Focusing people on their shortcomings doesn’t enable learning; it impairs it.
Buckingham and Goodall highlight three theories that those who believe in feedback as often accepts as true:
- That other people are more aware than you are of your weaknesses, and that the best way to help you, therefore, is for them to show you what you cannot see for yourself.
- That the process of learning is like filling up an empty vessel: You lack certain abilities you need to acquire, so your colleagues should teach them to you.
- That great performance is universal, analyzable, and describable, and that once defined, it can be transferred from one person to another, regardless of who each individual is.
In response, they propose a number of strategies to support the development of others, including:
- Look for outcomes
- Replay your instinctive reactions
- Explore the present, past, and future
This is something I have written about too, discussing the problem of feedback.
Tom Barrett discusses a number of impacts on the success of feedback. One particular focus is timing. Barrett provides some strategies to support this, including designing the actual process and creating early opportunities. He also links to his new guide to improving feedback. It is interesting to consider this alongside the discussion of data and performance reviews.