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Feedback services

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Why Cameron?

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Cameron’s thinking on feedback, including his work on Harvard University’s latest Feedback Essentials course, his feedback literacy webinar for Harvard Business School Publishing which had thousands of live attendees, and his article at Harvard Business Review, The Right Way to Process Feedback, struck a chord with thousands of leaders from seemingly every sector — from fighter pilots and yoga instructors to senior business executives and academics. There are several reasons for this.

A third element

First, the article introduced a third and critical layer to our understanding of feedback: processing. Advice on receiving feedback has typically focused on the skills needed in the moment of receiving it, such as active listening and maintaining eye contact. But those are only small parts of what it means to be a feedback receiver. Now, although processing can be seen as a dramatic expansion of receiving, many leaders speak to the three elements of feedback: giving, receiving, and processing.

But there are more elements!

Conaway’s pioneering work on the concept of feedback literacy—including expanding its definition in this article at Harvard’s Inspiring Minds—brought it from academia, where it was focused on the teacher-student relationship, into the business world and led him to coin the term employee feedback literacy. This work has helped students and employees see and improve their capacities in what he defines as the five key feedback literacy elements: seeking, giving, receiving, processing, and using.

“Or” to “and”

The traditional feedback narrative was (and in many cases still is) such that if you were an individual contributor, you should work on receiving feedback. If you were a people manager, you should focus mostly on giving feedback. Underpinning this narrative was the idea that you either give or receive — you choose your camp and for the most part stay there. Cameron’s work shifts this idea from “or” to “and” as he highlights the fluid interplay between the feedback elements: those who are primarily givers can improve by knowing how to receive and process well; those who primarily receive can improve by knowing what it takes to give and process well.

Power to the people

A vast majority of the research literature and most popular business magazine articles center the feedback giver as a kind of all-knowing power. This framing can either directly or indirectly subjugate the receiver of feedback (and indeed many articles speak of receivers in a condescending tone). By expanding what it means to receive and highlighting the interdependencies of the three feedback elements, those who traditionally receive feedback are given equal (and in some cases more) power in the feedback relationship.

A process for processing

Insights come in many forms, and while those that are vague or abstract can offer much value, Cameron is passionate about creating (and helping others create) practical processes so ideas can stand and leaders can systematize their wisdom. His creation of The Feedback Decision Tree and The 6 Ps for Processing Feedback are but two examples. Cameron cares deeply about process because, as a student of change management at the individual, team, and organizational level, he knows lasting change rarely happens without it.

From mind to bodymind

Understanding how to give and receive feedback has long been framed as a purely intellectual enterprise, one in which givers and receivers only need to read a few tips to improve. While this can be true, Cameron’s work takes a modern psychological approach by shifting the focus from mind to “bodymind” — the idea that body and mind are a single integrated unit. As he wrote in Harvard Business Review:

“I believe it’s critical to let feedback run through both your body and your mind. That means feeling your feelings and investigating why you may be feeling them.”

Cameron’s work asks us to move from essentially rote learning to a somatic experience involving the pairing of mindfulness of the body with a curious, gentle investigation of what the body may be trying to teach. This innovative shift taps into the groundbreaking research of Dr. Peter Levine and Dr. Bessel van der Kolk, among others, to bring modern psychological advances into the arena of feedback improvement.

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When can you expect services

Cameron needs at least 60 days starting from the time you agree to work with him (all paperwork signed) before delivering services. Beyond that request, he works with organizations whenever is best for them — such as before quarterly and annual performance reviews. Cameron provides significant discounts for clients that book recurring feedback services.

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How can we get started?

Please fill out the form below, providing as many details as possible so Cameron can determine if the request matches his interest and availability.

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