Collaboration

The Critical Difference Between Input and Feedback

The subtle but important difference between input and feedback that can make or break collaboration

Do you ever feel like people just want your feedback, but not your input? You’re not alone.

I’ve been meaning to write something on this topic for some time, because I so often hear people referring to their collaborative process, only to find out that it’s really not collaborative at all. This comes up often at work, in people management, in teams, and working cross-functionally. It’s important to get it right.

I believe that people want to collaborate. Collaboration is satisfying and balances workload. It feels great when a team actually functions as a team — when all voices are heard, all ideas and insights are valued, and all contributions are matched.

On a sports team, collaboration is expected and natural. For example, soccer players have a huge field to play on, so they must spread out and pass the ball to one another to get it all the way to the goal. Everyone’s input and effort is important.

But knowledge work is different. The lines between what people know and what they can do are so blurry that it’s totally possible these days to carry an entire project by ourselves, using only our own input, and just asking for feedback along the way.