Welcome to Giving Helpful Feedback. People have an amazing ability to work together in relative harmony. We have a wide range of skills that allow us to get along, we have rules about who stands where in an elevator, we know to give people room when they seem grouchy. We allow people to finish their thoughts when they are speaking. But one area of organizational life doesn't come as easily and that is giving feedback, especially when we want a colleague to change. Giving positive feedback or praise is not too hard. But we sense, we know that negative feedback is risky. In fact most of us avoid giving it. Yet negative feedback has the amazing ability to teach us and improve us. The goal of this course is to give you the confidence to produce positive and negative feedback. You will learn to give useful feedback and leave the person receiving it with their dignity. All the material in this course is based on the best research in social psychology and also cognitive psychology. This research gives us answers to perplexing questions. Such as, why does negative feedback linger with us so long? When we know the answers we are better able to maximize the benefits of negative feedback. You'll learn very basic skills in this course that you can use in your daily life but more critically, on the job. You'll learn how to make your praise more motivating. You'll learn how to deliver negative feedback so that people will try to solve problems rather than create more problems. You'll learn seven very specific skills to improve the effectiveness of negative and positive feedback. You'll learn that praise has the power to make people more innovative and better team members. The benefits of knowing these skills are far-reaching. You'll reduce the frustration of not knowing if giving feedback is a good idea or not. You'll have more confidence and less fear in delivering feedback. You won't need to second guess yourself, you'll know that the techniques you use to deliver feedback are scientifically based and we'll protect the dignity of the person receiving the feedback. If you are a manager or hope to be one, applying the principles consistently will improve your relationships with employees, build trust, and help your organization to run more efficiently. You don't have to be in management to find this information valuable. You can use it with your friends and family members to improve communication in your relationships. These skills are most critical, however, for members of workgroups, the aspiring manager, or anyone in a management position. Even if you are leading the organization, the principles of good feedback remain the same. Special knowledge is not needed to take this course, just an open mind. I will explain the principles and skills, and then provide lots of examples and opportunities to practice so that the ideas come to life. The ideas are simple, but they are also powerful tools that can help you empower others and work more effectively. I am Tracy Jennings, an instructor at the University of Colorado in Boulder. I teach business management, but my education was in cognitive psychology. I believe that understanding how our brains function can make us more effective in our work lives. My colleague behind the scenes of this video is Alison a masters student in English. Both of us are dedicated to bringing you the skills to make you a better manager. I hope that you enjoy this short course and put its ideas to work immediately. Thanks for watching Giving Helpful Feedback. [MUSIC]
