Thanks for the Feedback: The Science and Art of Receiving Feedback Well

by Douglas Stone

Jane found a way to bring the internal voices of the committee members—their fears and concerns—into the room, so they could be weighed and assessed. When you do this, it could be that the drawbacks do outweigh the benefits, but at least people can now evaluate the real choices involved. We aren’t choosing between this and some fantasy plan yet to be discovered; we’re choosing between this plan and other comparable plans that have both benefits and drawbacks. In general, when selecting or implementing an organizational system, HR and senior leaders should provide the following to employees at all levels of the organization: Clarification of the various goals of the system; An explanation of why this system was chosen over other systems; Transparency about potential costs as well as benefits; A description of the costs of half-hearted participation; and An invitation for ongoing discussion, suggestions, and feedback. When handling complaints or concerns about the system, make sure to listen and acknowledge. Ask for specific suggestions that might improve the system. If you decide to reject an idea that’s been proposed, it’s crucial to explain why: “We discussed it at length. It fixes this problem over here, but creates this other problem over there. On balance, we decided not to implement it.” If you don’t explain why, people assume you didn’t fully understand the benefits of their suggestions, were just going through the motions of asking for input, or don’t care about the...