{"id":1274,"date":"2017-09-29T00:58:44","date_gmt":"2017-09-29T00:58:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.resourcezoneinternational.com\/?p=1274"},"modified":"2019-07-06T08:19:17","modified_gmt":"2019-07-06T08:19:17","slug":"coaching-and-the-feed-forward-process","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.resourcezone.com.au\/?p=1274","title":{"rendered":"Coaching and the “Feed-forward” Process"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Giving people constructive feedback is a core skill for anyone. As its name implies \u2018feedback\u2019 focuses on past circumstances, situations, events, behaviour or actions and the discussion is therefore about what happened historically (even if it is only in the recent past) so that changes can be made in the future. However, feedback can be biased towards problems or even behavioural shortfalls that have occurred and so we therefore need to either adjust our approach to give more balanced information or adopt a different method which has a more positive focus.<\/p>\n

Although the idea is not his invention, the widely known executive coach and author Marshall Goldsmith has been responsible for popularising one positive approach that can be used as an alternative to traditional feedback. Goldsmith calls this process \u2018feed-forward\u2019.<\/p>\n

Goldsmith contends that while feedback takes a historical perspective and thereby concentrates on what can only be learned from but not changed, by looking forward positively we set ourselves free from what\u2019s happened before \u2013 we allow a fresh start. \u00a0Another well-known executive coach and author, Sir John Whitmore tends to agree with Goldsmith when he says: \u201cCoaching focuses on future possibilities, not past mistakes\u201d.<\/strong> This suggests that coaching is well served by a \u2018feed-forward\u2019 approach.<\/p>\n

The \u2018rules\u2019 of the \u2018feed-forward\u2019 process are very simple. Both parties in the coaching relationship are asked to follow a 3-step process:<\/strong><\/h5>\n
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  1. make each question about future possible improvement<\/li>\n
  2. focus on the future, not the past when offering ideas -e.g. say \u2018Could you\u2026\u2026\u2019<\/li>\n
  3. listen to ideas without clarification and just respond by saying \u2018thank-you\u2019 before asking for another idea.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
    Putting \u2018Feed-Forward\u2019 into Practice<\/strong><\/h5>\n

    Goldsmith\u2019s approach is one that most coaches can immediately start using by adopting the following steps:<\/p>\n