What is Clean Feedback?
Clean Feedback is a way of giving someone (or yourself) feedback that is likely to be acted upon. This is because it separates out what actually happened from what you are making up about that event and from the impact it is having.
It has the following elements:
1. What has worked well for you? (Or What is working well for you?)
- Evidence (What did you see or hear)?
- Inference (What are you making up about it? What are you inferring? What assumptions or judgements are you making?)
- Impact (What are the effects or consequences of what has happened?)
2. What didn’t work so well for you? (Or What isn’t working so well for you?)
- Evidence
- Inference
- Impact
3. What would work better for you? (Or What would have worked better for you?)
- Evidence
- Inference
- Impact
EXAMPLE
1. Something that worked well for me is that you picked me up for our run on time and with a smile on your face. (evidence)
I inferred that you were looking forward to our run and were keen to get started.
The impact was that I began to look forward to it as well.
2. What didn’t work so well for me was that you told me 6 or 7 times during the run that I was doing really well.
I inferred that you thought I needed encouragement.
The impact was that I started to worry that I wouldn’t be able to complete the run.
(This would be a good time to ask, “What’s your experience of the situation?)
3. What would work better for me is for us to talk about things other than the run itself.
I’d infer that you had confidence in me.
The impact would be that I’d have confidence in myself.
You can read more about the Clean Feedback model in these publications:
And you can learn how to give Clean Feedback in the following courses: