Jahnvi is readying her arsenal for the future as she is taking a leap in her career and transitioning from being an individual contributor in her organization to managing people in her team. Being a first-time manager, she agrees with research that says nearly 44% of people feel unprepared for the role and 87% feel they need to upskill themselves before taking the plunge in their career. This is exactly what Jahnvi is doing, upskilling herself to be there for her people in the thick and thin of their shared success.
She envisaged a journey to understand what it takes to be a leader for her team. By far she has uncovered the requisites of becoming a first-time manager, her values, locus of control, setting goals, and achieving them, her learnings from The Strangest Secret, how to handle the missed goals, an overview of feedback, the gateway to discover the blind spot, and frameworks of feedback.
Jahnvi understands that leadership is a pivotal role in implementing various strategies in the corporate world. Her goal is to always be close to her people, and connect management in a way that creates a rainbow of success. She is responsible for a role that allows her organization to move forward toward its goals and achievements. She has recently grasped the concepts of feedback and it has made her aware of the ways to provide effective feedback to her people.
She knows that she has to keep her eyes on the future as a good leader and identify the changes required to achieve adequate results. People management must be a dynamic science, continuously evolving and exploring new solutions to deal with the ever-changing reality of the workplace, given the complexity of human beings.
When looking into the future, the need arises for this constant improvement, and it brings along the urgency to adopt the concepts of feedforward in the management style.
What Is Feedforward?
“While you can’t change your behavior in the past, you can definitely modify your behavior going forward, which is empowering.”
The term “feedforward” was coined by leadership coach Dr. Marshall Goldsmith. Feedforward develops as a natural progression from traditional feedback. It focuses interactions between leaders and collaborators on the future and attempts to anticipate requests and issues rather than solving them after they occur.
Feedback can be compared to a rearview mirror. We utilize it to gaze back in time. We seek insight into what has brought the company to this position in order to avoid mistakes.
Feedforward is the windshield through which we can see what is coming, allowing us to choose the best course and make future judgments.
What Is The Reason To Use Feedforward Instead Of Feedback?
As Dr. Marshall says, it is quintessential for employees to be aware of their performance and the expectation of their leaders, and that performance and expectations are in congruence. The way leaders provide feedback to their employees, leaders can also benefit from the feedback from their employees. There is a fair chance that employees can bring great insights and perspectives to the table and it can amplify the effectiveness of procedures and processes.
Past cannot be changed, however, there is a possibility to look at the broad spectrum of opportunities waiting to be tapped in the future. As feedback is static and limited, contrary to dynamic and expansive.
For years, Dr. Marshall has been running an experiential exercise where the leaders are asked to play two roles. In one role, they are supposed to provide feedforward—that is, to make proposals for the future and to assist as much as possible. In the second role, they are expected to accept feedforward—that is, to listen to future proposals and learn as much as possible. The practice normally lasts ten to fifteen minutes, with six to seven dialogue sessions for each leader. Leaders are asked to do the following during the exercise:
- Choose one behavior that they want to modify. Changes in their behavior should have a major and beneficial impact on their life.
- Describe this behavior to a group of participants chosen at random. This is done through one-on-one conversations. It’s as simple as saying, “I want to be a better listener.”
- Request feedforward—two future ideas that might help them accomplish a positive improvement in their chosen behavior. If participants have previously worked together, they are not permitted to provide any comments regarding the past. They are simply permitted to offer suggestions for the future.
- Take careful notes as you listen to the suggestions. Participants are not permitted to make any comments on the suggestions. They are not permitted to criticize the suggestions or even make favorable judgmental words like, “That’s a good idea.”
- Thank everyone who contributed ideas.
- Ask the other people what they want to change.
- Give them feedforward—two suggestions to help them change.
- When thanked for the suggestions, say, “You are welcome.” The complete process of sending and receiving feedforward takes roughly two minutes.
- Find another volunteer and continue the process until the workout is completed.
Jahnvi thought this experiential exercise is fun to be used with her team and it will help set a new arena for the future. This way she can push her team and herself to excel in their performance and seek information to get a step closer to their goals. She is positive that she can help her team do the right thing by addressing everything objectively and impersonally.
Jahnvi thinks that feedforward is a smart and effective way to have accountability and take charge of the change she will be working on, and she ponders upon the from Dr. Marshall in his book ‘What Got You Here Won’t Get You There,’
“We’re being told all day long how we’re doing. And the reason we accept this feedback and actually attempt to respond to it (e.g., if we’re down in sales, we’ll try harder to bring the figures up) is that we accept the process: An authority figure “grades” us, and we are motivated to do better because of it. It’s not like that with interpersonal behavior, which is vague, subjective, unquantifiable, and open to wildly variant interpretations. But that doesn’t make it less important. It’s my contention— that interpersonal behavior is the difference-maker between being great and near-great, between getting the gold and settling for the bronze.”
Jahnvi contemplates the concepts of feedforward and addresses the dire need of focusing on improving a situation that may arise in the future, in other words, she is thinking of becoming future-ready with the concepts of feedforward. She thinks it is better to learn from and leverage past mistakes to reach a desired future goal instead of nitpicking about them. It entirely shifts her focus to the optimization of skills.
What Are The Benefits Of Feedforward?
When Dr. Marshall asked the participants after the exercise, the most common word that came up frequently was “fun!” They all agreed that the exercise was helpful and fun to indulge in instead of embarrassing, painful, or uncomfortable. These answers explain the importance of feedforward and the way it makes the experience of giving and receiving feedback extremely positive and developmental at the same time.
