The Science and Art of Receiving Feedback Well

Life is full of feedback. Yes, it’s your performance review, sure, but it’s also the way your son’s eyes light up when he sees you in the audience, the passive aggressive comments you get from your mother-in-law, the “suggestions” your peer has for you for how to better manage your time. We often react defensively, feeling frustrated that the feedback is off-target or unfair, doesn’t take account of who we are, and offers no acknowledgement for all that we’ve already done well. But as dispiriting as it can be, we know we need feedback — our success at work and in relationships depends on it. In this talk, Douglas Stone and Sheila Heen of the Harvard Negotiation Project at Harvard Law School, cofounders of Triad Consulting based in Cambridge, MA, and coauthors of the seminal business book, Difficult Conversations: How To Discuss What Matters Most, arrive to discuss their brand-new release, Thanks for the Feedback: The Science and Art of Receiving Feedback Well. They will look at why feedback is such a challenge — “am I supposed to take feedback that is just plain wrong?!” — and offer ways receivers can regain their balance and engage in feedback conversations with skill.