How to Give Actionable Feedback - Impraise

Learn how to give actionable feedback to your colleagues or manager. This video will help you to formulate feedback well and help the receiver to act on it.

Intro:

Feedback is most useful when it is formulated in an actionable way that helps your team mate. Telling someone they did a “good job” or “great work” doesn’t give them valuable information about their performance or how they can improve.

Look at actionable feedback as a 4 step process of describing: the Situation, the Behavior, the Impact and the Next steps. You can use this format for giving positive feedback as well as constructive feedback.

First, you want to specify the situation on which you give feedback. Give the receiver a point in time or specific circumstances to relate to. For instance: “during the team meeting yesterday afternoon”

Then you follow up with an objective description of the behavior. Think of the action and base your feedback on observations and facts, rather than judgments. State clearly what your colleague has done. This can be something like: “I noticed that cut me off a few times, because you seemed very excited about the topic.”

Then, you make your feedback stronger by describing the direct impact it had on you. Describe what it did to you, how you felt after the behavior. This can for example be: “When you did that, I felt uncomfortable and hesitated to contribute more to the discussion.”

Finally, offer your colleague the next step. Make a suggestion how to improve next time. For instance: “Next time you could be a bit more patient and try to actively listen before you cut me off. This will allow you to better understand what I exactly mean and gives me the chance to contribute to the discussion.”

So the formula is: Situation - Behavior - Impact - Next