Let me start with a challenge.

Copy and paste the following email and send it to two colleagues you work with on a daily basis.

Subject: 

One on one peer review feedback lunch: {Their Name} & {Your name}.

Location: 

Cafe Nearby.

Schedule:

Lunch. Wednesdays. Fortnightly.

Message:

Hi {Their Name},

Would you consider doing a fortnightly one on one peer feedback lunch sometime?

Wait. What exactly is a “one on one peer review feedback lunch" I hear you ask?

It’s an opportunity for two people to get together on a scheduled basis and share on-the-ground feedback in an open, honest and friendly forum.

A chance for us to have a two way conversation in private about three things.

1. Your best moment. “I think your best moment since we last met was…”

2. You worst moment. “I think your worst moment since we last met was…”

3. Your focused improvement point. “Cool. So I totally get that you are trying to work on your ability to influence the strategy we are taking with project ABC. I’ll track you on that. Here’s what I’ve seen you do that helps or hinders that goal.”

I’ve ran these regular two way catch-ups with a bunch of colleagues on various projects and it often turned out to be an eye opening journey.

To follow up, I tend to track our conversation in Trello. This helps generate a continuous report of goals achieved.

If you’d rather not – because it sounds creepy - then no problem. No hard feelings.

Thanks,
{Your name}

Learning to give and receive feedback.

I believe this will lead on to a progressive agile fabric of open communication. In my view open communication is at the heart of an “individuals based culture”.

What I’ve noticed about doing these lunches is that it’s actually really hard to give and receive feedback. More often than not it tends to start off with a very awkward silence. A bit like a first date. It takes some getting used to. But, after a few sessions something changes, people start to become more comfortable with the format and begin to open up. Practice makes perfect.

Individual openness.
Organisation agility.
Profit.

Plenty of people are already doing this. Join us. Try it. Pass it on.