GETTING IDEAS: PRACTICING FEEDFORWARD

We finished the last section with some very simple instructions on how to ask for and receive feedback. Feedback most likely would be acknowledged by everyone as an integral component of growth and change. As we go about the business of becoming, we first need to know something about the past—we need to know where here is before we can get there. By selecting the right stakeholders and soliciting their feedback, you can craft and maintain a steady, rolling picture of where you are now.

But there is a problem or limitation with feedback: It focuses on something that has already taken place. Any time you ask about how you’re doing, the information you receive is about the past, about what you’ve done previously. When it comes to behavior, we propose that it’s not that it doesn’t matter what you do; it’s just that it only matters what you do now.