Situation-Behavior-Impact (SBI)

Imagine you are working on a project with a colleague who was supposed to deliver a report by yesterday. You haven’t received the report yet and you are feeling frustrated and angry. You start to think that your colleague is irresponsible, incompetent, and doesn’t care about the project. You may ignore him and do the report yourself, or complain about him to your manager or another coworker.

A good example of how we often jump to conclusions when someone disappoints us or fails to meet our expectations.

We observe their behavior, make assumptions about their motives and intentions, and act based on those assumptions. We create stories in our heads that are usually negative and unfair.

Eventually Lead to a lot of problems, such as misunderstandings, conflicts, resentment, and poor performance. A better way to handle this situation is to have a conversation with the person who let you down and clarify what happened. Maybe there was a good reason why they didn’t deliver the report on time, such as a personal emergency, a technical issue, or a miscommunication. Maybe they had a different understanding of the deadline or the expectations. Maybe they need more support or guidance from you or someone else.

By having a clarifying discussion, you can avoid making false assumptions and give the person a chance to explain themselves and correct their mistakes. You can also share how their behavior impacted you, the team, and the project, and help them understand the consequences of their actions. You can build trust, respect, and collaboration, and improve the quality of your work and relationships.

SBI technique is a useful tool for giving effective feedback. SBI stands for Situation, Behavior and Impact. Let’s see what each of these components means and how to use them in your feedback.

Situation: This is where you set the scene and provide the context for your feedback. You should describe the specific time and place when the behavior you want to address occurred.

“Last week, during our team meeting…”

Behavior: This is where you describe what the person did or said that you want to give feedback on. You should focus on observable actions and facts, not on your interpretations or judgments.

“You interrupted me several times while I was presenting…”

Impact: This is where you explain how the person’s behavior affected you, the team and the organization. You should use concrete examples and emotions to convey the consequences of the behavior.

“This made me feel frustrated and disrespected, and it also disrupted the flow of the presentation and confused the audience…”

By using the SBI technique, you can give feedback that is clear, specific, and constructive. You can also help the person understand the effects of their behavior and encourage them to change or improve it.

Use SBI at Your Workplace (Understand the Intent)

One way to address the gap between intent vs. impact is to ask the person what they were trying to achieve or what was going on for them when they did or said something.

You could say

“What was your goal with that?” or

“How were you feeling at that moment?”

Helps you to understand their perspective and motives, and also lets them know how their behavior affected you or others. It will lead to a trustful and respectful conversation that can resolve the issue and prevent it from happening again.

Asking about intent also opens the door for coaching, which can help the person improve their skills and performance.

Coaching is a process of asking powerful questions that help the person discover their own solutions and insights.

Coaching can be very helpful when you want to support the person’s growth and development, rather than telling them what to do or criticizing them.

Coaching can happen anytime, not just during formal reviews or disciplinary actions.

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