Feedback as an activity, is not looked at with pleasure. Try telling someone that you have "feedback" for them, and watch their expression and body language. If you happen to be their manager, then you may get grudging acceptance.
Few team managers and leaders are comfortable giving feedback. This is mainly because they haven't been trained on how to do it. I recall in my career, during the months of February or March, we in HR were running training sessions on the appraisal process. These appraisal sessions were for both managers and employees. They consisted of a slide deck, and comments by the HR presenter - that was all.
Employees were told how to accept feedback from their bosses. Bosses were given information on the Appraisal process, and feedback was considered a side effect. Appraisal Feedback anyway tends to focus on past performance, and little is discussed about future. The employee is focused on getting the best possible rating for themselves and so any form of Development Feedback takes last place. Bottom line - the development discussion is not given much importance for the future.
With this knowledge, Varsha Chitnis and myself decided to put together a session to enable a Focused Development Discussion. Our experiences told us that individual biases and trust have a huge impact on how a development discussion can be conducted. So we incorporated these aspects into our session design and called it The Art of Focused Development Discussion.
Here are some images of the action on that day.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXD_Am9nmnOelCIU0XD4POU1XSZ_muZcVPdW7N5tkxERtSpsoCK5QWmDeZV1T3BE7pVrblWh6BaxzNBVWR668RyVUyMtwv3KkRwCXPOAJJu6G5imYC7n2TcB-VyGu9S7v5G7Bo1s0V5bkUSXxf85unUv-qGznu73FphepJQSw4qXr73tQQiJwbWIJFYNC8/s320/IMG-20240203-WA0050.jpg) |
Desired Outcome for the session |
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCD44UYiGPW0r5fd97JE_iPj4cdhTppJy2r1L0KC7116mrycGDRbFtvZ7L5o6tAmqL3eJqY-pdNglVdZhD85ZTT848uKX_uBaN_B8Bw5njDauGFKr_p6eBhgbRwI9bK_7F0Gfg_N56xfJvPipAPfNVYKcT3kqw5uMCNsYBMtAJVHbCKBrKMRYo1mFSG_MI/s320/IMG-20240203-WA0482.jpg) |
Our Session Flow
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![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6GqYEVuQWq8XNmYzvnPKbNjPh-YTHyWk-P24jzn-7m5r656-fManMXEISSQSl-PnsIIZKrP8-54UEGrzdvTvhQtrP4h1UQj7V0QFd9dA9mxKPgtc2_1so0SjGUVGCXuTmzhDhkHukpqQS1ByVx69qw4Hwd4_KdJ34eTUfMEwHuESuSrDN1tfxcZNuZDGD/s320/RBIMG_20240203_115726.jpg) |
Harvest from our First Activity |
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjao_ejswaDvGnIXMfMtR4zVAGnyz1K4e0WVBD6nRXRNKRS6RXJE_LG-g0q5gSW0FrMzdy6aZ6C77M4C9J0LUd9nJDr-wk1W3jUTsefekZFr8GRb88biXJFH_WCF-KXNzh55bJOOD_CxeD12l0mxr63G05dc_Fm1KWYXbZTHQteCDRP7ga-kfXEXsgx4bYg/s320/IMG-20240203-WA0498.jpg) |
Learnings and Feedback that we received. |
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEzVBjY3o1wFBt6ES1nSCqYUnWDVLK1jrWFpzZzBKG8gHgLSegi9Q8OjufrdiYmHzyO8sTe3bInTy_4NvYaPLNC7n4d5HBTvRzi5CwVQHGZC5LrDEeS5RFAeSAfQrlt_4xqB7F1eqZOGEbvtfvFHjQMh-2daVOJB9uMDdMg7mO0lM9qvERqFZQf5ca0P-4/s320/IMG-20240203-WA0503.jpg) |
The enthusiastic learners |
We thoroughly enjoyed designing and running the session. Our sincere thanks to the International Association of Facilitators - Mumbai Hub for the opportunity to do this session. We are grateful to all the participants who took the time to attend and contribute their experiences into the session.