Flow of Feedback: Connection. Curiosity. Consistency.

A message from Kyle...

The start to this story almost sounds like an intro to a joke … a former MLB executive walks into an elite science and research facility to use improv to help leaders sharpen their feedback skills. How does any of that make sense? 

Yet if we dig a little deeper beneath the surface, all of it makes sense – and feedback is the common link running throughout all of it. 

Coming from the world of professional baseball and development specifically, feedback is the fuel for the engine. Prepare. Execute. Review. Make sense of what we just did, lean into feedback from multiple sources, and then make adjustments for the next iteration. The best in the world of sports are obsessed with feedback because it allows them to adjust their preparation, which leads to better results. 

A concept that helps athletes and coaches in their journey of continual improvement is to approach their work like a scientist. Rather than viewing results as judgments, we can perform mini-experiments, explore capabilities, and then use the feedback to make adjustments, constantly learning and growing.

I recently had the privilege of working with an incredible group of leaders as part of a leadership development program. This organization is one of the nation’s largest science and energy research facilities, bringing together thousands of scientists, engineers, technicians, and support staff from around the world. For decades, they have tackled some of society’s most complex challenges with innovation, collaboration, and determination. Rather than focusing on games or experiments, they operate cutting-edge technology and world-class research tools that drive discovery and create lasting impact. Their commitment is simple yet profound: big science, big impact.

Now we add in Game On, the experts in connection, to bring it all together! Having partnered with Game On for over 15 years, I continue to be amazed at how the shared experience of improv can unlock great dialogue and ultimately transformation. The games do not lie as they provide feedback for ourselves and our teammates on where we can grow – and can easily be applied to the struggle we all have with improving feedback in our families, teams, and organizations.

So what happens when you combine a high-performing team of scientists with Game On Nation? A bunch of laughs and some deep reflections, including the following:

1. Person before performer.  While we may like to think that objectivity, truth, and the mission will rule the day, we are all people with heartbeats, emotions, and personalities. Being connected, building relationships on trust, and truly knowing each other allows us to maximize our feedback interactions. The team of scientists loved how Coins – things that we value that bring a smile to our face – can become a simple tool to lay that foundation.
2. Be curious, not judgmental – or defensive. This line from Walt Whitman came to life in our session. Our egos can naturally highjack the conversation and make us defensive, but if we stay curious and try to understand where the other person is coming from, then we can find a nugget or two that can help us grow. The team noted how using Objectives – a positive word that we want to make the other person feel – allowed them to stay curious and explore how the other person was responding to the feedback, rather than get defensive and engage in a back-and-forth on what was being said. This observation reinforced the simple truth of people will forget what you said, but they will not forget how you made them feel.
3. Not a one-time thing, but an all-the-time thing. The best in the world do not see feedback as something else they do, but rather a critical part of their process – prepare, execute, review.  Feedback informs what we did well and need to keep doing – things that help us build confidence, as well as what we need to improve – things that help us build competence. Both are critical and need to be examined all the time. The team noted how feedback can be included in any situation (as simply as identifying an up and a down), and how we need to pause to reflect rather than rush to the next thing.

We crave feedback. Feedback is critical for growth. And yet we have a very complicated relationship with it because of scarring from past experiences. Practically every organization we come across is struggling with how to improve how they give and receive feedback. A critical task for a leader is to seek and provide feedback, yet many of us struggle with doing so effectively.

When you explore the potential definitions for feedback, you find one that describes an annoying noise associated with speakers and another that describes impactful information that informs growth. The best performing individuals and teams in the world figure out a way to normalize it and optimize it. This requires efforts to ensure we are connected, we remain composed, the feedback is complete, and ultimately leads to a clear path forward.

Science On.
Feedback On.
Game On.