Title: Interesting Management Articles on the Web

Author:

Section/SPIG: Health Administration

Issue Date:

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Leave It At the Stream, by Marshall Goldsmith. FastCompany, Issue 82 | May 2004, Page 103. http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/82/mgoldsmith.html

The author helps you avoid rehashing the past and suggests how to focus on the future. Goldsmith describes what he calls "feedforward," a method of asking for suggestions for the future. Feedback is often negative and can ruin good working relationships; practice feedforwarding.

Try Feedforward Instead of Feedback, by Marshall Goldsmith. Adapted from Leader to Leader, Summer, 2002. http://www.marshallgoldsmith.com/html/articles/feedforward.html .

The author describes how he asks participants in his classes to pick one behavior that they would like to change and has them both provide feedforward and accept the feedforward suggestions. He offers ten reasons to try feedforward:

• We can change the future. We can’t change the past.



• It can be more productive to help people be "right," than prove they were "wrong."



• Feedforward is especially suited to successful people.



• Feedforward can come from anyone who knows about the task.



• People do not take feedforward as personally as feedback.



• Feedback can reinforce personal stereotyping and negative self-fulfilling prophecies.



• Face it! Most of us hate getting negative feedback, and we don?t like to give it.



• Feedforward can cover almost all of the same "material" as feedback.



• Feedforward tends to be much faster and more efficient than feedback.



• Feedforward can be a useful tool to apply with managers, peers and team members.

So, have you tried feedforward today?