One of my favourite techniques for securing feedback is the method by which you give the other person at least five days ADVANCE notice of three questions about the piece of work you might have delegated or about some activity. And actually this three question method, profiled below, can be tweaked for almost any situation such as a job interview,an exit interview,customer care survey etc etc
It’s important the three questions are set out in the following sequence:-
1. What is it you enjoyed about doing that piece or work -or -What did you achieve?(any variant will do as long as the person can put in their shop window early the things that have gone well. )
2. And if you could do it again what would you do differently? (the very worse thing you could ask after 1 is "what went wrong?)
3. And what support would you need from me – or the organisation? (if you don’t ask this question it will say more about you than it says about them!)
This tripartite formula apparently comes from Mames Potter a Texas teacher,circa 1951.Many performance appraisal systems work on a similar three part axis. And all her research showed that if you let the other person have the advance notice AND ensure a convivial welcoming environment with the other person sitting at 90% to you(rather like the GPs surgery method), they will do 60% of the talking. An economy of words in a structured format!
What do you do to secure good quality feedback that can be built upon?
