, from “A triple plus” to “F cubed.”) Other organizations have cultures hemmed in by no-talk rules, in which people actively seek to avoid telling colleagues what they think – though they may well complain to others.
Obviously confrontations can be uncomfortable, and if they are handled badly they can do significant damage. Someone I know recently referred to these as “public executions” – criticism and even firings carried on in view of other staff. At Netflix, at least in the past, “dozens or even hundreds of people” would see emails or attend meetings explaining why employees had been fired. In reaction to this, it’s easy to understand why people might avoid confrontation.
From a systems point of view, both extremes are dangerous. Public shaming makes it very clear to other employees what not to do, but there’s a significant risk of organizational damage. Teamwork and empathy, which hold organizations together, are threatened (think of East Germany, where there was not only a massive secret police network, but also a culture in which citizens – and even spouses – spied on one another). The spirit of innovation is endangered as well: If mistakes are fiercely punished, then it’s far safer, and wiser, to do only what has been done before.
A Poison Tree
But avoiding confrontation creates different kinds of problems. In organizations that discourage direct conflict resolution, employees don’t know when their managers are unhappy with them; concerns can’t be addressed, and so persist; gossip thrives; and small problems become large ones.
Key points include:
- The importance of specificity
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Praise in public/criticize in private” principle
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How to build feedback skills
Read the full article, Feedback and the Poison Tree, on AllenStrategies.com.