Nearly every business since the dawn of time:
“Okay, listen up team! We’ve determined our values to be honesty, integrity, hard work, and compassion. We’ve sent out memos and posted them on the lunchroom bulletin board.”
“So it’s settled, we’re all going to live by these now, okay? Good. Done. Problem solved.”
This is satire, but it’s not far from how companies actually operate. They declare their values and then expect people to magically live by them.
If you ask anyone who’s tried to start a new fitness routine, diet, or meditation habit, they’ll tell you: behaviour change is hard.
Even with just one person. How about a dozen? Three hundred? Or thousands? The task becomes monumental.
So what is an organization to do if they want to ensure people live by their values and change how they operate?
Well, there happens to be a technique that works great at the individual level for learning new things and developing new ways of being that can be scaled up to the organizational level.
The technique is called feedback.
- One session with a coach correcting your golf swing is worth more than dozens of hours of aimless practice.
- One session with a therapist will give you more insight into your relationship troubles than will hours and hours of rumination.
- One conversation in Spanish will show you how well you’re learning the language better than studying 200 flashcards.
- One sales call will make you better at sales than watching hundreds of hours of youtube tutorials.
Each of these scenarios provides instant feedback to know where you’re at and where you need to focus your efforts to improve.
My clients confirm: it’s imperative to implement a culture of feedback—consistent, regular, and honest feedback that answers two questions:
- Did I show up today living by our values?
- Did I show up in a way that furthers our mission?
Here are some examples of what this looks like:
- After a project Zoom meeting, I may ask a colleague, “How did I show up there? Did I communicate effectively and give space for everyone to feel heard and valued?” And I may learn that I was looking off to the side of the screen, appearing like I wasn’t listening to the client, and that they looked annoyed.
- During a client project, our team might ask the client, “What’s one thing you liked about my service delivery and one thing you think could be improved?” And they may learn that the way they started the project off with so many administrative and housekeeping tasks sucked everyone’s enthusiasm from the project right from the get-go.
- While working with a subconsultant, we might say, “Hey, we wanted to show up for that client with honesty, humility, and a willingness to learn—do you think we accomplished this? How could we improve?” And we may learn that we prescribed a solution without even realizing that the client didn’t want that at all. And that we will have to ask more questions next time.
The kinds of learnings I just described simply can’t happen without feedback. Feedback gives you an honest look at where you’re at and where you need to go to live by your values or strive toward a desired outcome.
When combined with things like practice and self-reflection, feedback can supercharge your growth and performance.
And we’re seeing this in our team since we’ve been adopting this practice.
It’s helping us orient toward our desired outcomes, and it’s keeping us accountable. Because when you know you will get feedback after some activity, you become more cognizant of how you behave.
It helps you perform better.
It takes courage and vulnerability to both ask for feedback and provide it. So your team is regularly being courageous and vulnerable together, two things that build immense bonding. Consequently, it builds trust and camaraderie within teams better than we’ve ever seen.
There’s so much upside! However…
Asking for feedback is hard. It requires being vulnerable.
So we suggest you start small.
One easy way to begin is by asking my favourite question: “Hey, what’s one thing you liked about my work and one thing you think could be improved?”
This question gives you feedback on a strength and a weakness in one swoop. Simultaneously, it shows you where you need to orient toward and where you need to orient away from.
This is precious knowledge that can supercharge your career trajectory.
When it comes to behaviour change and growth, feedback helps you move the need more than any other intervention.
There is an unlimited amount of growth potential, for you, lingering in those closest to you, but if you’re not asking for feedback, it’s going untapped
So how can you move your organization toward a culture of feedback? How can you encourage your team to both seek feedback for themselves and give feedback to others? We would love to hear from you and learn from what you’re doing in this domain.