Introducing an Appreciative Feedback Culture

Ideally, the trainer will have already discussed strategy and approach with the company’s management during a consulting day (see Consulting). At the very least, a preliminary conversation to get to know the company precedes the workshop. The trainer forms an understanding of the composition of the workforce and receives examples from the recent past of where communication within the company may not have gone well. Together with your employees, you kick off a process that ushers in cultural change within the company. The workshop day involves all employees, and we work with real, current topics. The day is shaped by various group exercises, the results of which feed into building a feedback culture. The trainer facilitates, asks the right questions, and structures the many answers. In the end, however, it is always your employees’ ideas that set the change process in motion and keep it going.

1. Initial phone consultation
2. In-person introduction and goal discussion.
3. 1-day workshop with all employees. Due to the many group exercises, it’s advisable not to significantly exceed a total of 20 participants. For larger workforces, it is recommended to split into groups.

• Block 1: We start with an opening impulse and possible goals, take a look at the company as it currently is, make room for expectations, and define the values that matter to everyone. A comprehensive “values check” and “what went well?” session gives way to a “target analysis” and a shift in perspective that uncovers the “pain points that are causing friction.”
• Block 2: In a further workshop session, employees work out clusters in which they determine the urgency of the individual issues that need to change. They learn the tools needed to approach topics and problems within the team logically and constructively. Everyone takes part in a practical exercise that builds “mutual commitment.”
• Block 3: The groundwork has now been laid for giving initial feedback. Everyone experiences the first step toward an appreciative, pleasant atmosphere and gives genuine feedback “department to department” in a first training round. With new rules of engagement in place, feedback “workforce to workforce” can then also take place—and succeed. For this, we apply the “ball bearing principle,” a tool that no one can really avoid taking part in. In the end, everyone is proud that they did it and were able to contribute—yes, that they, too, can be part of a new culture.