'Feedback' Is Out. Now In: 'Feedforward' --- Bosses nix some workplace lingo for gentler terms.

"Employers around the country have good news for workers who dread chats about their performance: Feedback is on the way out.

Many companies, executive coaches and HR professionals are looking to erase the anxiety-inducing word from the corporate lexicon, and some are urging it be replaced by what they see as a gentler, more constructive word: "feedforward."

Feedback too often leaves workers feeling defeated, weighed down by past actions instead of considering the next steps ahead, but "feedforward" encourages improvement and development, its proponents say.

"The old assumptions of feedback, and all that word conjures up, I think puts a chill on performance," says Joe Hirsch, a corporate speaker and author of a book on how to fix feedback. "Feedforward is about this forward-looking view of people, performance and potential."

The canceling of feedback has its share of skeptics. It comes as younger generations -- who can prefer a more positive, nurturing environment -- are accounting for a larger share of the workforce, and companies increasingly focus on performance and efficiency following a pause on reviews during the pandemic.

"Feedback conversations, as they commonly exist today, activate a social-threat response in the brain interfering with the ability to think clearly, and raising heart rates," says Theresa Adams, senior HR knowledge adviser at human-resources trade association SHRM.

Companies are also banishing another negatively charged term: "review," which they are replacing with "connect" sessions, coaching and opportunity discussions.

Pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca changed its review process in 2020 in an effort to help retain talent, according to Marc Howells, VP of talent and development. Instead of yearly reviews, the company is embracing quarterly check-ins, and has replaced feedback and performance management with "feedforward" and "performance development."

"As soon as someone says, I want to give you feedback, people go into a defensive reception," Howells says.

At Microsoft, managers are encouraged to use the word "perspectives" instead of traditional feedback, according to current and former employees. Reviews, meanwhile, have been branded as "connect" conversations. The company also recently stopped including anonymous comments from peers in employee reviews, instead showing the names of the colleagues in question.

A Microsoft representative says the software giant decided to change its feedback approach after seeking feedback about it from staff.

To do better by employees, managers are being told to bury their bad feedback habits -- sometimes quite literally.

In April, Hirsch ended a workshop by asking attendees to write a regret they have had when providing feedback -- say, talking to subordinates like children -- on a Post-it note. Hirsch opened the lid of a miniature black plastic casket, in which the Post-it Notes were laid to rest.

Booking.com recently started teaching employees how they can best receive feedback, says Paulo Pisano, its chief people officer.

The online travel agency made a series of videos for employees, in which executives share examples of situations where they had a "learning moment" that came from others' feedback and perspectives, he said.

Despite leading that effort, Pisano says he's not immune to feedback anxiety. When asked how he'd feel if he was about to get feedback, his mind started racing.

I don't know you very well, and you're already pulling me to the side? Pisano says he thought. "I can catch myself being a bit defensive."

Jodi Miller, a 30-year-old former teacher, used to have a visceral response when she'd find out she was about to get professional feedback.

Whenever she got an email after a classroom observation, her stomach would drop -- prompting her to wait hours before she could muster the courage to open the message.

"There's this fear of what you're going to find, wanting to prepare yourself," says Miller, now an entrepreneur.

Plenty of employees feel the sidelining of feedback is a step too far. For some, the effort is, at best, an empty rebranding exercise. At worst, it deprives swaths of workers of the tough love they feel is essential to grow.

Jennifer Solomon-Baum, a former Microsoft marketing director who left early this year, says she understands why the company chose to rethink its approach to feedback, which she feels may have made employees more open to giving feedback. On the other hand, she says Microsoft's recent decision to put an end to anonymous peer feedback in reviews completely backfired.

In the wake of the change, "we didn't get the richness of constructive criticism," says Solomon-Baum, who is now consulting and leading marketing for a new ballet company in Los Angeles.

"It became a praise festival."" [1]

1. 'Feedback' Is Out. Now In: 'Feedforward' --- Bosses nix some workplace lingo for gentler terms. Bruell, Alexandra; Ellis, Lindsay. 
Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 13 Sep 2023: A.1.