The failure of feedback - and how to fix it

Dr. David Rock spoke at the WorkHuman pre-conference, and heads up the Neuroleadership Institute. He has been at the forefront of what is now an established movement using neuroscience to interrogate, inform and improve business skills. His recent focus has been on why feedback is often not only ineffective but actively counterproductive. It's a process designed to encourage openness and to provide information to allow the recipient to improve performance - but it often has the opposite effect.

Dr. Rock's research shows that the core problem is that most feedback is unsolicited - and is therefore perceived by the brain as a form of threat. This in turn triggers the "fight or flight" response, the recipient shuts down, doesn't accept the feedback and it sets off a cycle of fear. His contention is that the brain's response to an event or interaction depends on its impact on five elements - Status, Certainty, Autonomy, Relatedness and Fairness. Feedback can potentially affect all five elements, and if it is seen as a threat the subject will turn away from, rather than toward, the giver.

His answer is incredibly simple in theory - that we stop giving feedback and instead ask for it. In that way our brain is ready to receive the information, and best placed to deal with it. It means we also have the ability to get feedback from multiple sources, reducing the risk of bias inherent in only receiving it from one or two sources all the time. An elegant solution, but one which represents a major cultural shift in most organisations. It requires leaders who are comfortable in seeking feedback from their superiors, peers and subordinates. It requires a culture of profound trust, where employees know that seeking feedback will result in a positive, constructive experience, not one where they are inviting "open slather" critique, or are accused of showing weakness by seeking the opinion of others. To borrow again from Brené Brown, it requires leaders courageous enough to be vulnerable. In my framework (which I'll explain in more detail in future articles) it means we need leaders who can make their employees "SAFE-2" seek the feedback they need in order to produce their best work. In most organisations we are a long way from that..