We have quite a few support mechanisms in place to help people give and receive feedback:
- Solita feedback training
- Written instructions for giving actionable, high-quality feedback, as well as examples of good feedback
- Easy and much-used process for giving public appreciation (and a little something nice) to your colleague
- Encouragement (and a reminder from our people leads) to request more official, written feedback both internally and from customers / other external stakeholders at least once a year
Despite these mechanisms, many Solitans have been longing for more frequent feedback, and especially constructive feedback to help them grow and get better. To help with this, we at the Project Lead competence community decided to put all our expertise together and draft instructions for facilitating feedback sessions within the project context.
What we ended up with was a collection of real-life practices that our Project Leads are already using, and now we are just sharing the practices with everyone for inspiration. Our focus was on concrete instructions for arranging and facilitating different types of feedback sessions in projects: tips, tricks and ready-made templates.
Mastering the art of giving and receiving feedback
The ability to both give and receive meaningful feedback is an important skill that everyone can learn. In the end it’s all about the ability to communicate effectively and bond with others. Feedback works best when it is a dialogue, not a one-way street or top-down exercise. Both giving and receiving it effectively can lead to significant improvements and successes.
Why does it feel so hard to give feedback? Why does it make you nervous when you are about to receive feedback? Probably because you just haven’t done it often enough. Like any other skills, feedback skills require practice and repetition. It is no rocket science that regular practice is the way to become good at anything one is seeking to improve. We believe that feedback is one of the crucial ways to become even better at what we do. We wish feedback not to be something taking place once a year to fill in a form and tick a box.
Let’s do it together!
Feedback skills can also be practised together as a group. Organised regular feedback sessions can build comfort and create a safe space to practice with colleagues, when done properly. We organised such a team feedback exercise with one of our bigger project teams.
Feedback has been a topic making its way to the surface the entire time I have been part of the community. We have been talking about giving feedback, its importance, and how it should be done more often. I nevertheless somehow lacked the idea of how to do it in practice: how to make it fun and accessible for the entire team, something not only part of our usual 1:1 rounds.
It is from the discussions and materials of our project leads’ community I got the idea for a feedback workshop and immediately wanted to try it out with my team.
How did it work in practice?
We first prepared for the topic by discussing the importance of feedback, why we need it and what quality feedback looks like. The team also got to self-evaluate their current feedback skills. We then organised a feedback workshop a few days later, where we, as a team, practised giving and receiving both positive and constructive feedback. The focus of the exercise was to bring forth remarks and suggestions that would help the other group members become better at their work, grow in their career path, and be more engaged as a colleague and a team member.
As it was our first time trying out the group feedback session, many of the team members felt nervous at first, but very soon everyone got excited about the possibility to sit down and take time to find the right words to say important observations to one another they hadn’t been able to previously express. With the support of the entire group, it was easier to find ways to convey the message in a tone that was inspiring and supportive rather than coming across as a rebuke or a flaw.
Feedback session participant’s views
Project team member Toni Dahl says that the team spirit of our project shines strong, so he trusted that our team members could provide a safe space for everyone to share their thoughts. It is highly important that psychological safety exists so that the team can feel comfortable with a feedback exercise.
According to Toni, giving positive feedback is always nice, of course, but sometimes it can get overly fluffy because everyone in the team is very competent and does awesome stuff every day. Giving valuable constructive feedback can be difficult, time-consuming and even stressful. To provide good constructive feedback, you’ll need details and not just vague feelings and foggy fragments of bits in memory.
“In the workshop, I found out it was much easier to provide valuable constructive feedback in a small group. Together, we were able to paint a much clearer picture of a particular point of improvement and discuss how to deliver constructive feedback, so it would give the most value to the individual receiving the feedback. Being on the receiving end was also worthwhile. It was nice to receive well-constructed feedback and to be able to comment and discuss that feedback after it was given.” Toni commented.
Toni concludes that these kinds of workshops are important in order to foster our values – caring, courage, passion and easy-going – and elevate them to new levels. A safe space for discussion must be provided and participants must know each other well enough to be aware of each other’s personal boundaries and to create a relaxed atmosphere.
Conclusion
To sum up, feedback isn’t an easy topic and can raise insecurities. However, when done properly, feedback can boost team building, create psychological safety and help people grow. Furthermore, it’s a skill that anyone can learn.
We’re lucky to have training on feedback; easy-to-use materials from our active Project Lead community and, most importantly, a culture that supports open communication as well as amazing people eager to learn and help their colleagues grow.
