Getting Better at Getting Better: Caring and Candor in Feedback Conversations

Simultaneously improving performance and relationship in feedback conversations can be challenging. It is easier to focus just on performance (with confronting feedback that can harm the relationship) or just on the relationship (by sugar-coating the feedback). This session draws on cross-industry insights from research on learning from accident and error in high-hazard chemical processing and nuclear power, and on feedback and debriefing challenges in clinical care. The session illuminates 1) why it is so hard to hold the polarities of candor and caring at the same time, 2) the internal “ninja mind-training” needed to do so, and 3) a method of advocating for one’s own point of view while exploring other people’s that can be used advance learning and performance in conversation or email. The session blends didactic and experiential approaches to understanding and mastering the approach. 1. Minehart RD, Rudolph J, Pian-Smith MC, Raemer DB. Improving Faculty Feedback to Resident Trainees during a Simulated Case: A Randomized, Controlled Trial of an Educational Intervention. Anesthesiology. 2014;120(1):160-171. 2. Rudolph J, Foldy E, Robinson T, Kendall S, Taylor S, Simon R. Helping without harming: The instructor's feedback dilemma in debriefing--A case study. Simulation in Healthcare. 2013;8(5):304-316. 3. Carroll JS, Rudolph JW, Hatakenaka S. Learning from experience in high-hazard industries. Research in Organizational Behavior. 2002; 24:87-137.