How do you practise feedback?

Feedback is a skill, just like playing an instrument or learning a new language. The more you practise it, the better you get, and the easier it becomes. The more intentional you are about practising, the more powerful and impactful it can be. But here’s the challenge: feedback is opportunistic. It often presents itself in situations that are important and out of our control. If these moments are the only opportunities we have to practise, it’s no wonder we can feel awkward and underprepared.

Imagine trying to learn to play the piano, but you could only practise when you’re on stage, in front of an audience, and you didn’t get to choose the moment. How’s that going to go? It would be incredibly stressful, with stakes too high to truly experiment, fail, and learn. Most of us would freeze up, dread playing, and probably avoid it altogether. Sound familiar? Feedback, whether giving or receiving, often feels the same way.

What we need is the ability to practise feedback in an environment where failure is safe. To learn, experiment, and refine our skills without any pressure.

The Solution: We’ve Created Tools to Help, and We Want to Give Them to You!

This is where we come in. It’s our mission to make the world of feedback better. So we’ve created tools to help you practise and even have fun doing it! In this series of posts, we’ll introduce them starting with our Feedback Scenario Cards. They’re designed to simulate real-world feedback situations across different domains. The next few posts in this series will each focus on a domain, giving you the cards and everything you need to start practising.

To begin, we’re diving into a big one: Performance.

Performance Feedback: Elevating Professional Growth

If you want to be brilliant at what you do, performance feedback is critical. It helps us understand how well we’re doing, where we’re excelling, and where we are not. Without this feedback we can be left guessing or second guessing about how to develop skills or meet expectations.

It can be tricky though, as it requires courage to have some often tough conversations. For both the giver and receiver, the stakes feel high. Yet, when done well, performance feedback can be a principal source of growth and a catalyst for extraordinary relationships.

How to practise with these cards?

Each card contains a real-world feedback scenario that establishes some context for the giver and receiver. These cards refer to [SOMETHING] which allows us to use our imagination to expand the scenario. Lastly they all have a spice meter at the bottom, which confers a level of difficulty. 1 being quite mild, 3 being rather spicy.

Here’s how to use them:

Alone

Pick a card and imagine you’re the [GIVER] in that scenario. How would you go about it? Write down your approach, considering both the content and the delivery. Reflect, are you clear, respectful, and constructive? Find a mirror and practice giving it to your reflection. For bonus points use your laptop camera and record it. How was it, how did it come across? Reframe your perspective to the receiver. How did it make you feel? What are you curious about now? Find one thing to tweak or change and try again. Pick another scenario and try again. Doing this regularly will help you develop a feedback style that is both effective and compassionate.

In small groups

Find colleagues or friends keen to get better at feedback. One of you plays the [GIVER], and another the [RECEIVER], everybody else observes. Act out the scenario, have fun with it! Choose wild and silly things for the [SOMETHINGS]. To begin, stand apart and [GIVER]? approach [RECEIVER] to offer feedback. Use your best skills, approaches and techniques. Observers listen to the words that are and watch their body language. After each role-play, discuss what worked, what didn’t, and how the feedback could be improved. Take note of the brilliant things that others do and try them out for yourselves. Change roles, scenarios and go again.?

In big groups

The method for small groups (above) can be scaled to big groups, simply divide into triads and add additional rounds of reflection to share back to the group. Keep a chart of those brilliant things so that everyone can find something new to experiment with.?

Alternatively you use them in an improv theatre. In this you will have a [GIVER], [RECEIVER] and a director. Everyone else is an observer. The role of the director is to stop, start and restart the play taking regular opportunities to explore insight from the players and observers. Switch players and scenarios when the time is right and remember to keep it fun, light and to celebrate the performance.

Make it a routine

Make feedback practise a part of your daily routine. Choose one card each day and think about how you would handle the situation. Reflect on similar scenarios you’ve faced and how you managed them. Did you miss an opportunity to give constructive feedback? How could you improve next time? Say the words out loud, etc. Practice is best when done little and often.

Keep a journal

After using the cards, journal your reflections. What did you learn from practising this feedback scenario? What experiments did you try? How did they go? What areas do you want to improve? Keeping track of these things really helps reinforce your learning over time.

Putting It Into Practice

Feedback is a skill that can transform not just you but entire teams and organisations. The more you practise, the better you’ll get, and the more rewarding the process will become. Whether you’re reflecting on your own or working with a team, the key is to approach feedback with openness, kindness, and a willingness to learn.

So, print the cards, cut them out, pick a scenario, and start practising! You’ll be amazed at the progress you make.

Noel Warnell and I will be sharing weekly insights, images and tools to support giving and receiving feedback over the coming weeks.

#masteringfeedback