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Giving & Receiving Feedback
Learn evidence-based frameworks for delivering clear, behaviour-focused feedback and for receiving criticism without defensiveness. Build the habits that accelerate individual and team growth.
Professionals at any level who want to improve team communication, accelerate their own development, and make feedback a daily habit rather than a stressful event.
Course content
Workbook & downloads
Put the course into practice — a printable workbook plus editable templates you can fill in and reuse.
Preview the workbook
This workbook gives you practical exercises, worksheets, and templates to apply every framework from the course in your real work context. Work through each section alongside the corresponding module — the exercises are designed to take 20–30 minutes and produce outputs you can act on the same day. Save the templates and revisit them at your 30-, 60-, and 90-day plan reviews.
Why Feedback Fails — and What to Do Instead
Audit your current feedback habits, identify the failure modes most active in your context, and set a baseline for the 90-day plan.
Exercise: Feedback Failure Mode Audit
Think of the last three pieces of feedback you gave or received in the past 30 days. For each one, identify which failure mode was present (vagueness, evaluation without evidence, the feedback sandwich, or poor timing). You don't need to share these — honest self-diagnosis is the goal.
- Describe the feedback event briefly (who gave it, the context, the topic). What failure mode was present — and how did it show up?
- What was the consequence of that failure mode? Did the receiver ignore it, push back, comply without understanding, or something else?
- If you were to redo that feedback using one technique from Module 1, what would change specifically?
- On a scale of 1–10, how psychologically safe does your team feel right now? What is the main behaviour that is driving that score up or down?
Worksheet: Feedback Types Mapping Sheet
List five current situations in your team or organisation that need a feedback conversation. For each, identify which type of feedback is required (appreciative, developmental, or evaluative) and whether the receiver is likely to be receptive right now.
- Situation description
- Person to receive feedback
- Feedback type (appreciative / developmental / evaluative)
- Receiver's likely current receptivity (high / medium / low)
- What would increase their receptivity?
- Target date for the conversation
Checklist: Psychological Safety Baseline Checklist
- I have read Amy Edmondson's 7-item Psychological Safety Scale and know my team's approximate score
- I can name one specific behaviour I do that reduces psychological safety on my team
- I have modelled vulnerability in front of my team at least once in the past 30 days
- I respond to bad news from team members with curiosity rather than problem-solving or a visible negative reaction
- I separate my observation of a gap from any judgment about the person's character or intent
- I have scheduled a time to share the Edmondson scale with my team and discuss results
Giving Feedback — Frameworks, Language, and Timing
Build fluency with SBI and COIN by writing real feedback messages and practising the full conversation structure before a live delivery.
Exercise: SBI Writing Lab
Choose three real people in your professional context who would benefit from feedback right now. Write a complete SBI message for each one. Then review each message against the three common SBI errors checklist (inference in the behaviour slot, vague situation, abstract impact) and revise.
- Write the raw SBI message for Person 1: Situation / Behaviour / Impact. Then flag any of the three common errors present and rewrite the offending component.
- Write the raw SBI message for Person 2 and apply the same error-check. What was the hardest component to write — situation, behaviour, or impact — and why?
- Write the raw SBI message for Person 3. This time, write both a developmental version and an evaluative version of the same feedback. What changes between them?
Worksheet: COIN Conversation Planner
Select one upcoming feedback conversation that matters most to you right now. Use this planner to script all four COIN components before the conversation. Fill in each field in full sentences — partial notes are not enough to reduce in-the-moment anxiety.
