Cameron Conaway — Feedback Literacy Expert, Penn State Smeal Professor, and HBR Contributor
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“A workplace feedback expert.” — Harvard Business School
I spent my career learning the skill that builds every other skill.
Now I’ve built it into things you can hold and use: The Feedback Deck, the FLC certifications, and training I deliver — all on the evidence-based five-component framework.
Get The Feedback Deck — $29Everything is Feedback.
My quest to live fully led to my passion for feedback. Whether it’s the joy of a hobby or the fear of a difficult conversation—feedback is the atomic unit of growth.
You had feedback questions, I have (a few) answers.
Feedback literacy is the capacity to seek, receive, process, use, and give feedback.
The five-component model I’ve spent years building — pressure-tested with organizations worldwide.
Select a component to read its definition
Seeking Feedback
The proactive pursuit of constructive, specific, and actionable insights from others to enhance one’s own performance and development.
Effective feedback seekers are open to and capable of learning from positive and negative feedback. They seek feedback indirectly through observation and directly by asking questions. They clearly articulate their need for feedback while ensuring the feedback giver has the space and context to deliver it effectively.
Receiving Feedback
The ability to actively listen, acknowledge, and use constructive conversational techniques to understand what a feedback giver tries to convey in the moment.
Effective feedback receivers are receptive to and capable of extracting value from positive and negative feedback. They seek clarification when needed, refrain from agreeing or disagreeing with the feedback until they fully understand it, and spend time reflecting on the conversation.
Processing Feedback
The ability to explore the feelings that arise, mindfully analyze, and ultimately decide whether or not to adopt received feedback.
With particularly challenging feedback, effective feedback processors ask the giver for space to reflect. They strive to develop a fuller sense of the situation and the giver’s intention. To gain a clearer perspective, they may share the feedback with people they respect and who have seen their work.
Using Feedback
The application of constructive, specific, and actionable insights gained from feedback to improve performance.
Effective feedback users thoughtfully consider if, when, and how to use received feedback. They strategically plan their changes to suit the context appropriately (e.g., fixing typos immediately while gradually increasing meeting participation). They monitor the impact of these changes and seek further feedback on them.
Giving Feedback
The ability to provide constructive, specific, and actionable insights to others in a clear, respectful, and supportive manner.
Effective feedback givers can offer both positive and negative feedback. They clearly state the context and observed behavior, working toward mutual understanding by inviting the feedback receiver into a dialogue that feels psychologically safe for all participants.
Definitions as I published them at Harvard Business Impact.
Explore the framework wheel →The data is unambiguous.
Leaders know feedback matters. But decades of research reveal clear gaps between knowing and effectively executing. Feedback literacy is the missing layer between intention and impact.
Employees who receive valuable feedback are —
The research shows the gap.
These close it.
Everything below I built on the same five-component framework. I made the deck so you could hold the work in your hands, the certifications so you could prove it, and the training so your whole organization can practice it.
The Feedback Deck
50 evidence-based cards across the five suits of feedback literacy. Every card distills one skill into something you can hold, share, and act on immediately — with a QR code linking to a companion video I recorded for that card.
- 50 cards · 5 suits · 50 companion videos
- Enterprise discounts available
- Ships worldwide
FLC + FLC-A Certifications
The Feedback Literacy Certification establishes your competency across all five skills. Completing it unlocks FLC-A, which extends the framework into organizational and leadership application. Both are self-paced and come with a LinkedIn credential.
- Core FLC + Advanced FLC-A
- LinkedIn credential at each tier
- Self-paced, exam-verified
Live Feedback Training
Workshops and programs I deliver — from 3-hour virtual intensives to multi-session enterprise engagements, each built around your organization's feedback needs.
Request Training →Teams & Enterprise
Bring the deck and certifications to your whole organization. Volume pricing from $42 per employee, with a five-tier corporate rate card and enterprise deployment support.
See Volume Pricing →The Feedback Definition Guide.
Get the complete breakdown of feedback definitions, types, and examples in one easy-to-navigate PDF. Perfect for printing, sharing with your team, or keeping as a quick reference.
Looking for something specific?
Search Cameron’s feedback library.
Feedback in 60 Seconds
What is Feedback?
The Dunning-Kruger Effect in Feedback
Women Get 20% Less Feedback
37% of Managers Avoid Giving Feedback
19 Words To Improve Feedback
The COIN Feedback Framework
Should You Use The Feedback Sandwich?
Recency Bias in Feedback
Feedback and Psychological Safety
The Science of Negative Feedback
17% of Employees Quit Due to Feedback
Feedback as Directive vs. Guide
Feedback is the fuel for change.
But change at the individual and organizational levels doesn’t just happen. There’s an art and science to it. That’s why it’s vital to be both a student of feedback and change.
Explore The Change Management Guide →
The 3-Minute Reframe.
My 3-minute no-B.S. read or listen, every Thursday. I write it as a professor, a meditator, and a former MMA fighter who believes feedback is the secret to improving in everything. Read it, or take it with you as a podcast.
“We’re all just walking each other home.”
How will you help someone “walk home” today?
SELECT 3
“We are here to awaken from our illusion of separateness.”
You are never walking alone.
YOUR PATH TODAY:
Don’t Just Keep Up.
Define the New Rules.
These are frameworks I’ve coined through research, teaching, and practice — new language for problems modern leadership doesn’t yet have words for. Each began as a 3-Minute Reframe; each now stands on its own.
Books by Cameron Conaway
Exploring the intersections of global health, social justice, and the human condition.
Malaria, Poems
“When a collection like this comes along, the world must take notice.”
— NPR
Chittagong
“Draws attention to the despicable and unsafe working conditions…”
— South Asian Review
Caged
“A meditation on being literally and metaphorically caged.”
— DIAGRAM
Until You Make the Shore
“A brilliant and deeply moving debut… about mercy and forgiveness.”
— Todd Davis
Man Box
“Can open up important conversations in gender studies classes everywhere.”
— Dr. Joe Boehman
“This class will open the gateway to your inner poet.”
Over a decade ago, I wanted to help students cut through the myths (including “writer’s block”) so they could start writing quality poems in as short a time as possible. So I built the class that nearly 10,000 students are still signing up for and loving.
Start Writing →
The only way out is through.
The only way through is in.
Feedback literacy, in your hands.
Get The Feedback Deck — $29“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and freedom.”— Viktor Frankl