Building a feedback culture takes time.
All learning professionals know that feedback is essential to growth and high performance. But for many reasons - from time scarcity to cultural assumptions to lack of clarity on expectations and beyond - building a company culture in which feedback is continuously embraced and practiced takes time and multiple touchpoints and learning strategies. At OpenSea, a mid-sized startup at the heart of the crypto and NFT industries, I’ve helped managers and teams apply feedback best practices more regularly through a combination of workshops, 1:1 coaching, video and text resources built in notion and camtasia, and frequent prompts and reminders of best practices via slack and our company All Hands.
Below I share a Miro template based on the first workshop in our feedback culture learning cluster, which I built to respond directly to our internal context + apply best practices in virtual learning design by inviting thoughtful participation by attendees throughout the session. I’ll cover how I incorporated notion and slack into our scrappy - but effective - strategy in a future post.
Behavior change requires hands-on practice.
I love using Miro to develop and facilitate workshops that are truly active. This workshop was divided into three main parts:
1. An icebreaker that encourages low-stakes engagement by everyone attending and prompts attendees to begin thinking about the core concepts explored in the rest of the workshop. As they joined, participants are prompted to choose the “feedback cookie” (inspired by Liz Fosslien’s wonderful illustration) that best represents their least-favorite type of feedback. The group then spends a few minutes discussing the top picks of the group and why that type of feedback might be less than desirable - and also why it might be so common nevertheless.
2. An overview of the COIN model of feedback sharing as a useful heuristic for constructing actionable and brain-friendly feedback.
3. Two breakouts for participants to practice sharing feedback using the COIN model in small groups, following by debriefs with the entire group.
To reinforce best practices, crowdsource tips and tricks, and address unique situations, this initial workshop for managers was then followed by 1:1 coaching, social learning and reinforcement via group slack channels, and team workshops.