Well-Resourced: Feedforward
and Appreciative Inquiry.
In this note:
Feedforward, a new-to-me technique that you might find supportive
Slow It Down gifts awaiting new homes
I thoroughly enjoy when a new-to-me technique weaves its way into multiple parts of my life.
Feedforward comes from the Appreciative Inquiry (AI) framework.
A friend and fellow facilitator told me about AI when she was supporting me in designing my podcast framework (podcast launching at the end of this month!!). I then put all the AI books available at the library on hold and the first one that became available was Conversations Worth Having.
Back in February, here in this part of the Pacific Northwest, we had a long snowed in weekend. I found myself sinking into our couch reading this book straight through. It’s a straightforward (to me) framework that makes a ton of intuitive sense (to me).
And yet, the framework is a lot to integrate. I gravitated towards this concept of feedforward since it was immediately relevant to me. It’s in contrast to ‘feedback’ if you hadn’t seen that yet.
I really enjoy reflecting on an experience with others, particularly when I am leading something that I would like to deepen and improve upon the next time around. The ask for feedback often lands strangely because it is a pretty amorphous term.
The foundation of feedforward is simple.
Two questions:
What is working?
How can we make it even better?
Simple, right?
One of the elements I deeply connect with in Conversations Worth Having is that AI is NOT about toxic positivity….
Rather AI is about this:
A healthcare supervisor who started practicing AI “realized that her focus of attention had shifted. Instead of seeing the staff themselves as problems, she was seeing their actions as possibilities” (17, Conversations Worth Having).
Being appreciative is about “adding value.”
Adding value to a situation, person, or opportunity can show up in a number of ways: sharing ideas, augmenting other people’s contributions, naming important factors, advocating for possible actions, acknowledging other people’s contributions, suggesting possibilities, pointing out opportunities, responding to questions with new perspectives, and contributing to planning—these are all appreciative ways we add value through conversations (29).
There are SO many ways of adding value through these two simple questions. And what I have been wanting with feedback is value. Something I can learn from so I can improve a workshop the next time around, for example.
And lastly, a note on depreciative conversations:
Depreciative conversations are often described as exhausting and can leave people with low energy, feeling alienated and drained. Research in the field of positive psychology has found that focusing on what is wrong or the negative in an effort to fix something actually narrows our thought repertoire, thereby restricting access to the skills and thinking capacity needed for creativity, critical thinking, and solution-finding. Depreciative conversations can smother creativity, resulting in decreased productivity and disengagement (30). thank you Jackie Stravos and Cheri Torres, thank you.
I invite you to take these questions for a spin when you’re next searching for feedback from someone - a student, a colleague, a grandchild… whoever.
Two questions:
What is working?
How can we make it even better?
If you want to take the questions for a spin right now, respond by leaving a comment or replying to this emailed post:
What is working about this newsletter for you?
And how can we make it even better?
I have more Slow It Down infographic posters available to gift to you, lovely subscribers.
Read this post of mine from a month ago in which I share all about these posters I am gifting to early adopters of this fine newsletter and my offerings.
I still have more available (and if you have requested one and received confirmation from me, it’ll be dropped in the mail soon, please excuse my snail response to sending out snail mail about slowing down :-D ). Here is the poster!
Til next week,
Cassandra