7 Responses

1. feedback….what is the aim?

   Hi Jasmin

   You might want to use some questions to generate activities:

   ~"What is the purpose of giving feedback?"

   ~"What is the difference between "feedback" and "criticisicm"?"

   ~"When is the best time to give feedback?"

   ~"In what circumstances is it not your job/place/role to give feedback?"

   ~"How do you make feedback non-judgemental?"….why would you?

   ~"Should you ever give feedback for a third party?"

   ~"If you give feedback to others, can you welcome feedback from others?"

   ~"Feedback is only given to improve poor performance"….Discuss.

   ~"What are the challenges of giving feedback when you cannot meet face to face?"

   ~"Give examples of the way non verbal behaviours and vocal tone can effect the way feedback is interpreted"

   I hope this helps

   Rus

   http://www.coach-and-courses.com

    

2. Supplementary comments …

   Hi Jasmin, adding to the excellent comments already made you could also include a group discussion about the worst feedback someone has received (provided it doesn’t cause upset to the individual), what was bad about it and how did they view that individual afterwards (poorly or positively).  Ditto the best feedback someone has received, what made it good or easy to take on board and how that individual was perceived afterwards.  The worst feedback I received was from an ex-boss who stated the voicemail message on my work mobile made me sound like a dalek.  Too bad that he couldn’t offer tips on improving it so that simply added to an already strained and unhappy relationship.  Good luck with the training and I hope the feedback you receive is really positive!  🙂

3. Look to the media

   Some absolutely great questions posted by Rus, and I’m sure if you incorporate them into your session, they will add a lot of insight.

   You asked for examples of good/back feedback. One useful way of doing this is to ask people to identify examples from TV or film (you could even suggest that they watch certain programmes/films in advance to look for examples). For example, Alan Sugar’s famous ‘You’re Fired!’ type feedback or Gene Hunt (Ashes to Ashes) are great examples of how NOT to do it, whereas someone like Supernanny has some good points that could be highlighted (even though she often gives difficult feedback).

   In terms of role plays, I would suggest that you don’t make work for yourself. Ask each delegate to write a scenario based on a personal challenge, which they can give to another delegate to work on as a hypothetical case.

   There are also some good ready-to-sessions out there, but I’m wary of adding links here. If you wish, please contact me directly, and I will send them on.

   Sheridan Webb

   http://www.keystonedevelopment.co.uk

4. Receiving Feedback

   Hi Jasmine,

   Just a different slant for you to think about, picking up on your desire to encourage feedback within the organisation.  It may be worth thinking about including a section on how to receive feedback as this can often be a stumbling block in the process.  I have found delegates find becoming more confident that they can receive and even invite feedback from others effectively really empowering and it can be an incredible stimulus to creating an enviroment where discussions about how people perform becomes a comfortable and natural part of how an organisation functions.

   Just a thought !

   Lindsay Hawkins – Cultivate Training & Development Ltd 

5. feedback ***

    A simple activity that can illustrate useful and non useful feedback – without defensiveness.

   Have half a dozen screwed up balls of paper (or similar) and a clean, empty waste bin.

   Ask one volunteer to sit in a chair with the basket about 4 or 5 foot between them.  Ask them to throw the paper over their head into the basket and get the rest of the team to give them feedback to improve their score.  

   Repeat with as many of the delegates you have time for – with the team reviewing how they give feedback to best advantage between each volunteer.

   Depending on group size this can be done in 2 separate groups and a competition held to see which group can give the feedback which results in the greater amount of paper balls ending in the bin.

   Discuss; reflect on; record;

   The different methods used (all shouting at once versus a nominated person / ‘you missed’ versus ‘too far right,left, near door or near window;’ someone moving the bin and catching the paper etc. etc)

   How it felt to the volunteer and how useful it was.  

   Specifics are useful – e.g. tone of voice rather than just words used.

   Not sure if this is useful to you but I find delegates actually appreciate the reasons for specific feedback more easily when it is demonstrated in a relatively none threatening situation. 

6. Feedback and how it impacts on people

   An exercise we used years ago was for one of the trainers to deliver an impromptu speech for 2 minutes on a topic of the participants choice.  The speech was delivered badly but not so badly it looked deliberate, even though it was.

   At the end of the speech the deliverer retired to a corner of the room with a glass and a jug of water.

   The other trainer then asked the group to give their feedback on the presentation they’d just seen, subtly egging them on to be quite direct and negative.

   Whilst the feedback was being given, and recorded on flipchart, the person delivering the speech pours water into the glass for every negative point and takes a sip everytime a positive comment is made.  After a short while the glass starts overflowing and people start noticing although the trainers carry on as though nothing untowards is happening. Eventually the group work out when water is poured and when it is sipped.

   When the group have got it the trainer explain that when you want to give feedback, either positive or negative, you probably have a whole jug full of things you could say.  However, most people can only take feedback a glass at a time and too much of either positive or negative will have an effect on the person receiving the feedback.

   This is definitely a memorable exercise – I recently bumped into someone who attended the course we used this on about 10 years ago and they still remembered it and why we’d done it.

7. Feedback

   Thankyou everyone for your help.  It’s all very useful information.  Much appreciated.