Feedback For Learning

Feedback for learning

Feedback that is accurate and badly delivered produces defence rather than change. Effective feedback is specific, timely, about the work, and paired with what to do next.

Method

1. Be specific about the work. This function does two things and the name says one is actionable; this is unclear is not (see giving-feedback).
2. Deliver it close to the action. Feedback arriving weeks later cannot be connected to the decisions that produced the work.
3. Separate the observation from the judgement. What you saw, then its effect, then the suggestion, which keeps it discussable rather than a verdict.
4. Give one or two things to change. A long list is overwhelming and produces no change; the most important thing produces one.
5. Explain the reasoning. Feedback with a why transfers judgement, where a rule transfers only compliance (see mentoring-engineers).
6. Ask before telling where the learner can find it. A question that leads them to the problem teaches more than the answer does.
7. Follow up on whether it helped. Feedback nobody checks is advice, and the follow-up is what makes it coaching.

Boundaries

Feedback requires enough trust to be heard, which precedes technique. Feedback on people rather than work damages the relationship and changes nothing. Performance conversations with employment consequences are a different activity with different rules (see agent-people-ops-desk).