Context: How to think about feedback among a team of engineers, including the engineering manager, product owner, project lead. <ul><li>Feedback is a gift</li><li>Positive feedback is a very constructive way to encourage behavior.</li><li>Negative feedback essentially discourages behavior, but may provoke in general a stance of defensiveness</li><li>Therefore: Try to balance the positive and the negative elements of a single feedback "session"</li><li>Balance both the quantity, but also the quality: if negative feedback is very specific, then the positive parts should also be very specific.</li></ul>

Feedback in general

Negative feedback is more significant, psychologically and neurologically, than positive feedback. The brain interprets the latter as simply a recognition of an ongoing process, but interprets the latter as a signal for a failure. <ul><li>Negative feedback therefore has much higher weight and value to the brain and psychology of anyone.</li><li>It's important to understand that someone cannot thrive usually on a diet of solely negative feedback: they could make it out, e.g., if they have a source of positive from another area of life, but not likely to have a good time otherwise.</li></ul>

Adi Seredinschi on Oct 30

Adi Seredinschi