Effective Feedback
Rose, Bud, Thorn
With this framework, you work with a person’s psychology to support them in receiving feedback. This framework can be used for both 1:1 feedback sessions or as a process for a team to share feedback and improve a project, program, or process.
Rose: What worked? What did you love? What brought you energy? What went well or did a specific person do well?
Thorn: What created pain points? What diminished your energy? What didn’t work?
Bud: Ideas for what to improve for next time. What would you want to try differently? What is a new idea you want to have considered?
Sometimes it falls on one person to always be the cheerleader while another person typically jumps to what isn’t going to work. A framework like Rose Thorn Bud provides everyone on the team an opportunity to share what worked, what didn’t, and what they want to do differently.
De Bono’s 6 Hats for Idea Evaluation
At its core, this model uses 6 colored “thinking hats” to help team members represent one of 6 ways to challenge their thinking. You can use this model with everyone in the group wearing the same color hat for a specific time. You can also assign hats and have different team members represent a particular perspective for the meeting. In general, to get the most benefit for any mode of thinking, use the hats for a specified time.
The Blue Hat: Process. The blue hat focuses on the meeting process and serves to keep everyone accountable to the agreements about how the meeting should run.
The White Hat: Facts. The white hat focuses on getting to the truth. What information is already available? What information is missing? This is the time to question assumptions and ground in facts.
The Red Hat: Feelings. The red hat provides space for a gut check. What does your intuition say? What do you feel when you think about this idea?
The Yellow Hat: Optimistic. The yellow hat is a chance to think about all the benefits of the idea. What happens if everything goes well?
The Black Hat: Pessimistic. The black hat provides a container to think about everything that could go wrong. What are the drawbacks of this idea? What are the risks.
The Green Hat: New Ideas. The green hat is an opportunity to synthesize everything that came before and explore new ideas that address the concerns, strengthen the positives, and identify additional information or resources needed to move forward.
10/10/10 Feedback Mechanism
The 10/10/10 feedback framework is an adaptation of compassionate listening exercises used to support people in a relationship to increase their trust and connection. One of the biggest challenges with feedback is its relationship to power dynamics. It is difficult for someone in a low power position to bear the burden of speaking up and initiating a conversation to share what is not working. Similarly, for leaders, there can be strong hesitancy to raise concerns or deliver feedback that feels like criticism. According to a Harris Poll, including 616 managers, “Over a third (37%) of the managers said that they’re uncomfortable having to give direct feedback about their employees’ performance if they think the employee might respond negatively to the feedback.”
To use the 10/10/10 framework:
Schedule a 30 minute recurring weekly 1:1 meeting between supervisor and team member
For the first 10 minutes, the person in the lower power position shares any feedback about what is not working, including their challenges, frustrations, or barriers to achieving success at work.
For the second 10 minutes, the person in the higher power position DOES NOT RESPOND to what was previously shared; they simply share their experiences of any challenges, frustrations, and barriers they perceive regarding the team's success.
While each person is sharing, the other person is practicing compassionate listening, including pausing judgment, not taking things personally, and keeping an open mind to understand the other person's experience.
For the final 10 minutes, the pair works together to see how they can best support each other. The other person may need to feel heard and understood. Other times there are productivity or process improvements that can address the concerns. If there is a larger team dynamic to handle, you may need follow-up conversations with the broader team or another subset of colleagues.
The 10/10/10 framework builds on a few fundamental principles:
Have a set recurring time dedicated to mutual feedback relieves some of the power imbalance and pressure associated with feedback.
Meet weekly to ensure you discuss feedback and address it when fresh to prevent festering and negative feedback cascades.
Have equal time for each party to share any concerns or challenges to balance power dynamics.
When done frequently, it is not uncommon for this process to focus more on optimization and norm adjustments, as challenges do not have the time and space to grow into full-blown conflict.