Feedback Strategies
Feedback is a very important thing in all areas of work especially when it comes to creativity. If negative feedback is needed then we must give negative feedback and not just give positive feedback in order to avoid hurting the persons feelings. If we just gave game designers positive feedback even if negative feedback was needed just to avoid hurting their feelings then they would be releasing a terrible game with many flaws and costing the game company lots of money. However when it comes to negative feedback there are strategies that it involves. For this week we had to read two articles about feedback strategies. The first one I read was "How To Give Bad Feedback Without Being A Jerk". Adam Grant, the author of the article talks about his experience of doing this. He talks about how he had to give negative feedback to a CEO twice his age when he was just 25. He talks about how he was just 25 and called in as a professor of a dying company as a last resort after three previous consultants had been fired. He had watched this CEO interviewing his senior team and gathering data from his employees and he realised he needed to do something different to save his company. He asked his colleagues for advice on how to give negative feedback in the nicest way possible and they told him about something called a compliment sandwich. A compliment sandwich means you give a slice of praise on the top and bottom and your criticism is a slice of meat in the middle. However the author thought this was a bad idea for two reasons. The first reason being that the positives fall on deaf ears. The person you are giving the feedback to will hear the compliments and they'll be prepared for more but then when the criticism drops the compliments won't seem real it'll just seem like you were trying to soften the blow. The second reason is that the receiver will only pay attention to the compliments and not the criticism. The author gave us four better steps to give negative feedback without sounding like a jerk. Step one is to explain why you are giving the feedback. He gave us the exact words to use when giving the feedback which are "I'm giving you these comments because I have very high expectations and I know that you can reach them". If you say this the person will feel like you have their back and believe in them rather than thinking you are just trying to attack them. Step 2 is take yourself off a pedestal. This means to explain to them that you also need to improve as well as the person you are giving feedback to so it doesn't seem like you are looking down on them. Explain that you have been given negative feedback before and that it has helped you. Step 3 is ask if the person wants feedback. Start with the sentence "I noticed a couple of things and wondered if you're interested in some feedback". The author tells us that he has opened this way so many times and no one has ever declined. If you ask do they want feedback first and they say yes then they can't really get upset if it's negative feedback as you have given them the option. Step 4 is have a transparent dialogue, not a manipulative monologue. This means that you explain to them that you have some positive feedback to give as well as negative feedback. Explain that you are going to start off with the positive feedback and then give the negative feedback that you need to give and then you are going to give off more positive feedback to end it on a high note. The second article was "The Difference Between Praise And Feedback". In this article they talk about how parents often say "good boy" or "good girl" for simple things such as eating their dinner or taking the bins out. The article tells us that this can cause children to have a fixed mindset. The article also tells us about process praise. Process praise teaches parents to tell their children things like "you must have worked really hard on that painting" instead of "you're really good at painting. The point of this is to praise someones efforts rather than their finished work because this can create a growth mindset which gives the child the idea that they can always do better and encourage them to keep going whereas if we just praise their traits this gives off the impression that it is just a natural talent and then they are less likely to try and discover new talents. We also learn above praise vs parenthood. This means that if you tell your children "good boy" or "good girl" for taking out the trash then it gives off the impression that they aren't worthy of your love if they don't take out the trash and you need to express that you love them no matter what they do. The article also teaches us about the difference between praise and feedback. Before looking at this article I assumed that the difference was that praise means to praise someone for what they have done and you can't give negative praise whereas feedback means you give someone your opinion on what they have done and feedback can be positive and negative. In the article it tells us that instead of complimenting every maths test or finger painting that our child does we should show an interest in it. We should ask questions about what they are doing and once they explain you should talk about how they're doing good while also telling them how they can improve. Another thing it tells us is that when you are watching your kids soccer game instead of saying things like "you're a natural" and "I love to watch you play" tell them things like "When you made that pass in the second quarter I could see that you've been practising your footwork a lot" or ask them "What was your favourite part of the game" and really listen to the answer. If you say things like "you're a natural" the child won't feel any need to practice any further whereas if you tell them "When you made that pass in the second quarter I could see that you've been practising your footwork a lot" this means that they get the impression that in order to keep doing well they actually need to practice.
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