A large part of my work as a consultant is to give feedback to my clients, for example when doing reviews of the current way of working on a specific project. The intent must be to give feedback without hiding aspects which need to be improved, and at the same time giving it in a way that does not create defensiveness and rejection.
It would be absolutely counter-productive to give accurate feedback on issues, that will never be corrected because the message was dismissed.
This is absolutely essential and it is amazing how often this aspect is overlooked. As a consequence, when performing a review, we can spend a very substantial part of the allocated time (up to 30%) showing our conclusions and getting challenged by various levels of the organisation, modifying the manner in which to present our conclusions in a manner that is palatable to the organisation.
In reality, the process of giving feedback must be to generate a powerful conversation that allows the person or the organization on the receiving end to absorb and reword the conclusion in a manner that leads to its acceptance, and finally action.
The aim of a successful feedback is to generate the right conversation.
