Managing Change

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Developing a feedback culture to boost performance

Imagine a workplace where people comfortably and regularly share constructive feedback with colleagues... Where they actively seek ideas in order to do a better job... Where they know that their views will be heard and acted upon by the organisation, their team and other people... In short, a workplace where everyone is treated as an adult, behaves as an adult, and collaborates to drive performance and thrive.

Sounds good, right? But can it happen and do feedback cultures actually make a positive contribution to the bottom line?

Well, yes it can, and yes, they do. Managing Change has developed a unique programme offering to help organisations and teams develop their own feedback cultures.

But first, what's the evidence?

Here's a flavour -

  • Of those employees regularly given feedback, 71% intended to stay in their role against just 43% of those who did not receive feedback [Towers Watson study 2015]

  • An American Express study found that the single most important requirement of employees was to receive personal feedback on their performance.

  • High positive emotions at work (happiness, interest and social connection) are closely correlated to high performing business units and teams, enhanced well-being and retention. [Frederickson, 1998]. Creating environments in which employees have opportunities to discuss their progress and develop, leads to positive emotions [Harter, Schmidt and Keyes, 2002].


A comprehensive Gallup study (2015) reported that business performance is clearly enhanced when employees’ needs are met, expectations are clear and they have a feeling of contribution. A critical key question is "does the employee have an opportunity to do what they do best in their current role?"  How do you answer that question in your organisation or team?

In short, there is a considerable degree of research material indicating the link between feedback, job satisfaction and job performance. But implementing a feedback culture is not straightforward. In part this is because most initiatives do not address the obstacles to giving and receiving feedback, do not address rater bias or individual differences, and usually seek to develop it by implementing new processes, training or systems.

​Our programmes reference our feedback maturity model to:

  • Assess the current feedback culture in your organisation or team

  • Diagnose the gaps and steps required to improve the culture

Design and implement specialist interventions through consultancy, group and one-to-one coaching and development, HR workshops, etc, as required.

Our programmes will help you to harness expert knowledge and information on areas including positive emotions, emotional intelligence, attitudes to job satisfaction, rater and recipient bias, working with 'regulatory fit', and aligning your rewards and management systems to support desired behaviours.

To develop your own feedback culture, take the next step with us for a free, no obligation consultation meeting to find out more. 

We'd also like to invite you to look at our short feedback culture assessment for use with your people to help you to understand where your organisation or team is now. ​ To access the free assessment, click here. If you would like to run this for your organisation get in touch and we'll set up a version for your organisation's exclusive use.