Managers As Mentors, 3rd Edition

Eleven Reasons to Try FeedForward

Participants are then asked why this exercise is seen as fun and helpful as opposed to painful, embarrassing, or uncomfortable. Their answers provide a great explanation of why feedforward can often be more useful than feedback as a developmental tool.

 

1. We can change the future. We can’t change the past. Feedforward helps protégés envision and focus on a positive future, not a failed past. Athletes are often trained using feedforward. Race-car drivers are taught to “look at the road ahead, not at the wall.” Basketball players are taught to envision the ball going in the hoop and to imagine the perfect shot. By giving protégés ideas on how they can be even more successful (as opposed to visualizing a failed ...