Adaptive Feedback
A more human approach to feedback
Traditional feedback training isn’t working
Leaders and workers struggle with feedback year after year. Yet feedback training has been around for awhile. Why then does feedback continue to be an evergreen problem? Because most feedback training teaches rigid, sequential models that don’t match the messy, often unpredictable way that real people interact with each other at work. Training that assumes all parties are calm, rational, and work according to a linear plan is bound to fail.
There are four major realities that most feedback approaches overlook:
Feedback isn’t just something you say – it’s a dialogue
Feedback models only tell you how to express feedback. But what happens before and after that?
No two feedback discussions are the same
Positive and negative feedback are not the same. Peers should be treated differently than superiors and so forth.
Emotion can cloud the conversation on both sides
Your emotions may affect how you give feedback. Emotions may affect how someone reacts to feedback.
Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you will
All of us have the skill to do lots of things. We often don’t do them for various reasons. Having the skill may not be enough.
A new approach to feedback is needed
If we’re going to realize the vision of the true feedback culture, a new approach will be needed. One that operates according to the way people really are, not how we wish them to be. It must capitalize on our innate tendencies and give us the tools to navigate real human conversations as they unfold in non-linear, often unpredictable ways.
This demands an approach that:
Helps navigate the entire interaction
Helps people get the before and after right – not just the mere expression of feedback.
Is flexible enough for all situations
Can be used when giving feedback to peers, superiors, and subordinates in good times and bad.
Helps manage the emotions involved
Offers tools to avoid strong reactions and to deescalate when they arise on either side.
The four pillars of Adaptive Feedback
Adaptive Feedback is a flexible approach to feedback – and teaching feedback – that strives to avoid the problems inherent in other approaches. There are four pillars that form the foundation of the approach:
Human-centeredness
Adaptive Feedback meets people where they are, accepting the messy reality of human interaction.
Mindsets over models
Adaptive Feedback helps people adopt an optimal mindset for entering into feedback conversations.
Principles over protocols
Instead of rigid protocols, Adaptive Feedback teaches psychological principles and how they can be applied.
Proven behavioral science
Adaptive Feedback is rooted in sound theory, based on evidence, and is tested by the rigors of reality.