Ebenezer's Bad Night of Feedback

Laying in bed recently, listening to a literature professor on TV talking about Dickens, I had an epiphany. A Christmas Carol is the ultimate feedback story.

What a brilliant way to paint the picture of what I try to do for my clients. "It's not easy," I often tell them, "to find out what others really think of us." But we can't get better until we know. We can't correct problems that are holding us back, or improve upon what our customers value most about us, unless we have a clear understanding of how we are perceived. That is why Jacob Marley organized a horrible night of feedback for his old friend Scrooge. He wanted to help him tap his hidden potential and become better.

In our culture people generally avoid confronting each other with the unpleasant side of what they perceive: "If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all." Some of us may occupy positions where we do hear criticism: but if someone has come to tell us about the mess in Aisle 10, do we know how they feel about the freshness of the produce? We don't know until we ask. And sometimes even then we don't know.

There's a wonderful book about feedback called What Got You Here Won't Get You There by Marshall Goldsmith. (Read a synposis written by me at http://www.creativeoptionc.com/.) He gives ideas for how we can solicit high-quality and actionable feedback from colleagues and others by reflecting a genuine openness to hearing it, not arguing, saying "thank you" and etc. Mostly, though, he advises readers who need truly reliable feedback to use third-party neutrals, consultants like me.

I got into the feedback business as a consultant by working on pre-planning assessments. Before we start a consensus-building process, like strategic planning or a conflict resolution effort, it is usually advisable to conduct a stakeholder assessment, also known as a community assessment, or qualitative interview study. Mostly it involves identifying an organization or agency's customers and other stakeholders, and then going out and asking them - one at a time - to provide information on how the group is doing. "What do you think are XYZ's strengths? Weaknesses? What three things would you like to see XYZ accomplish in the next year?" It is amazing how thoughtful and helpful people can be when they are giving a confidential interview to an outsider. When they know that expressing their opinion won't damage their relationship with someone, they say what they really think.

Recently a client called me on the phone two days after getting my report. I had talked to more than 50 of his associates and close collaborators. "OK," he pleaded, "Tell me again what is good about feedback." As I had predicted, he was focused on the material that was critical rather than on the 90 percent of the material that was supportive. "You already knew you had some relationship issues with certain people," I told him. "Now you know what to address. You can fix this. No more guessing."

Like Scrooge on Christmas morning, my client is now experiencing a much more productive and satisfying work life. He and his teammates know what their customers value most about their services, and they are focusing their resources on those things. They made a priority in their planning of addressing specific communications issues identified in the assessment, and work teams are meeting regularly to iron those out. They were a good organization before, but now they are on their way to great. I couldn't be more proud of their accomplishments.

Feedback can be difficult... but the pain is fleeting and the benefits are lasting. If you don't have a friend like Jacob Marley... hire one!