Giving appropriate and meaningful feedback is a very important and underrated skill, as the methods you use when giving a person feedback will determine how they react to what you tell them, and thus the actions they will take. This exercise will help participants develop their methods of giving feedback.
During this exercise, team members or course delegates will consider the language they use when giving feedback. They will then have the opportunity to practise constructing feedback sessions and applying good feedback skills through the use of a case study. It should take around 20 minutes to complete the exercise with a further 30 minutes for the case study.
Learning Objectives
Participants will be able to…
• use language appropriately to gain positive responses to feedback
• construct effective feedback sessions
Preparation
Write down the following statements on individual Post-it notes:
1. ‘Your work is not acceptable.’
2. ‘Good work.’
3. ‘I have found another mistake in your work. This is the fifth mistake I have noticed this month.’
4. ‘You never listen to my suggestions.’
5. ‘I think we should talk about your manner. I have been getting complaints about you for the last two months. I am not having you upsetting your colleagues like this.’
Stick a Post-it note to the top of blank pieces of paper. You will give one piece of paper with a Post-it note to each pair. Repetition of statements is fine.
Suggested Resources
• pens, paper and Post-it notes
• copy of task sheet per participants (download this from Supplementary Resources, below)
• ‘Delectables’ case study (see below - you can download this case study from
Supplementary Resources)
• suggested improvements (see below)
What to Do (20 minutes)
• Explain the aim and learning objectives of this exercise.
• Divide the group into pairs. Explain that they should imagine that they are in a performance review meeting. One person should take the role of appraiser, and the other take the role of appraisee.
• Hand one piece of paper with an attached statement (on a Post-it note) to each pair. Ask the appraiser to say the feedback statement to the appraisee as if they were giving it as feedback.
• Ask the appraisee to consider and share with their partner how the feedback statement made them feel and what their response would be.
• Ask the pairs to rewrite their statement, onto the blank piece of paper, with a version that would prove more effective.
Review Activity (10 minutes)
• Get together as a whole group. Each pair should read out their original version and the improved version.
• As a group, discuss the changes they have made.
• What was it about the original statement that was inappropriate?
• How are their suggested improvements better?
• Hand out the suggested improvements sheet to your team members for some guidance on other possible ways of giving feedback.
Apply Learning (30 minutes)
If you feel that your group would benefit from practising this learning, or you would like to build their skills of structuring a feedback session, there is a case study attached (downloadable from the Supplementary Resources section below) called ‘Delectables’.
In the case study, participants will take the position of a manager, but the learning points will apply to anyone giving feedback, whether it be to their team, peers, or their manager.
• Split the group into pairs and distribute copies of the case study.
• Ask the pairs to construct a feedback session for ‘Matthew’. There are points for them to work through at the end of the case study. They should consider what questions they should ask and the language they would use. They could also consider the setting of the meeting.
• If time permits, you may like to ask the pairs to role-play their feedback sessions.
Discuss, as a group, ways of giving effective feedback and the issues raised during the exercise.
The main points that the case study should raise include the following:
• Start with the positives.
• Comment on the positives; the real impact Matthew’s actions have had on the organisation. Be specific.
• Discuss the negatives. Try and think of the flip side to create a positive angle. What needs to be improved? Try and be non-judgemental.
• Leave sufficient time for the session, and choose a place where you won’t be interrupted.
• Consider the steps you would have to take after the meeting. Present any agreed decisions in written format.
Suggested Improvements to Statements
1: ‘Your work is not acceptable.’
• ‘How do you think your performance has been?’
• ‘I have concerns about certain aspects of your work. I think we should review aspects of your personal development plan and include such aspects of your work as…’
• ‘I am really happy with … let’s see how we can bring … up to the same standard.’
2: ‘Good work.’
You should be specific here, outline the real impacts the good work has had on the team and include any specific feedback you have received from others. For example:
• ‘I am really pleased by the standard of your work; it is always accurate.’
• ‘I have heard from your colleagues you have been successful at… That piece of work secured the client for us.’
3: ‘I have found another mistake in your work. This is the fifth mistake I have noticed this month’
• ‘Your rate of errors is about one in five, which is slightly higher than the average. Let’s see how we can improve on this.’
• ‘I can always rely on you to meet deadlines. There have been some mistakes recently though, so let’s see how we can improve the accuracy. Remember X and Y.’
• ‘Do you feel you need more support with… ?’
4: ‘You never listen to my suggestions.’
• ‘I’d like us to consider new processes for actioning ideas.’
• ‘I’d like to receive more feedback on what happens to the team’s suggestions following meetings.’
• ‘Sometimes when I propose ideas, you gloss over it, for instance … When this happens, I feel undervalued/frustrated. What can I do differently when proposing suggestions to get them heard?’
5: ‘I think we should talk about your manner. I have been getting complaints about you for the last two months. I am not having you upsetting your colleagues like this’
• ‘I’d like to look at improving team morale and general teamwork.’
‘Can you suggest how we could improve the way we relate as a team?’
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