I’ve been fascinated by Dan Heath’s book, ‘Upstream’. Basically, it’s about the power of foreseeing a problem at the source, so you can reduce the likelihood of it occurring. The metaphor he uses of ‘going upstream’ really resonated, and there are plenty of examples in my life where I’ve found myself struggling with ‘downstream’ issues, that could have been avoided if I’d sorted out what was going on upstream 😊 Check out this podcast interview with the author, if you like it, here is the book.

What does this have to do with feedback conversations?

When we can foresee a problem, we have more manoeuvring room to avoid or reduce the associated risk.  When you have an early warning of the problem you might need to solve, you have more chance of avoiding or reducing it.  The problem in many organisations is a fear of feedback offering and receiving.  The invisible cost of feedback going pear-shaped is enormous.  

How can I go Upstream in my Feedback Conversations?

Use the Warm Up conversation to foresee feedback-receiving problems.  Use this conversation to talk about feedback, and to identify patterns and trends in the other person’s feedback-receiving behaviour.   Do they have a history of taking feedback personally? Ask them about their past and recent feedback experiences.  Take the time to have a conversation with them before you offer any feedback.  Invite them to go upstream with you, so you can both avoid rough waters downstream.

Think of a Warm Up conversation as a smoke alarm – you get an early warning that the person may not be open to receive feedback before you offer any feedback, or that they love feedback, and actually want more of it.  Then you can have a conversation about making the most of your future feedback conversations.

Next steps:

To navigate the waters of feedback effectively, it is crucial to anticipate and address potential problems before they arise. Use Warm Up conversation to identify historical patterns, and adopt an upstream approach. You then have an early warning system to detect and mitigate feedback-related challenges. 

Some questions to consider:

1. Are you using Warm Up conversations to identify historical patterns and trends to predict potential feedback challenges before they arise?
   

2. Are there any strategies or techniques from Dan Heath's book ‘Upstream’ that you can apply to improve your approach to feedback?
   

3. How can you encourage a culture of Feedback Fitness, by having Warm Up conversations?