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Writer's pictureAndrew J Calvert

Ask for feedforward, not feedback

What's done is done. The past is behind you and unaccessible other than in memory. You can't make changes there. So when you get feedback it is fundamentally flawed, as it is about what has happened and while there can be valuable insights and realizations in it, what do you do with it?


You can guess at what would have been a better outcome and what you could have done differently and that's better than doing nothing


But. There is another way


Ask for feed-forward*


How? I'm glad you asked... next time someone gives you feedback, thank them and say,"I would like to get better at <insert topic or skill here> what one thing would you recommend I do differently going forward?

The listen carefully and thank them again for the feedforward - don't justify your behaviour, tell them how difficult what they are suggesting is, or that you've already tried it. Thank them and move on


At an appropriate time, ask someone else, "I would like to get better at <insert topic or skill here> what one thing would you recommend I do? and again listen and thank them


Repeat over and over and build a library of suggestions to improve in your topic area. Integrate those suggestions where you can into your process / routine and watch the improvement follow




*I didn't invent feedforward. I first heard of it in a Marshall Goldsmith program in 2018

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