Benefits of Future-focused Feedback

A study that surveyed more than 400 managers in Europe, Asia, and North America reveal how you can give feedback in a way that will lead to positive change.

Research from Humanly Possible’s Jackie Gnepp, Chicago Booth’s Joshua Klayman, and their co-authors reveal a way to give feedback that could possibly lead to more positive change than the other methods of feedback.

Advantage of using future-focused feedback

Their research revealed that ‘future-focused feedback’ is more likely to bring about change along with a positive mindset, rather than pointing out mistakes in past performance. Focusing on the past tends to shut down people’s ability to use the feedback productively because it is based on events that cannot be changed. While focusing on the future or future-focused feedback addresses how things can be handled better, allowing people receiving that feedback to see how things can change while not feeling like they can’t do anything about the negative aspect of their performance.