Fix the feedback loop to unleash creativity in your team.
Let’s be honest: no one tells us how to give feedback on projects at work.
We’re not talking about annual reviews or performance updates. This is feedback – edits – changes – whatever you call it on the daily work you get paid to do. This is about the stuff we make at work – writing, design, project plans, reports, memos, presentations, products, etc. We might have previous experience receiving edits and changes from bosses or professors. Still, that experience can shape us into real jerks when we need to help an employee or coworker improve their work.
Working with over 100 bosses – her creative agency clients over ten years – allowed author Dawn Crawford to see how people give feedback on work. And it’s not pretty.
Eye rolls commence. Kindness sounds like a business stalling strategy best left for those woo-woo highly sensitive teams. But this isn’t about being NICE at work. It’s about genuine kindness. The acts of collaboration that make teams great. It’s when highly functioning teams work together to get the job done. We’re not in the business of NICE – we’re harnessing the power of kindness.
Negative feedback and toxic comments on projects are killing productivity for our teams. It’s sending highly skilled employees right out the door to a new job. But there is a solution. It’s kindness.
Award-winning communicator and business leader Dawn Crawford introduces her tested and proven method for unlocking the creative power of teams in her new book “Kindly Review: The Secret to Giving and Receiving Feedback to Make Your Ideas Great.” This transformative new approach takes the sting out of feedback and unleashes each professional’s potential in creative projects.
From “Rage Reviewers” to “Perfect Passthroughs,” Dawn has received thousands of change requests over the years. She’s seen people use feedback as a weapon to take people down a notch but also has seen bosses who use feedback to collaborate to make products great. From this, she created the Kind Review process to give readers the skills to get products to market faster with more collaboration.
Improving the feedback loop has been successful with Crawford’s team and clients. She is working with nonprofit organizations nationwide, including the American Cancer Society, to implement the Kind Review process with their project teams. Over the past 12 years, the process has produced thousands of creative and effective products.
The book, Kindly Review, is two team-building skills in one.
1. Improve the Feedback Loop – The book’s first half tackles the psychology of feedback and review, revealing why toxic feedback damages team morale. Readers can discover their feedback personality and the style of those around them. Then, get the tools to identify feedback pitfalls and how to avoid them.
2. Fix the Feedback Loop Process – The second half is a step-by-step guide to a more efficient, effective, and kind process to get projects to the finish line. The Kind Review process promises that most pieces of content can get to completion in 2 rounds of edits. Yes, just two rounds. Unlock the tools to earn big ideas done faster than ever before.
Topics Tackled In This Book
- Discover eight “classic” styles of giving feedback with ways to manage up or even change your own feedback style.
- Why feedback is always personal.
- How to give and receive feedback on projects at work.
- From project start to completion, regain control over the creative feedback processes and speed up product delivery.
- Leading with kind feedback will make the world a better place.
Amy Sample Ward, CEO, NTEN
We all give and receive feedback every day – from work to home to community – and there’s something for everyone in this book to help us all do both better.
This is a can’t-miss roadmap to unlocking freedom, creativity, and innovation amongst your team members. Kindly Review belongs on the bookshelves of leaders at business pros, nonprofit organizations, and government departments looking for new ways to approach their creative feedback process and team leadership.
Unlock Your Feedback Style
How do you approach giving feedback on creative ideas to your co-workers and team? Do you approach it as a kind collaborator or a rage reviewer? Take this quick quiz to find out!
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Dawn Crawford is the founder and leader of BC/DC Ideas, a creative agency that has worked with over 100 nonprofit organizations, including the American Cancer Society and the American Heart Association, to build better communications strategies and tactics. She is the creator of the Kind Review process, which has been used to build 1,000s of products over the last decade+ of her career.