possibility…

Feedforward... insight for the future

I first read about feedforward in Marshall Goldsmith’s book, What Got You Here won’t Get You There but you can also read an article about it on his website.

Asking co-workers or friends for feedback can be helpful–if they’re skilled and you’re accepting. As Goldsmith points out, feedback looks at events that have already happened. Change-ability means moving into the future with strategies and tools to adapt to new scenarios. Goldsmith’s feedforward tool is practical and easy. Here are the four steps for feedforward described in his book (p. 171).

1. Identify a behaviour that you believe if changed, would lead to a significant positive difference in your future. Goldsmith offers the example: I want to be a better listener.

2. Describe your goal to another person–someone you know or even someone you’ve just met. They don’t need to know anything about you or your life for this activity to be successful.

3. Ask this person for two suggestions that you could use in the future that would help you achieve the behavioural goal you’ve described. (If you know the person, Goldsmith notes that “the only ground rule is that there can be no mention of the past.”) The person then offers their two ideas.

4. Listen carefully to the suggestions and take notes if you wish. The final rule is that you  must not comment in any way other than to say “thank you.” Repeat the process with other people until you have all the suggestions you want or need or until the ideas begin to repeat.

We’ve all done variations of feedforward, but typically with one major limitation: we normally have a rebuttal ready to fire off when the person with the idea pauses to take a breath. We dismiss the idea because… “we tried it and it didn’t work” … or it could “never work for us because …”

Let me know ways you’ve used feedforward and how it turned out for you.