In an age where every minute detail in a company is recorded professionally, it is important to take care the aspects one needs to keep in mind while giving a feedback to subordinates. Prof Baba Shiv tells you about the right approach to the art of modern-day assessment policies and procedures
Working with the corporate, entrepreneurial and student teams, it has been found that if one wants to create a culture of innovation, one has to learn how to give productive feedback.
The fastest route to a positive feedback session is to start by asking the people on the hotseat: “What is the dream with this solution or enterpriseIJ” It’s important to keep boring deeper until they arrive at the place where one can feel the emotion in their response. This may be as lofty as some version of “I want to impact the world,” or as personal as “I want to be a successful professional and be able to call my own shots.” But it needs to move from the head to the heart.
Getting them in touch with what is most deeply meaningful to them about their project will make it less likely that they will get defensive later. It sends the signal that one is on their side, and that allows them to frame the comments that one may make as being helpful rather than criticism.
The bottom line is that when people are putting their ideas out there, one needs to establish safety if one want them to stay on the innovative track. WhyIJ Behavioural science shows that when people are stressed, their brain sends them on a beeline toward seeking comfort. This is not the time when they will be open to creative thinking; rather, they will be shutting down and sticking to the tried-and-true. They simply won’t be able to think expansively.
In contrast, if one takes the stress out of the situation, they can flip over to the other major neural pathway: The one that moves them from boredom to excitement. That’s the groove one wants to get them on when one is critiquing their work. When people are calm and not stressed, they’re better able to see critique as an exciting challenge rather than a failure. They get motivated to make their ideas even better.
This is why one unconventional but effective means of giving feedback is to take the person or team on a walk and simply share the thoughts more informally. Walking releases a precursor to serotonin, the neuro-chemical that puts the brain in a state of calm and well-being. Serotonin levels are also highest in the morning, so that’s the best time to set up such meetings, be they outdoors or in the conference room.
When people are in the “challenge” rather than “failure” mindset, they become like children playing a videogame: 80 per cent of the time they’re not able to find a solution, but when they do, the hugely emotional that comes along with it can become addicting. This is why Steve Jobs was able to elicit creative thinking from his people despite the fact that he was extremely sharp, and sometimes unpleasant, in his feedback style. People became addicted to the rush that would happen when they’d meet with his approval. The desire for that emotional reward kept them in the game.
Sometimes the problem is that people are so excited about their ideas that they become blinded to the seriousness of the problems being pointed out. In that case, use the technique pre-mortem. Unlike a post-mortem, in which one dissects why something has failed, with a pre-mortem, ask the person or team to gaze into the crystal ball two years from now, when the venture has failed, and ask them to think creatively about what could have given rise to that.
In this exercise, it has been found that they identify the cause of failure to be related to the professional (or sometimes personal) shortcomings of one or two people on the team, rather than outside issues like strategy or money. Normally these trickier issues don’t see the light of day. But in this lower-stakes hypothetical forum, they’re more likely to emerge as opportunities for change.
The next phase is to ask the person or team to solve the problems that led to the failure. This allows the meeting to end on a positive note. It’s critical to realise that when the brain goes through an experience that spans time and has many ups and downs, it’s the last event that sets the tone for how the entire experience is viewed.
Think about the last time when one went on vacation. There may have been happy situations like getting bumped up to first class, or irritating events like losing boarding passes, having to wait in line, and so forth. In the end, however, if one got home safely all those memories became humorous experiences one can talk about them with friends. If the culminating event was something unpleasant, however, the whole experience was probably soured. So be sure to conclude the feedback session by reframing problems as challenges, and by affirming that the experience has been constructive.
(The writer is director of the strategic marketing management executive programme at StanfordUniversity)