I made the play, but came out empty handed.
Before I could even turn around and run back up the field, my ultimate (originally known as ultimate Frisbee) teammate shouted to me from the sideline, “Good cut. You didn’t get the disc this time, but that was still a great move. Look for more opportunities like that.”
I’m not sharing this story from pre-COVID times to shine a light on me, but rather to spotlight my teammate who did something great to help me learn and improve:
She provided me with immediate, specific, and clear reinforcing feedback.
My teammate pointed out what I was doing well, even if I didn’t necessarily get the outcome I was looking for by doing it, and encouraged more of that behaviour. Had she not said something to me in that moment, I might not have known that I had made a good play and wouldn’t be on the lookout for opportunities to repeat it.
Over the years, I’ve been fortunate to play ultimate with many teammates that give this sort of reinforcing feedback freely and often. It’s helped each of us improve as individual players as well as quickly come together as a high-performing team.
Unfortunately, both in my past experience as an employee and now in my consulting work with teams and organizations, I’ve found reinforcing feedback to be a rare thing. This is especially challenging in remote contexts where people can’t pick up on additional cues they would otherwise receive from being in physical proximity to their teammates.
Constructive feedback is too often misinterpreted to mean only giving corrective or redirecting feedback. When this misinterpretation happens, reinforcing feedback becomes a seldom occurrence and one that typically isn’t immediate, specific, and clear. When reinforcing feedback is lagging, vague, and murky, it makes it difficult for the feedback receiver to repeat the positive behaviour.
Not only is regular reinforcing feedback important for learning, it also builds trust as it signals to the feedback receiver that they are cared about and valued.
If you want to create a positive feedback culture and an environment that accelerates learning, trust-building, and the development of high-performance teams, be sure to give reinforcing feedback freely and often. Better yet, deliver it in a way that’s immediate, specific, and clear.
