Lesson Learned #25
So here is a Lessons Learned we picked up on the fly recently. Below is a pretty fair representation of an exchange between a partner and a senior manager at a casual project dinner:
Partner: “So how do you like the Lessons Learned series so far?”
Senior manager (after a slightly awkward pause): “They are pretty good.”
Partner: “Your hesitation suggests you’re not a big fan. What don’t you like about them?”
Senior manager: “I find them a little ‘salesy’.”
Partner: “Salesy? The whole point of them is that they aren’t ‘salesy’ at all. Are you even reading them?”
Senior manager: “Hey, you asked for the feedback.”
Therein lies the problem with feedback. It can be quite powerful to drive performance improvement, but it’s often either a one-way exchange or a cloaked way of looking for positive reinforcement or recognition. Most managers come to realize that it’s not effective to give someone feedback if the person doesn’t want it. Social and organizational power imbalances also make feedback a difficult tool to use effectively, which is one of the reasons 360-degree feedback programs often fail to live up to expectations. It’s simply very difficult giving feedback to someone who has some degree of control over your compensation or employment.
If you want feedback for the intent of actually trying to improve something, there needs to be an open and honest exchange of ideas about what is good and not so good. You need a lot of clarity of intent and organizational trust for it to be effective as a performance-improvement tool.
