feedback is probably the hardest and most important thing, in general. it's definitely the hardest dimension of a process. it's where we feel the vulnerability, care, compassion, &c required to work well together most intensely. it requires that we work to provide each other a tremendous amount of psychological safety.

it's also something that's easy to let fall by the wayside. to fail to incorporate into our practices, for everything to be falling apart around us without our realizing, to not see the collapse coming before it's too late.

ideally...

we're working so well together that feedback flows freely back and forth, that the toxic effects of our problems never manifest, because we are un/conciously solving them before they reach critical mass. i think this situation is rare. if it ever happens, i imagine it only happens once the structure that facilitated this state disintegrated. and even if we get there, i think we can easily end up in a space where feedback that needs to happen isn't, all without realizing it. it's one of those places where i think there should be some undissolving structure (it's why i am adamant about weekly retros).

some axes

i can think of that i think are helpful to consider when thinking about feedback [process].

un / structured

structure helps us to build up psychological safety around giving feedback by making it regular, to some degree formal. that we've all voluntarily accepted the structure provides some measure of comfort when we need to surface painful feelings or bring up hard conversations. unstructured, unsolicited feedback poses a high social & emotional hurdle to overcome. we need some way to build up speed.

for example, as someone who's generally quiet, i know i struggle to speak up when the feedback is structured “town hall” style. the town hall format may be too little structure for me. a retro provides the time and space that i need to express my thoughts without being directly perceived, to see and feel my teammate's thoughts.

un / directed

i've been trying to make sense of why "seeking input" feels different different in kind to my own conception of “feedback”. where i've landed, at the moment anyways, is that input is “directed”: it's seeking a solution to a problem. on the other hand, i tend to think of “feedback” as undirected: providing space for us to voice feelings & concerns without being constrained by particular problems, or even the need to have solutions.

undirected feedback allows people to be heard and tends to surface surprising problems we didn't even know existed. it risks sometimes collapsing into complaining, but that's something that can be addressed w/ framing.

what's special about retros to me is that they're a structured (bounded, safe) practice that channels both undirected feedback, to solicit surprising problems, and directed input, to solve those problems.

in / dividual

is the feedback surfaced to a group, or to a person, one-on-one? i think these both have different affordances, surface and address different problems, and are both important. a team that's working well needs both. still thinking about this one.