Obtaining feedback

Feedback is a useful potential source of discrepancy information for the reflective process but the quality of the information depends on how good the person providing the feedback is.

You can increase your chances of getting useful feedback by taking more control of the feedback process. This is especially helpful if you are obtaining feedback from someone who is less experienced than you are.

ATA and TAT

An approach to giving feedback that is designed to encourage reflection is Ask-Tell-Ask (ATA).

The feedback provider is encouraged to…

• Ask you for your perceptions of the situation and your awareness of the strengths and weaknesses of your performance.

• Tell you about their perceptions of the situation and your performance, focusing on things that you may have missed or misconstrued.

• Ask you what you have learnt from the feedback, how you intend to act on it and what was helpful or unhelpful.

You can encourage a feedback provider to adopt this approach by using TAT (Tell-Ask-Tell)

You…

• Tell them that you would like them to take this approach. Tell them what you are already aware of from your own reflection on the situation and your performance.

• Ask them for their perceptions of specific aspects of the situation that you are unsure about or may not have been aware of.

• Tell them what was useful in their feedback and what you are going to do about it (so that they know what kind of feedback to give you in future).

You can do some of the Tell and Ask before the event as pre-briefing in structured observations, guiding the observer about specific things to look out for.

See also ARENA guided reflection which is an expanded version of ATA.

Descriptive feedback, evaluative feedback and directive feedforward

Feedback focuses on the past — what you did and what you didn't do (descriptive feedback) and/or what was positive or negative about that (evaluative feedback). 

Feedforward focuses on the future. — what you could do differently next time (directive feedback).

Both of these can be helpful or unhelpful depending on the circumstances and your preferences.

A skilled feedback provider will start with descriptive feedback ('I noticed…') and then see whether you can draw your own conclusions about what was positive or negative. If you struggle with that, they may progress to evaluative feedback ('I think that was helpful/unhelpful because…') and then see whether you can work out what to do about that. If you struggle with that, they may progress to directive feedforward ('You could try…').

With less skilled feedback providers, as part of your Ask, you could direct them to give the kind of feedback you need.

'I'd find it helpful if you could…

• …describe what you observed me doing and anything I might have omitted.

• …let me know what you thought was helpful or unhelpful about what I did or didn't do.

• …give me some ideas for how I might approach this situation differently in future.

Counterfactual feedback

Structured counterfactual thinking using all four orientations can help to obtain comprehensive feedback. 

Your Ask could include:

• • What additional or different things could I have done to get a better result?

• What things could I have avoided doing to get a better result?

• What things did I avoid doing which, had I done them, would have led to a worse result?

• What things did I do which, had I omitted doing them, would have led to a worse result?

VITAE feedback

You can use the VITAE framework to direct your feedback provider to share their perceptions of particular aspects of the situation.

A skilled feedback provider will usually follow the inward process starting with the observable effects of your actions on the situation and on other people. They may then progress to helping you explore your thoughts (beliefs and assumptions) about the situation and your intentions within it. Finally, they may lead you to reflect on your values and whether they were consistent with what happened. After that, they might follow the outward process to explore how you might change your intentions, thoughts and actions in the future in order to achieve different effects that are more consistent with your values.

You can direct your feedback provider through this inwards and outwards process during your Ask.

• What impact did I have in the situation?

• How did my actions lead to that impact?

• What assumptions do you think I was making about the situation that might have led me to those actions?

• What did it look like I was intending to achieve in that situation?

• What did I appear to be valuing or devaluing in that situation?

• If I was valuing X, what could I have tried to achieve in that situation?

• If I was trying to achieve X, what different assumptions could I have made about how to achieve it?

• If I was taking X approach, what other actions could I have taken that would have been appropriate?

• If I did X, what other things might happen as a result that I might not expect?