Critical Feedback and Transformational Learning: A Developmental Perspective
Session Abstract
I will present insights from an interdisciplinary study of critical feedback to address two questions: what are the hidden psychological demands of receiving critical feedback in a manner that advances learning; and in what ways can individual’s developmental capacity be a resource for receiving critical feedback from a shared-inquiry perspective?
Target Audience
Organizational learning practitioners and researchers; coaches; those working in professional development; HR professionals. and anyone interested in supporting adults to learn and grow
Session Description
The purpose of this session to re-pivot the feedback conversation around the experience of those receiving critical feedback. This has an important practical implication at a time when most feedback 'advice' is aimed at those 'giving' critical feedback. Further, organizations are redesigning their feedback processes to give more timely feedback to their employees, without much inquiry into how individuals 'psychologically' experience this feedback. The second aim of this session is to ground the significance and purposes of interactional feedback in the transformative learning goals, from which the conversation has moved away in recent times, and has gone in the direction of feedback for performance evaluation.
To do this, I will draw upon Robert Kegan's Constructive-Developmental Theory to demonstrate how the expectation to receive critical feedback with a stance of inquiry and minimal defensiveness is consonant with greater individual psychological complexity. More specifically, individual members' experience of and response to critical feedback can be considered more coherently when viewed through this developmental lens. Finally, I will discuss implications for design of feedback processes and interactions.