This is the second part of the 3 part series on Transformation Feedback
Part 1 – Transformational Feedback: Taking the next step to the 21st-century culture
Part 2 – A what culture?
Part 3 – Transformational Feedback
A What Culture?
We all know the importance of open communication and feedback, like the well-known “Hot and Cold game” we used to play as kids, feedback makes sure we start walking on the right path and continue progressing on the right track, avoiding major mistakes and pitfalls, while creating open and transparent communication between managers and employees so that everyone is more engaged and involved. Feedback also supports the development and performance of both managers and employees, as without feedback; it is next to impossible to grow. It is important to understand that feedback is not merely the process of giving and receiving corrective information; it is about creating a deeper relationship of openness between people, allowing yourself and others to make mistakes and own these mistakes as part of a bigger learning process. Researcher and author Brené Brown writes: “People are desperate for feedback—we all want to grow. We just need to learn how to give feedback in a way that inspires growth and engagement” (Brown, 2012).
While clearly feedback and open communication is good for the development of employees and managers, a recent poll (Interact, 2016 & Solomon, 2016) shows that 69% of managers feel uncomfortable communicating with their employees and 37% report being uncomfortable giving feedback/criticism to their employees that may respond badly to it. At the same time, 63% of 575 employees claimed that one of their top challenges is their managers’ lack of courage to have difficult performance discussions with them (WorldatWork, 2010) and a 2014 poll found that 57% of the respondents preferred to be given negative/corrective feedback rather than praise/recognition, and fully 72% claimed that corrective feedback was most helpful in improving their careers while a whopping 92% agreed with the comment “Negative feedback, if delivered appropriately, is effective at improving performance”(Zenger & Folkman, 2014).
Additionally, while many employees avoid giving negative feedback to their managers, a very recent study shows that receiving negative feedback from employees can benefit the mangers by inducing a higher level of creativity (Meeker & Kim, 2020).
The dark side of feedback
Contrary to the research and poll findings above, an epic meta-analysis study of 23,663 observations found that although feedback interventions improve performance on average, 38% of the feedback receivers actually exhibit reduced overall performance. The researchers stated that “feedback interventions are double-edged swords…because [they] do not always increase performance and under certain conditions are detrimental to performance”(Kluger & DeNisi, 1996). Additionally, a (yet unpublished) four-year research shows that when employees face negative feedback, they reshape their work network to distance themselves from negative-feedback givers while drawing the positive feedbackers nearer (Green et al.,2017). Furthermore, feedback in the form of 360 evaluations has shown to be ineffective and has recently been discarded in many large organizations altogether (Ashby F. et al., 1999; R. Boyatzis et al., 2019; R. E. Boyatzis et al., 2013). Similarly, feedback that is tightly coupled with benefits such as compensations, bonuses, and promotions is ineffective and does not lead to employee improvement (Brett & Atwater, 2001; Goodall & Buckingham, 2019; Kluger & DeNisi, 1996).
Furthermore, a comparative 360 evaluation has been demonstrated to drive even learning-oriented employees into a performance-oriented state, thus, potentially, reducing learning and creativity in the organization. In their (soon to be published) book Reed Hastings, CEO of Netflix, and Prof. Erin Meyer write that tying performance reviews to a monetary bonus leads to lack of innovation, as the “bonus system is based on the premise that you can reliably predict the future, and that you can set an objective at any given moment that will continue to be important down the road.” (Hastings & Meyer, 2020) Therefore any fixed set of goals that managers use to evaluate and give feedback to their employees is only based on what used to be considered a good measure, but not on what a good measure could be today or tomorrow.
Mapping the inner minefield of feedback
Let’s just come out and say it: feedback is good for us, but at the same time, it goes against our very nature to give and receive it. This is because feedback brings together two issues that we care about at the same time: learning and social acceptance. While we would love to learn, grow, and develop, we must first, according to Maslow’s famous pyramid, have our basic needs met: our Physiological needs, as well as our Safety and Belongingness. However, feedback, and especially negative or critical feedback, is a blow to the ego, making the receiving end feel like he is being rejected, not accepted, and not loved as he or she is. Recent research in the field of social neuroscience shows that when this basic psychological need for safety, belongingness and acceptance is shattered, the body reacts by labeling the feedback as a threat and reacts by activating the sympathetic nervous systems as a stress response to either close-down or reject the new information in order to protect the receiver (Alamsjah, 2011; Besson & Mahieu, 2011).
Transformational Feedback
If feedback could be so important for employee development on the one hand yet so detrimental for that same development on the other, which way should we choose?
It turns out that there is a third path, that we will call here “Transformational Feedback” (TF). Transformational feedback is based on the same qualities and strengths of feedback while creating a new path to avoid some of the pitfalls and shortcomings of the current feedback methods that prevent it from being a useful employee development tool. By definition, Transformational Feedback emphasizes the final goal of the process of feedback: that is; Employee Transformation.
As we have demonstrated above, the problem with feedback is not the feedback itself (although we can improve this process too, as we will demonstrate shortly) but the environment in which the feedback is given and being received. Before being excellent workers and managers, we are first and foremost human beings, and as such, we must first cater to our most basic human needs in order to be able to rip the benefits of our full capacities. While, as we have shown earlier, many employees yearn for feedback (Brown, 2012; Zenger & Folkman, 2014) their greater need and desire is to first have Safety and validation. When there is Safety, when there is validation, when there is an atmosphere of growth and learning; Feedback, any feedback, could more easily be received, accepted, learned from, and made use of in a constructive manner. Brené Brown writes: “When our self-worth isn’t on the line, we are far more willing to be courageous and risk sharing our raw talents and gifts. It’s clear that [these] cultures nurture folks who are much more open to soliciting, accepting, and incorporating feedback”. Therefore, when we discuss the concept of Transformational Feedback, we are talking about a feedback process that is based on Validation, and the Safety to Learn (VSL) as the basis for openly giving and receiving feedback.
In the third and last part of this article we will discuss the rules and outlines of how to use Transformational Feedback in your team
The Next Article is: Transformational Feedback – What are the rules?
