Giving feedback is one of the most common ways to help someone else develop their personal development. At Summiteers, they do it slightly differently — advisor Luc Beurskens explains how.

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When we get started with our personal development, we often focus on the past: “Just have a feedback conversation.” We look back (often obligatorily — because it has to be done by HR) to identify what we didn't do and where we could have done things better.

Two things often happen: (1) We don't dwell on “how things could be better”, even though that's exactly what you can get started with in concrete terms. (2) The feedback recipient is so “on the defensive” that any suggestions about how things could be better are no longer heard.

So not effective. Can that be done differently? Inside Summaries we know that's possible. That's why we make frequent use of feedforward. You can see Feedforward as feedback's cheerful brother. Both are about discussing behavior, but where feedback looks to the past and is not “actionable”, feedforward is forward-looking and can be deployed immediately.

Feedforward gives you behavioral options that you can use to be more successful in the future. You choose a development goal and give each other concrete and preferably small (behavioral) suggestions that you can get started with immediately.

It's aimed at getting even better, so we're open to it. Where people are often critical of feedback (“I'm successful, right?”) we see that people are almost always open to tips on how to become even more successful.‍

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Feedforward, how does that work?

Discussing the learning objective

‍Consider what behavior you would like to show or unlearn. Formulate a learning goal here and share it with your interlocutor to sharpen it together. Tip: don't make the learning goal too big, rather concrete and small. Well: in a meeting, I would like to learn better how to apply silences. Not: I want to be a better manager.

Giving suggestions

‍Strangely enough, really anyone can give you suggestions. So even people who don't know you at all or only know you a little bit. Tell your learning goal and ask your interlocutor for concrete suggestions, from very broad to very specific, everything is welcome! Tip for the giver: go for volume! The more, the better. The recipient can choose which one will ultimately apply it.

Receiving suggestions

‍Record these suggestions accurately. Thank you for giving us the suggestions and refrain from making a judgmental response (positive or negative). Tip: Above all, listen very carefully and only ask questions for clarification, 'that's a good tip' is also an opinion.

Reciprocal — turn the tables

‍Ask your interlocutor if she/he also has a learning goal where you could give suggestions. If yes, turn the roles around. Tip: Of course, it helps if your interlocutor knows you're going to ask this question before the conversation.

Selecting suggestions and communicating to your environment

‍After the conversations, select the suggestions that suit you, which you would like to work on in the near future. Then write your learning goal and those suggestions in an email and send it to the people you work with a lot. Tip: commit yourself in that email. I want to show this behavior in the near future and talk to me if you see me do it or if I don't do it.

Follow up

Discuss this frequently with your environment and keep confronting yourself with the suggestions you've selected. Tip: This requires discipline. Announce to your environment that you want to talk to them about this, ask for help and plan it immediately (stick behind the door).

When you start working with feedforward, it is important to formulate your suggestions in such a way that it motivates the recipient to get started. Inspire the recipient! For example, think about people you know who are actually very good at mastering the learning objective. What do they do exactly? Tell a story and make it visual.

Do you want to develop yourself and become even more successful in certain topics? The best time to get started is now! Ask yourself what you'd like to get better at. Talk to your environment about that. Concretize this into a clear learning goal that you want to receive feedback on and ask people in your area to work with you!