How do you create a safe space for feedback in your team?

Feedback is often subjective, so be mindful of the feedback you offer. Do your best to make feedback positive and light - not negative and heavy. Remember to be kind.

When asking for feedback, I have found it more effective to frame it as "asking for advice". This approach treats team members respectfully, disarms the risk of sounding critical, and puts both feedback giver and receiver on the same side of the table in solving a problem jointly.

Look for ways to... 1) agree to make it safe for feedback to occur, 2) build trust by talking about feedback, and 3) build integrity by treating it with intentionality and care.

Ensuring feedback is seen as a growth tool, not a criticism, is critical to fostering a constructive culture. Start by creating a shared understanding that feedback is about development, aligning with team goals, and enhancing performance. Ground rules, such as giving specific, timely, and respectful feedback, should be set and strictly followed. Opening a dialogue about individual feedback preferences cultivates a culture of trust, ensuring feedback becomes a catalyst for continuous improvement and team success.

When I'm do trainings on giving feedback, I use Applied Improv activities to show how important it is to have ongoing feedback conversations, and to celebrate failure (say wha???) - when you create a space in which people know it's safe to report undesirable outcomes - not only safe, but encouraged and welcomed!- you build trust, encourage creativity, and help make your people and your products/services better!

Share “hero stories” about people who shared feedback that had a big positive impact on your organization. The more difficult the feedback was to give or receive, the better. The more personal to you, the better. The bigger the gap in levels in the organizational chart between the feedback giver and the feedback receiver, the better.

Leadership shapes the feedback culture within a team. Embrace feedback as a tool for personal growth and improvement. Regularly seek and graciously accept feedback, highlighting its role in your own development. This openness will inspire your team to do the same. Ensure your own feedback is constructive and balanced, focusing not only on areas of improvement but also on acknowledging strengths. This practice fosters an environment of learning, trust, and continuous improvement.

As humans, when people give us feedback that may not agree with our initial view, we need to embrace different points of view and open our mind to learning and seeing things from a different perspective. By embracing feedback; both positive and negative, we carve a path for growth of the business and our team, as well as our own personal growth.

An example of this is after a team meeting or group presentation, ask someone how they thought it went. This is a simple way to demonstrate being open to feedback, and making it safe for others to do the same.

This is the #1 key to creating a safe space in my view. As a leader, ask for feedback, express gratitude for it, and act on it. Make this an ongoing habit and not a one time thing. Tell your colleagues that learning through feedback is something you value and a key to your success. Then invite your team to make it a key to their success as well. Model first and consistently. Then ask others to follow.

Feedback can be a gift if (done properly). Here's how: 1. Make sure it goes both ways (not just down) 2. Don't make it weird. 3. Ask for it regularly. 4. Give it often. Leaders, ask your direct reports these questions. 1. What are 2 things that I'm doing well. 2. What are 2 things that you want me to improve? When giving feedback make sure it's: 1. Clear. 2. Timely. 3. Specific. 4. Actionable (stuff they can use) This requires practice.

Feedback works best if it is part of day to day functioning. Train your team to always be asking what's working, what isn't and what needs to change going forward. If this is new, start off with an end of the day review and encourage everyone to come in the next day with fresh ideas of how to make things better. Keep it brief and forward focused so that there is no wasted energy and time on what hasn't gone well.Start incorporating feedback into every meeting - limit to only a few minutes.

There are several ways feedback engagement can be executed and enhanced. The first step is to provide a safe space environment where members and employees do not fear reprisal for sharing their experiences and offering constructive feedback. This process can be done internally or facilitated by external leadership and organizational development consultants. Secondly, feedback and challenges of existing problems and flaws should be encouraged and welcomed by organizations, not seem as threats or disloyalty. There are several ways in which that feedback can be given outside of the typical anonymous survey, which can be more harmful than helpful. These include measurements such as the OCAI, STRAT assessment, and others.

During the development of an application, we provided an opportunity for the entire office to use and test it and share their feedback. This approach helped us to obtain constructive and unbiased opinions about the application's functionality. Moreover, it created an environment of discussion and appreciation for feedback among colleagues, encouraging constructive criticism and ultimately helping us to improve the application.

Feedback is one tool to use in a culture of learning and improvement. For it to be in a safe space, the leaders must have the trust of their teammates that feedback is going to be used to move the organization forward, and not used to hold people back. The trust and the space may not happen quickly, but it’s a common goal that can be worked towards collectively and productively.

Here are some further ideas that can help get more innovative feedback participation that helps with implementation: 1. People need to feel "heard" - this means they know their feedback will be taken in stride. 2. Pave the way for ideas to be shared at multiple intervals. 3. Make it easy for feedback to be open, honest and make it clear no one is "punished" for sharing different ideas

The more changes that are going inside your organization, the more timely you need to receive feedback. In order for people to give feedback candidly, you need to develop a culture where feedback is taken into consideration and valued Never get defensive, and understand that you may need to push ego aside and sometimes you may need to realize the problem is you and you may need to make changes yourself.

