Present your answer in art form. Here is the way
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Course Title:
“Feedback Pitfalls: How to Give and Get High-Quality Feedback”
What inspired the idea for this course?
Because my students pursue careers in an incredibly wide range of fields – business, community service, sports, medicine, finance, human rights, education – I wanted to teach them skills that would serve a common purpose. Being able to give and receive high-quality feedback will help them and their coworkers wherever they end up.
What does the course examine?
We learn to ask for and deliver feedback. But we also learn how to interpret feedback, especially when we get it from multiple sources.
We also explore broad feedback frameworks. A few frameworks come from outside sources, such as “Radical Candor” by business management coach Kim Scott and “Thanks for the Answer” by Douglas Stone and Sheila Heen of Harvard University's Dialogue Project. Some structures are the product of collaboration with students, lawyers, doctors, counselors and entrepreneurs. This includes strategies for how to give feedback to your boss, how to get feedback from peers and how to process feedback even when it is unclear or inconsistent.
Explain the concept of a feedback loop
Stone and Heen write about three:
- Appreciation: to applaud someone's effort and work
- Training: to show someone a better way to do something
- Testing: to tell someone where to stand
The right mix varies from person to person and from situation to situation, so we discuss different situations where one or the other piece should be emphasized. Beginners or someone who is depressed may need more introductions, but a more advanced person may want “training” and “testing.” That is, an elite baseball player may be looking for tips to improve his swing.
What are some of the important lessons in this course?
Just because you're ready to give someone feedback doesn't mean you're ready to receive it. Comedian Craig Ferguson said it took him two failed marriages to learn this lesson. Now he asks himself three questions before volunteering his thoughts:
- Does this need to be said?
- Does this need to be said by me?
- Does this need to be said by me right now?
Another important idea comes from psychologist LeeAnn Renninger who explained in a TED Talk about the importance of timing. Instead of blinding people with criticism, he suggests giving them some control over the delivery. Start by saying something like, “Do you have time to talk about how the last sermon went?”
Consent and autonomy can be key ingredients of the answer.
What materials are used in the course?
Last year, I put the key concepts and exercises from the course into a book called “Feedback Traps: How to Give and Get High-Quality Feedback” that people can read or download for free. I also use the videos, quizzes and assignments from the online course where the book is the accompanying text.
What will the course prepare students to do?
Many students say the course helped them become better planners. Some say it has helped them become better listeners and leaders. Perhaps the biggest benefit, however, is that they develop a set of tools and a conceptual vocabulary that helps them become better at improvisation. They learn how to improve the way they – and others – improve.
Patrick Barry is an assistant professor of law and director of digital education programs University of Michigan.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the first article.
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