Episode 103. Crappy Feedback May Be Holding Your Team Back. Feedforward Is the Solution.
Staff Researcher: Evelyn Gilliard
As leaders, we give our input on various issues all day long. Whether we’re chiming in on the development of an important project, reviewing a blog post that’s going up on our site, or chatting with a team member about their career goals… our guidance is required on the daily. That’s the nature of leading.
But have you ever considered whether your leadership is anchored to the past, instead of prompted by the future?
This is the key difference between feedback and feedforward: two vastly different methods of providing input and guidance to your people.
FEEDBACK VS. FEEDFORWARD
Feedback: providing positive or negative information about how they’re performing; key focus on the past.
Feedforward: replaces positive or negative feedback with future-oriented solutions, which ultimately means you are deciding to focus on their future performance rather than the past.
These definitions should show you two things. One, feedback is the norm. It’s the type of guidance that we’ve all received from teachers, bosses, and really anyone we’ve ever had a relationship with. Two, feedforward is much rarer. And it often marks relationships that hold deeper importance to us.
Feedback is corrective. Feedforward is inspirational.
Since feedback is more well-known, it is the traditional route most employers tend to take to give positive praise or constructive criticism. There’s a time and place for using feedback regardless of the negatives. It is not going anywhere, but some employers are looking to feedforward as the new approach to use or mix in with feedback.
Did you know that only 26% of employees felt that feedback improves their professional performance”?1
Feedback doesn’t often get good results for three reasons:
It shuts down our mental dashboards.
It focuses primarily on ratings, not on development.
It reinforces negative behaviors.
If you are trying to focus on improving performance, feedforward is a technique you should definitely consider. feedforward supports a growth mindset by encouraging your team to learn new and effective problem-solving methods.
BENEFITS OF EFFECTIVE FEEDFORWARD
There are numerous benefits when using the feedforward method rather than feedback, especially once you know the difference and which situation calls for which method.
The benefits of using the feedforward approach are:
REINVIGORATE TALENT
While positive feedback can feel good, it typically reaffirms what we already know about ourselves. feedforward, however, can effectively help people see opportunities for growth—ways to take on new opportunities and roles in their companies. This ultimately develops the feeling of moving forward.
2. EXPANDS POSSIBILITIES
Because feedforward is solutions-oriented, it creates multiple opportunities to ideate on what’s possible for your team member (and consequently your company). It expands on what’s possible rather than only pointing out problems without offering solutions to fix them.
How Pixar Uses “Plussing” to Expand Possibilities
A concept called “plussing” is used by Pixar when critiquing another’s work. After work is presented, the team is encouraged to use “What if” statements to improve or solve problems.
3. ENCOURAGES SPECIFIC IMPROVEMENT
Effective feedforward lays out clear expectations for your team moving forward. By giving your team members a clear specific list of ways they can improve their performance and work in the future, they will not only be able to meet your expectations but exceed them.
For example, if you were to say that Team Member A needs to focus on fixing their grammar in their writing for an upcoming project, you would be using feedforward, but you would not be specific, and therefore, you would not be effective. Instead, you should tell Team Member A that for the upcoming project, they need to focus on fixing their run-on sentences, spelling, and length of paragraphs. They would now know precisely what they need to focus on in their future writing Be specific, be particular.
While feedback will always have a place in performance management, that does not mean we have to leave feedforward by the wayside. Feedforward might just be the best way forward, and the three scenarios listed down below will give you an example of when feedforward makes the most sense to use instead.
3 SCENARIOS WHEN FEEDFORWARD MAKES SENSE
You just hired a new team member and are in the process of their 90 Day Onboarding. You have noticed that they have been late to meetings several times.
Rather than solely giving negative feedback about how they are continuously late, you say:
“Going forward, we need all team meetings to start on time so you’ll need to prioritize punctuality. I like having a 10-minute reminder alter me. What’s something that will help you keep track?”
You have a team member who has difficulty accomplishing their tasks and has frequently made mistakes. Instead of chalking it up to them being “bad” workers, perhaps they need guidance to set them on the right path.
Rather than only rehashing the mistakes that have already happened, you offer solutions or ask questions to prompt a conversation about how they can improve their work.
This can look like:
“We’ve got another client presentation coming up and we’ll need a week of leeway to practice and make tweaks. Do you commit to communicating if you have any hangups and submitting the assets on time?”
“In the next meeting, I’d love to see you take an active approach and bring ideas around XYZ to the table. Is there any way I can support you in making that happen or do you already have what you need?”
Due to working remotely, your team has been struggling with communicating important information to you and each other promptly, which has caused you to lose out on opportunities. Rather than being overly upset and blaming the team for not communicating effectively, it would be wise to look at the type of communication setup you have and make sure everyone is on the same page.
Then, after looking inward to your system, you need to look for the best method moving forward and ensure your entire team knows what is expected. This conversation would look like:
“In the future, please let me know all important information being discussed between the team and clientele.”
“Moving forward, we are going to be using our Project Management Software for all internal communications rather than email, text messages, and Instagram DM’s as communication is being lost.”
Don’t let your team's performance be subpar any longer! Take these tips and scenarios in the feedforward approach to better manage and improve your team’s performance in a way that uses best practices, focuses on the future, and develops an action plan.
