Can you review the feedback I gave to X? I\u2019m interested in learning how to improve \u2013 how effective was I?<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
![\"Feedback](\"http:\/\/farm1.static.flickr.com\/109\/310687827_0008069590.jpg\")
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At the recent London Software Practice Advancement (SPA2011) conference<\/a>, I ran this workshop<\/a> and one of the workshop participants said they\u2019d give Y the following feedback:<\/p>\n Y, your feedback to X was ineffective because you failed to focus on things that X was doing well, and you also didn\u2019t illustrate your feedback with an example of what X specifically did<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n I think the participant\u2019s statement illustrated that we tend to store theories of effective behaviour in our heads. In this case, the participant’s feedback contains a micro-theory that:<\/p>\n Feedback is effective when it: <\/p>\n 1) focuses on behaviours that are done well and <\/p>\n 2) illustrates the feedback by using a specific example of the behaviours. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n The participant confirmed that this was their view.<\/p>\n I was curious then to apply the participant\u2019s ideas about effective feedback to the feedback they gave Y. I asked:<\/p>\n Let\u2019s use your own theory of effectiveness to analyse the feedback you gave Y. I don\u2019t think your feedback was about something that Y was doing well and I don\u2019t think you gave an example of what Y specifically did. Do you see it that way or see it differently? <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n The participant agreed that the feedback they provided was not consistent with their own beliefs about effective feedback, and they also confirmed that they were able to see the inconsistency once it had been pointed out, but they were unaware that what they said was inconsistent when they originally produced the feedback.<\/p>\n In effect the workshop participant was telling Y, \u201cdo as I say, but not as I do\u201d without admitting this directly. It\u2019s likely that the recipient of the feedback, in this case Y, will experience it as inconsistent and puzzling. <\/p>\n This small example illustrates several points of Argyris\u2019 concepts of skilled incompetence and skilled unawareness. Firstly, the fact that participant\u2019s comment was incompetent in the sense that it did not meet the participant\u2019s own beliefs about effective feedback. Secondly, the feedback was skilful in the sense it was automatically produced without the participant being aware of the inconsistency. Argyris refers to the lack of awareness of our own skilled incompetence as skilled unawareness. <\/p>\n Although it\u2019s common for most of us to admit we can sometimes act in a hypocritical way, most of us are not aware that we are doing so when we are producing the action.<\/p>\n There are many benefits from accepting and finding ways to overcome our tendency to act with skilled incompetence and skilled unawareness. Adopting the mindset and behaviours of the mutual learning model (based on Argyris & Sch\u00f6n\u2019s Model II) involves accepting we can act like this and choosing to act in ways that invite others to help us realise it in order to be more productive. I\u2019ll write more about this in future.<\/p>\n\n
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