L
LEARNING
adjustments and corrections, but it’s not always easy
to see or make the right adjustments without external
perspective. As the psychological model the Johari
Window outlines, each of us has a number of blind spots
about how we behave at work that can be frustratingly
elusive to us, but painfully obvious to our colleagues.
That’s why feedback remains so important and so
sought after. And that’s why it’s so important that it’s
properly delivered.
In their book, Buckingham and Goodall highlight
research from Gallup that asked a sample of US workers
whether their managers paid most attention to their
strengths, their weaknesses, or to neither, and followed
up to measure how engaged each employee was.
Unsurprisingly, the starkest disengagement was
found among those employees largely ignored by their
managers. Even where managers were focused on
fixing their people’s weaknesses, the ratio of engaged
to disengaged was two to one. But, for employees given
mainly positive attention, that ratio jumped to 60 to one:
30 times more powerful than the negative attention.
W
ith engagement a sure-fire indicator of
performance, it seems logical that a focus
on positive reinforcement, on strengths, is
also a certain way to maximise people’s
ability to learn and grow. Neuroscience is also a useful
guide here. Research by organisational theorist Richard
Boyatzis has shown that negative feedback tends to
stimulate our sympathetic nervous system, triggering
a ‘fight or flight’ response which shuts down all but
the most essential of the brain’s functions — hardly a
Putting the positive first:
Pendleton’s Rules of Feedback
Originally developed in the 1980s as a means of giving
feedback in medical education, Pendleton’s Rules are
also used more widely as a guideline for delivering
feedback which focuses both on achievements and what
could be done differently. They start with the positive,
and assume the person receiving the feedback is an
active participant in the process.
1 Check the learner wants and is ready for feedback.
2 L
et the learner give comments/background to the
material that is being assessed.
3 The learner states what was done well.
4 The observer(s) state what was done well.
5 The learner states what could be improved.
6 The observer(s) state how it could be improved.
7 An action plan for improvement is made.
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