Step by Step

Feedforward - Part II

I'm rereading how we could improve through the feedforward tool created by Marshall Goldsmith. Dr. Goldsmith was recognized as the #1 leadership thinker in the world at the bi-annual Thinkers50 ceremony sponsored by the Harvard Business Review

Feedforward is a way to provide feedback to the future on a given topic. It doesn’t involve personal criticism since it is about something that has not happened yet. It reinforces the possibility of changing and can cover the same points as feedback.

Its application is easy and can be done by any manager with your team or you can work directly to develop the team.

Three main ideas:

• It is based on requesting suggestions that can help to achieve an improvement in the behavior, only ideas for the future can be provided.
• Listen carefully to the suggestions received. It is important don’t discuss the idea or include comments as “is an amazing idea”
• Write down all the ideas and be thankful for the suggestions

I worked with several cross teams with this idea and the results were impressive, asking questions as

• Do you think you could have done something else?
• What would have been achieved by doing that other thing?
• How can I help you in the upcoming weeks?

Also asking feedforward for my own improvement

• How can I improve my e-mail communications?

I love this dynamic, because there isn’t pressure, no judgment and if a suggestion does not seem valid to the person, it does not have to be valued or justified. The important thing is to focus on what you are going to do and put it into action towards the future.

Bear in mind that it doesn’t mean that we will stop providing or asking for feedback, however feedforward can be preferable, more efficient and, above all, better received.

Reference

www.marshallgoldsmithfeedforward.com

Originally Published on Mayte’s Corner...Thoughts on Project Management  - 2018 Q3 - PMI Northern Utah Chapter newsletter

From a "bad experience", I wrote an article on LinkedIn and here 

https://www.projectmanagement.com/blog-post/29669/Attitudes-Toward-Accents

It's curious because I saw my experience as a learning opportunity:

How is it works in the states? I won't work in this company and I won't apply again, and after few hours of research and interesting English reading that improved my vocabulary skills, I wrote about thousand words in English in less than two hours.

On the other hand, my network basically said, "so sorry", "this guy was a jerk", "welcome to Utah", comments face to face and in my Social Media that I didn't expect. Wasn't easy to explain to them that the important point wasn't the guy, or their attitude, the key point was the opportunity to learn!

Now, the article will become a presentation in one big local organization, about 100 project managers, will learn how to overcome accents when working on international projects. 

Lessons Learnt: There are no bad experiences, there are opportunities to grow.

Leading multicultural and international projects, I realized that an image is much more powerful than a hundred words or "friendly reminders". That's why, taking the example of the viral "Be like Bill or Pepe" (for Spanish version), I decided that during some of my meetings was helpful to prepare a slide with Ana. 

Ana is smart and tries to catch the attendees attention for following basic ground rules for attendants to the meetings.

• Show on time and prepared.

• Stay present (mentally and physically - no cell phones, no computers or spaghetti with meat balls that will distract you).

• Think before speaking. It's correct to disagree, but be respectful, chose correctly your words. Remember to stay in your point and on time. And most important, talk about the issue/problem don't attack the person who is defending the idea. 

Feel free to like/share and comment the article in LinkedIn 

During the following week to the speech, I wanted to get some feedback.

I checked my chapter LinkedIn group, I not only posted a survey also, I sent more than 400 personal messages thru LinkedIn, and I get some amazing answers.

Today, more than one month after the presentation

• Less than 10% of LinkedIn group members attended the presentation. Most comments were:
  • Can’t attend to an event during business hours
  • They weren’t aware of the session
  • And they ask if they can see a webinar

• My LinkedIn network has grown in about 500 connections.

• Attendants contact me, to get more information about social media. Also I helped some of them to improve their LinkedIn profile. 

Each one the experience is different but based on mine, if you want to make a presentation in your chapter take in mind.

- Know your chapter. You’ll feel more confident if you already meet the director boards, or maybe some members.

- Agree on all term and conditions. Usually, the chapter will send you an agreement, but they are quite standard. Maybe you’ll be interested in know before hand simply things like

                     - Can I upload the presentation in SlideShare?

                     - Can I propose the presentation content in projectmanagment.com?

                     - Will be the presentation recorded? When and where will be updated?

                     - Will you send to the attendees a survey?

                     - Will you provide me feedback about the presentation?

                     - Will you be interested in my participation for other chapter sessions?

           - Could you write me a recommendation letter to send to other organizations?

Yes, easy questions that I completely forgot, and after the presentation was more difficult to get answers.

Don’t be shy, you can give back more than you imagine.

Do it! It’s an amazing and challenging experience.

I hope that you’ve enjoyed and learned something with my experience.

If you think that your chapter will be interested in this presentation, don’t hesitate to contact me.

The presentation is available to download in the following link. 

https://www.projectmanagement.com/presentations/372264/Using-Social-Media

Thank you for your comments! 

One week before of the Big day, my chapter sent a promotional email, announcing the event. I couldn’t avoid sharing it with my personal Social Media. 

This is me:

And this was the other speaker, yes, you can google it, he is an actor, bishop, writer, and professional speaker. 

My thoughts at this moment “Oh my gosh! This will be more challenging that expected”

The big day arrived, as the session was scheduled in business time, I was expecting about 50-60 people, in a training environment.

When I arrived at the place, I saw that. 

I asked my only POC in the chapter about the number of attendees, about 130…at this first moment I wanted to disappear.

First TODO, test the computer…as always, issues with the connections, how that was possible, I tested hundred times at home, with different monitors, friends projectors…and as always. Murphy’s law.

After, I observed a camera; I asked if they are going to prepare as a webinar, or share in someplace, my POC explained that they were going to test it for the first time. Again, I wanted to disappear for the second time. I wasn’t aware of that.

The moment arrived; I did one step ahead and did my presentation in the stipulated time.

After the presentation, my tablemates congratulated me. 

We had an amazing lunch and networking time, and then a professional speaker started his speech. Wow huge a difference! Then, I’ve realized that I was lucky to start first; else, I really would have disappeared. 

Lesson Learned 3 - Don't assume anything

Lesson Learned 4 - Be prepared for technical issues.  

Lesson Learned 5 - Challenging opportunities make me grow.