Após realizar ajustes e correções, motive a equipe elogiando acertos, e incentivando correções, assim será aberto um espaço para que a equipe tenha confiança em si mesma e no seu líder.

To effectively seek and benefit from feedback, following few approaches could help: Embrace Openness and Transparency: Approach feedback with an open mind and be honest with yourself. Engage in 360-Degree Feedback: Solicit input from a diverse range of stakeholders, ensuring you get a comprehensive perspective rather than limiting to selected individuals. Maintain Consistency: Regularly seek feedback to track progress and make continuous improvements. Express Gratitude: Show appreciation for the feedback provided. If you agree, acknowledge it and take actionable steps to implement the suggestions.

The path to constructive feedback can be fraught with challenges like resistance or overload. To navigate, a leader must equip themselves with adaptable strategies. Empathetic listening can reduce resistance; setting clear expectations can eliminate inconsistencies; prioritizing feedback can prevent overload; diversifying sources can mitigate biases; and effective mediation can resolve conflicts. By fostering a culture where feedback is safe, respected, and beneficial, leaders can enhance performance, collaboration, and mutual growth.

Your team is always looking at the way that you handle feedback and ideas that are different from your perspective. When you shut down conversation or react in a harsh manner, they immediately learn that it is not safe to share, brainstorm, or suggest new ideas. It is the quickest way to silence your team and make them feel that feedback is not welcomed or supported. This often leads to quiet meetings where people don’t trust the space to innovate or think outside the box.

Remember leadership is a didactic and relational process and feedback is necessary in that process and should be accompanied by self reflection. The reflection is necessary to separate truths versus distortion, but also to help improve leadership aptitude and competencies held therein. Also having objectionable scales of measurement helps to reduce the inherent bias and chances for faulty feedback. Furthermore, leaders must understand that regardless of how great or effective they be as a leader everyone may not have the best opinions. Incumbent to this point is the challenges presented in the feedback that may cause for challenges in leadership styles and organizational systems . It is critical to know what elements you can &cannot change

Sometimes, when we receive feedback, we take it personally and turn it into a criticism of ourselves. For example, when someone says that an asset isn't working well, we might interpret it as them saying that we're bad designers. Or when a colleague says they felt unsupported by us, we might think they're saying we're terrible co-workers. It's important to remember that feedback is about our behaviour and not a reflection of our character. We should be aware of this tendency when we receive feedback and not let it affect us too much. We should also remember that despite areas for improvement, we still need to improve at our jobs. We should take feedback as an opportunity to converse and improve ourselves.

Since this conversation is happening in 2023; it won't be the same as 2015. Today's leader and the recipient have both witnessed volatile times and the uncertainty of the future makes it a perfect opportunity to have the conversations a “feedforward” ( keeping the future in context ) rather than “Feedback” ( keeping what has happened in the past as the only context.) A leader who can coach will be able to blend both and leave the person with “insights” to think differently rather than “telling him” what to fix. I am sharing this from my own experience with leaders who adopt “coaching” in their leadership style

I feel like we missed an obvious answer: JUST ASK THEM. Ask your team what does safety in action feel likw for them. That includes physical space, communication, tone, feedback, ideation/creativity, etc.

Learner safety satisfies the basic human need to learn and grow. It allows us to feel safe as we engage in all aspects of the learning process — asking questions, giving and receiving feedback, experimenting, and even making mistakes, not if but when we make them. Some ways to cultivate learner safety are: -Helping people 1:1 in their own space -Assess the learning style and temperament of each team member -Develop learning opportunities that use different ways of learning -Don’t create a culture that emphasizes learning as punishment or reward for the elite - instead it should be a part of everyday culture -Share what you learn generously -Share past mistakes -Celebrate failures -Remove learning obstacles -Embrace all feedback

I remember what feedback meant when I was in medical training. It often went like this, "You just don't have what it takes to be a surgeon." Or, "The problem with you is you just can't put your facts together." Needless to say, I did not find this very motivating but did find it deflating. Now, I receive feedback from mentor coaches that integrate all the points above and I find myself seeking it out.

In addition to fostering a culture where people feel safe giving their feedback and being completely open and honest, when getting feedback from your team it is important to analyze the data from the feedback and look for patterns. If you see a pattern you need to address it. Meet with the team and explain what you see as the "pattern" and how you are going to fix it, OR if you can not fix it- acknowledge it and explain why the fix cannot be made. By addressing the feedback you make people feel seen and heard.