Feedback Strategies

Considering giving feedback, the two articles I read were "How to Give Feedback Without Being a Jerk" and "Try Feedforward Instead of Feedback." I found both of these highly useful, in large part due to their focus on specific things you can do rather than generalized feedback philosophies. "How to Give Feedback" covered a topic I was especially grateful for, which is the "feedback sandwich." Just about everyone's heard of it or had it suggested to them as the optimal way of giving feedback. Sandwich your negative feedback between positive feedback. Just about everyone also knows that it doesn't work, but knowing it doesn't work doesn't tell you how to fix it, which is what Adam Grant does in his article. The tips he gives are simple (ask if the person wants feedback, explain why you're giving the feedback, etc), but it's not hard to see how effective they could be if you put yourself in the shoes of the person receiving the feedback. For example, of course I'd want to know the purpose behind the feedback and what the feedback giver thinks I can accomplish with it! So why don't I always give that explanation?

"Try Feedforward" builds on this structure for giving feedback by tailoring the kind of feedback being given. Specifically, "Try Feedforward" argues (you guessed it) to try giving "feedforward" instead of feedback. What this vague and cryptic statement means is that you should focus on giving advice that can help in the future, rather than focusing on past mistakes. I'll admit it took me a sec to figure out what that would mean in practice, but when the author, Marshall Goldsmith, noted that feedforward is often used with athletes, all the pieces came together. I teach wrestling to my fellow students at the martial arts school where I train BJJ, and I also help my coach at my highschool whenever I'm back in Dallas. To take an example from that, when someone I'm teaching has a weak drive on their takedown, I don't tell them "you have a weak drive." It tells them what they're doing wrong, but it doesn't do much to fix it. Instead, I tell them "you need to be more explosive, try really driving off your back foot." That way, they know what they need to achieve and how to achieve it. Knowing that I have this concept in my toolkit already gives me some hope that I can transfer it out of the athletic realm and into the rest of my life.

(Personal photo, my mom giving negative feedback (hugs and stern words) to our dog, Tess, about her barking habit)