Giving Feedback

David Gibson gave me permission to share this terrific exercise on coaching and giving appropriate feedback.

All you’ll need is about 12 marker pens and a box the size of a waste paper bin or the waste paper bin itself, plus 3 volunteers. Conducting the exercise is fairly simple:

Ask the 3 volunteers to leave the room.

Let the group know that they are to remain silent throughout the next part of the exercise.

Ask Volunteer 1 to return.

Give Volunteer 1 the 12 pens and ask them to close their eyes and not to re-open them until you say it’s time

Place the box 3-4 meters away from your volunteer.

Let the volunteer know that there’s a box in front of them and that they are to throw as many of the pens as possible into the bin.

Instruct them to start (while everyone else remains silent).

Thank the volunteer and ask them to take a seat.

Chances are that none of the pens will actually go into the box. Now you will move on to Volunteer 2. This time . . .

Tell the group of observers, “You may now offer feedback but non-specific feedback. For instance, after throw 4 you say ‘the first throw was closer,’ or ‘you throw like my grandmother,’ or ‘ nice throwing action, nice try’ (even if it isn’t).

Ask Volunteer 2 to return.

Give Volunteer 2 the 12 pens and ask them to close their eyes and not to re-open them until you say it’s time.

Place the box 3-4 meters away from your volunteer.

Let the volunteer know that there’s a box in front of them and that they are to throw as many of the pens as possible into the bin.

Instruct them to start and encourage the non-specific feedback from the group.

Thank the volunteer and ask them to take a seat.

Chances are, again, no pens will go into the box. Time to move on to Volunteer 3. This time . . .

Give the following instructions to the group of observers, “Offer specific feedback, now. For instance, ‘a little harder,’ ‘more to the right,’ ‘more to the left,’ etc.

Ask Volunteer 3 to return.

Give Volunteer 3 the 12 pens and ask them to close their eyes and not to re-open them until you say it’s time.

Place the box 3-4 meters away from your volunteer.

Let the volunteer know that there’s a box in front of them and that they are to throw as many of the pens as possible into the bin.

Instruct them to start and encourage the group to give specific feedback.

Thank the volunteer and ask them to take a seat.

On this third try, chances are the pens started to go into the box.

Debrief

Ask volunteer 1 how it felt – they are likely to respond with such things as, I had no ideas where I was throwing the pens or where the box (target) was, so I just kept throwing randomly.

Ask volunteer 2 how it felt – they are likely to respond with, it was a bit confusing as I was asked to repeat like throw 1 but that was 5 throws before and I couldn’t remember, I liked when they said it was nice but nice in what way, it would have been better if they could have given me specific information.

Ask volunteer 3 how it felt – they are likely to respond, it was great getting specific things to try, the first throw was random but after that I felt like I was getting closer to the target with each throw and nice to have a cheer when I actually started getting the pens in the box.

Ask the group to work in teams and generate a list of what great feedback should include:
Expect them to come up with advice such as: feedback needs to be given or no change will happen; feedback should be specific and timely; feedback should be positive, actionable and meaningful.

Thank you David for this suggestion and contribution! David Gibson is currently a Training Facilitator for Eureka’s Train-The-Training workshops at Eureka! in the UK.

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