Process Not People

Giving Feedback — 99UArticle “Praise the process, not the person”.

The chief lesson from a July 2014 meeting was to focus on the speech not the speaker. It is a lesson that I know in other contexts that I can now apply here.

The great thing about evaluations are that they do serve an opinion and that this opinion is either a gift or it is not accepted as a gift. The underlying discipline gained is an exercise in good judgement.

The words we use and the care we take align with good judgement — and while writing about these things is easy when one types in the course of thinking these words out aloud, it is an all-together different proposition when our words carry the weight of the listener, rather than assuming that what has been written is best an exercise in reflection and review.

The last meeting of the month provides me another opportunity to evaluate a speech and so I am going to focus that much more on ensuring I am focused on speech, rather than on the person.

M.