FACTOR #3: Open and frequent communication

TOOL: Fostering Feedback

• Opportunity to develop strategies to foster feedback within the collaborative so as to help support an open climate and frequent communication).

1. Prepare a newsprint chart based on the following diagram. The chart will be used as you work through the activity.
   
   
   
   
2. NOTE:
   
   Feedback is a term that is borrowed from systems theory. According to the American Heritage Dictionary, feedback can be defined as "broadly, any information about the result of a process."
   
   When we speak of feedback in a collaborative, we are talking about having group members give their thoughts, perceptions, or feelings about ... a process that the group has gone through ... a program that the group has created ... a decision that the group has made or is considering.
   
   A group which fosters feedback ... supports and encourages open and frequent communication between its members. A collaborative can create structures, systems and practices that promote feedback, openness, and frequent communication or that highly discourage it.
   
   
3. Take a few minutes to consider and discuss the following:
   
   
   • Why is feedback important for the collaborative?
     
     
   • What happens when feedback is not given or not received?
     
     
   • Why is open and frequent communication important for the collaborative?
     
     
   • What happens when communication is not open and frequent?
     
     

4. NOTE:
   
   Feedback can come from four general sources:
   
   
   • Standardized information (e.g., regularly collected surveys)
   • Built-in group processes (e.g., agenda item during every meeting that solicits verbal feedback on how the meeting went)
   • Non-verbals
   • Observers
     
     
5. Using these four categories as a guide, consider the following for your collaborative (or for a committee/ work group within your collaborative):
   
   
   • What are specific examples of methods your group uses to get feedback?
     
     
   • How is the feedback received? Is it valued? What are the signs of it being or not being valued?
     
     
   • How is the feedback used?
     
     
   • Who gives the most feedback?
     
     
   List your answers to each question in the appropriate part of the circle on your newsprint.
   
   

6. The next step is to identify ways to enhance the positive, and change what may be negative. Take some time to examine each item in your circle.
   
   Consider the following questions:
   
   About Where and Who
   
   
   • Why are we getting the most feedback from that source or from those persons/groups? Does that source support wide-spread feedback?
     
     
   • How are we asking for the feedback?
     
     
   About How Received
   
   
   • Does our non-verbal communication indicate we really don't want feedback?
     
     
   • What barriers to feedback do the symptoms indicate?
     
     
7. As you look at each item, draw a line from it to the next circle, and write any ideas that you have about what needs to happen to change or enhance it. You may also want to draw lines between related items within the circles.
   
   
8. Finally, for each item in the second circle, consider who will be responsible for championing the change.
   
   

9. "Brainstorm" a list of strategies your group can use to foster feedback so as to enhance open and frequent communication within the collaborative.