Give and ask for honest feedback as part of the work
Treat honest feedback, including upward feedback (feedback you give to someone above you in the hierarchy), as part of the job, and ask for it on purpose.
Why it works
The SSIR excerpt names, among the deep assumptions that run through all the DDOs it studied, ways of helping people get the most out of giving and receiving feedback and coaching. A secondary summary of the book reports that in these companies honest and open feedback is treated as a duty, including upward feedback to senior colleagues, and that critical feedback is seen as an opportunity to grow.
How to do it
- Ask one colleague this week for one specific piece of feedback on something you did.
- Give one colleague one specific, honest observation about their work, and say what you saw.
- If you report to someone, ask them what you could do differently in the next month.
- Keep feedback about the work, not about the person, and listen to critical feedback without arguing with it in the moment.
Evidence
The design assumption about feedback and coaching appears in the SSIR excerpt of the book. The duty to give honest feedback, including upward, and the framing of critical feedback as growth come from the Mind Tools summary, which is secondary. (anecdotal)
The sources describe feedback as part of a culture designed around it. They do not measure feedback quality or its effect on performance.
Sources
- Kegan, R., & Lahey, L. L. (2016, April 6). An Everyone Culture: Becoming a Deliberately Developmental Organization [excerpt]. Stanford Social Innovation Review.
- Mind Tools. An Everyone Culture: Becoming a Deliberately Developmental Organization [secondary summary of the book].
Common mistake
Giving feedback about the person rather than the work, or asking for feedback in a way that only invites reassurance.
Practice this with IX Coach
More practices for The Deliberately Developmental Organization, Explained
- Let colleagues see the weakness you are covering
Name one weakness you usually keep out of view to someone whose help you need, then let them respond to it.
- Check whether the room is safe before you disclose
Share a smaller admission first, and watch how the person responds before you share something that feels risky.
- Make growth part of the work, not an extra program
Set a development goal inside a task you already have, instead of adding a course or coach beside the work.
- Open the meeting with a round of check-ins
Start a team meeting by having each person say what is on their mind, how they feel, or what they are working on, before any agenda item.
- Keep a written log of your mistakes, alone
Record each failure or problem you notice, in writing and in plain terms, so its causes can be traced later.
Related concepts
- The Immunity to Change Process, Step by Step
Why a change you truly want keeps not happening, and the step-by-step way Kegan and Lahey take it apart
- Kegan’s Subject-Object Theory, Made Practical
Moving from being run by your assumptions to being able to examine them
- Adaptive Leadership, Made Practical
Distinguishing adaptive challenges from technical problems — and leading accordingly
- Vertical Development Practices: How Adults Grow, Not Just Add Skills
Heat, colliding perspectives, and sense-making — and what the research can and cannot promise
- Torbert’s Seven Action Logics of Leadership
Seven ways leaders make sense of pressure, how common each is, and how to work with your own
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