“Wisdom is in changing what can be changed, and possibilities and opportunities lie in the future.”
Feedforward assists people in seeing and focusing on a great future rather than a failing past. Athletes are frequently trained with feedforward. “Look at the road, not the wall,” race car drivers are taught. Basketball players are trained to visualize the ball going through the hoop and the ideal shot. We can boost people’s prospects of future success by providing them with ideas on how to be even more successful.
“Helping people do the right thing can enhance productivity.”
Negative feedback is frequently used as an opportunity to “prove people wrong.” This usually results in defensiveness on the receiver’s part and discomfort on the sender’s part. Even good feedback is frequently perceived negatively since it entails a discussion of flaws, shortcomings, and problems. Feedforward, on the other hand, is virtually always seen positively due to its emphasis on solutions.
“Successful people incline towards feedforward more.”
Successful people appreciate acquiring suggestions that will help them reach their objectives. They are prone to resist negative judgment. We all tend to accept feedback that confirms how we see ourselves. We also have a tendency to reject or suppress feedback that contradicts how we see ourselves. Successful people have extremely good self-images. Many successful CEOs respond to (and even like) feedforward. I doubt that these same folks would have responded so positively to feedback.
“Feedforward does not require personal experience with people as it comes from someone who knows the work.”
One of the most common positive reactions to the previously mentioned exercise is that participants are astounded by how much they may learn from strangers! For example, if you wish to improve your listening skills, almost any other leader can offer suggestions. They don’t have to know who you are. Feedback necessitates knowledge about the individual. Feedforward only requires good ideas for completing the task.
“Feedforward is not as personal as feedback.”
Theoretically, constructive feedback should “focus on the performance rather than the person.” Almost every feedback is handled personally in practice. (no matter how it is delivered). The feeling of identity of successful people is inextricably linked to their employment. The more successful a person is, the more likely this is to be true. It is difficult to provide objective professional feedback that is not taken personally. Feedforward excludes personal criticism as it discusses something that has not yet occurred!
“Feedforward reinforces the possibility of change.”
How many of us have been “assisted” by a spouse, significant other, or acquaintance who appears to have a near-photographic recollection of our previous “sins,” which they share with us in order to highlight the history of our shortcomings? Negative feedback might be utilized to emphasize the idea, “This is just your personality.” The idea behind feed-forward is that people can make beneficial changes in the future.
“People are apprehensive of giving feedback, more so while receiving negative feedback.”
If leaders improved their feedback skills every time the performance appraisal forms were “improved,” most should be flawless by now! Leaders struggle to give and receive negative feedback. This is unlikely to change in the near future.
“Feedforward covers almost everything that falls under feedback.”
Assume you just gave a bad presentation in front of the executive committee. Your manager was also in the room. Instead of forcing you to “relive” this unpleasant experience, your boss assists you to prepare for future presentations by making suggestions. These suggestions might be fairly detailed while remaining positive. In this manner, your manager addresses the same issues without making you feel humiliated.
“Feedforward is much faster and efficient.”
“Here are four ideas for the future,” is an effective strategy for providing ideas to successful people. Please accept them in the spirit that they are provided. Even if you only use two of the suggestions, you are two ahead. Simply disregarding anything does not make sense to you.” Almost no time is wasted judging the quality of the ideas or proving that they are “wrong” with this approach. By removing judgment from the thoughts, the process becomes much more favorable for both the sender and the recipient.
“Feedforward fine-tunes with peers, team members, and managers.”
The term “feedforward” does not imply better judgment. It focuses on being a helpful “fellow traveler” rather than an “expert.” As a result, hearing from someone who is not in a position of power or authority may be simpler. A great team-building exercise is for each team member to ask, “How can I better help our team in the future?” and then listen to feedback from other team members.
“Feedforward is non-threatening.”
When you engage with the other person in a dialogue, there is a scope for conversation by asking more questions and making lesser statements. It gives you an opportunity to understand the intention behind the action they took to reach the end result. It makes it more specific for you to make observations and easier for the other person to receive them. You can suggest to them to keep it in mind for the next time in a forward-looking and positive statement. It reduces the risk that the person will feel threatened by your comment.
Adopting feedforward does not mean abandoning feedback or performance appraisals. The goal is to demonstrate how, in many situations, feedforward is superior to feedback. Aside from its effectiveness and efficiency, feedforward can improve one’s quality of life. When asked, “How did you feel the last time you received feedback?” managers’ most typical responses are negative. When managers are asked how they felt after receiving feedforward, they respond that it is not only useful but also a fun activity!
Jahnvi takes feedforward as an excellent strategy that will allow her to anticipate problems and develop non-aggressive internal communication. She is optimistic that adopting feedforward can help her team not only improve performance and productivity but enhance collaboration and communication with her team.
https://marshallgoldsmith.com/articles/try-feedforward-instead-feedback/
https://www.workhuman.com/blog/feedforward-vs-feedback/
https://horizonpointconsulting.com/blog3/item/feed-your-future-with-feedback-feedforward/
https://gromar.eu/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/grafika_blog_feedback-czy-feedforward_D_04-2018-01.webp
https://brentmullinscoaching.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/habits-9.jpg
Written By: Jimmy Jain
Edited By: Afreen Fatima
Society of Design Thinking Professionals
