It’s time to organize your list of strengths and improvables before bringing it back to the team.
Doing this work ahead of time provides the following benefits:
It gives you a chance to reflect and respond meaningfully.
It saves the group time.
It enables you to think strategically in service of the bigger vision.
The bigger vision is a team environment where everyone can communicate openly and be equally accountable for their team’s growth and development.
Feedback categories
Most feedback you’ll receive while facilitating a group feedback brainstorm falls into 3 categories:
Personal: How you showed up, something you said, did, or didn’t do.
“Maybe it’s just me, but it seems like you favor responses from men on this team rather than everybody else.”
Process or systems: The support structures that help you get work done as a team.
“We don’t share equally when it comes to tasks that aren’t assigned to anyone. There’s no tracking or accountability.”
On behalf of: Feedback that’s meant for another person or a broader entity.
“Our organization says it’s equitable, but as far as I can see not everyone here gets paid what they should.”
Create your plan of action:
Organize: On the improvables side give each item a number. If there are two alike items, give them each the same number. Don’t combine, erase, or change any of the words. During part 3 you’ll check in with the team to confirm the groupings are acceptable.
Determine an appropriate response:
Be personally accountable: If it’s personal and something you can change, respond appropriately and plan to say what you’ll do differently in the future. If you need more information, plan to ask for it. If it’s a style preference, say so and that you’ll try your best to accommodate. If it’s something that strikes a bit deeper or evokes stronger feelings, seek support so you can show up and role-model accountable leadership.
Delegate responsibility: When shared goals and interpersonal understanding as a team evolves, support systems and structures need to adapt, too. Whenever is appropriate, invite collective problem solving, delegate ownership, and create timely and actionable goals.
Check in “on behalf of”: Let folks know you’ll pass on the information to the appropriate party. Optionally, you can check in with a responsible party or person and see how they would like to respond.
Prepare to deliver part 3, the final part, of the group feedback process