Feedback In Times of Crisis

Feedback is core to a company culture and is a great way to help each other become stronger stunning colleagues.  Due to the global pandemic, fires, civil unrest and all of the associated demands and stressors, regular feedback processes are being disrupted.

The pandemic has also brought about unprecedented stress for many, and some people are in heightened states of threat.  Research shows that the heart rates of people who are receiving unprompted feedback jumps around enough to indicate moderate or extreme anxiety.  The NeuroLeadership Institute has studied the three levels of threat that we face:

• Level 1 threats are in your broader environment, they do not pose an immediate danger 
• Level 2 threats are those in your neighborhood, your brain is aware and triggers heart rate and stress hormones to prepare for “fight or flight”
• Level 3 threats are immediately upon you - your brain and body are in panic mode

How do you give feedback in these challenging times, when we are all operating at least at a level 1 threat level, with times at level 2 or 3, when we know that feedback increases the threat?

David Rock has developed the SCARF model of feedback, which enables people to naturally move away from a threat response and toward a reward response, which humans rely upon for survival:

  In this model, there are five key “domains” that influence our behavior in social situations:

• Status: our relative importance to others
• Certainty: our ability to predict the future
• Autonomy: our sense of control over events
• Relatedness: how safe we feel with others
• Fairness: how fair we perceive the exchanges between people to be

So, back to the question of how to handle the feedback experience at this challenging time?  What should we be doing differently?  The answer is actually pretty simple: minimize the threat so that you can be candid.  Great!  But how?  

• Continue making feedback a priority, with candor and awareness of potential bias
• Lean into asking for feedback
• When giving feedback, ask the recipient when and how they would like to receive it

Reframing the discussion from giving to asking reduces the biological threat response and allows us to have productive conversations about performance.  In the research mentioned above, researchers found that those given unsolicited feedback had an average heart rate of 87 beats/min, while those who asked for feedback had a 50% lower heart rate!  Asking for feedback can be a game changer and start you down the path of continual valuable feedback:

Some ideas to get started:

• Ask your team members for feedback, then broaden the net as you become more comfortable.
• Ask for very specific feedback, e.g., instead of asking “How am I doing?”, ask about a particular interaction: “What did I do well that I should build on?” or “Anything I might rethink for next time?”
• Ask several people for feedback so that you can reduce bias.
• If exchanging feedback via VC, keep your camera on so that you can pick up on visual cues.
• Be sure to listen for understanding and without judgement or defensiveness

How will you apply the SCARF model and continue to exchange feedback with your stunning colleagues?