- Person and relationship
- Feedback type (developmental / evaluative)
- Planned date, time, and location
- Context statement (why I am having this conversation and what I hope to achieve — 2-3 sentences)
- Observation (SBI core — full sentences)
- Impact (effects on me, team, client, or work — be specific)
- Opening question for Next step (ask before telling)
- One or two solutions I can offer if the receiver gets stuck
- Specific commitment I want us to agree on
- How I will follow up
Checklist: Pre-Delivery Feedback Readiness Checklist
- I have written the full SBI message and checked it for inference, vague situation, and abstract impact
- The feedback is being delivered within 24 hours of the observed behaviour (or I have a documented reason for the delay)
- I am not emotionally activated — I can deliver this with curiosity rather than frustration
- I have chosen face-to-face or video rather than written-only for this developmental or evaluative message
- I have scripted my opening Context statement so I can say it calmly without reading it
- I have prepared at least one Next question to ask before offering solutions
- I have a specific commitment in mind that I want to agree on before closing the conversation
Receiving Feedback — Scripts, Mindset, and Defensiveness
Develop your personal SARA script, identify your dominant defensive pattern, and build the weekly solicitation habit.
Exercise: Personal SARA Script Builder
Think of a recent significant piece of feedback you received — one that provoked a noticeable emotional reaction. Trace your path through the SARA stages. Then write your personal script for each stage — phrases you can actually say out loud that keep you functional without faking acceptance.
- Describe the feedback event and which SARA stage you spent the most time in. What did you do or say in that stage that you would change?
- Write your personal Shock script: a sentence or two you can say when feedback arrives unexpectedly and you need to buy time without shutting down.
- Write your personal Resistance script: a sentence that lets you push back on a specific element while staying in the conversation. Test it against the feedback event you described — would it have worked?
- What is the one physical regulator (slow exhale, foot-planting, eye contact) that you think will work best for you? Describe exactly when and how you will use it.
Worksheet: Feedback Reception Log
Use this log for the next 30 days. After each feedback event — solicited or unsolicited — record the key fields. At Day 30, review the log for patterns: Which SARA stage do you most often get stuck in? Which defensive behaviour recurs? What changed when you used an interruption technique?
- Date
- Feedback giver and relationship
- Feedback topic (brief)
- Feedback type received (appreciative / developmental / evaluative)
- SARA stage I reached and where I got stuck
- Defensive behaviour I noticed in myself
- Interruption technique I used (or could have used)
- What I committed to or decided to do with the feedback
- Follow-up action and date
Checklist: Feedback Solicitation Habit Tracker (Weekly)
- This week I asked at least one person a specific, situationally anchored feedback question
- I recorded the response in my feedback journal within 24 hours
- I did not immediately defend, explain, or minimise when feedback arrived
- I identified whether the feedback was appreciative, developmental, or evaluative before deciding how to respond
- I thanked the feedback giver specifically — naming what I found useful
- I have identified a pattern across my last four feedback entries and named it in my journal
Building a Feedback Culture — Teams, Systems, and Sustaining the Practice
Design the team rituals, formal system improvements, and personal 90-day plan that will turn individual skills into a durable team capability.
Exercise: Team Ritual Design Sprint
Choose one team feedback ritual to introduce in the next 30 days (retro plus-delta, weekly 4:1 message, or After Action Review). Design the full implementation including launch script, decay-prevention plan, and success criteria.
- Which ritual are you choosing and why — what specific gap in your team's feedback culture does it address?
- Write the exact script you will use to introduce this ritual to your team. Include what it is, why you are introducing it, what you are asking each person to do, and how it will be reviewed at 30 days.
- What is the most likely resistance you will encounter, and what will you say to address it without dismissing it?
- Write your Day 30 success criteria: what does this ritual look like if it is working? What are two early warning signs that it is going rote?
Worksheet: 90-Day Feedback Development Plan
Complete each field to build your personal 90-day plan. Be specific enough that a colleague reading this could hold you accountable. This plan is for your use — it does not need to be shared unless you want to.
- Baseline score: SBI fluency (1-10) and what a 10 looks like
- Baseline score: defensiveness management (1-10) and what a 10 looks like
- Baseline score: feedback-seeking frequency (1-10) and what a 10 looks like
- Days 1-30 giving skill to build
- Specific weekly practice for Days 1-30 (what, with whom, how often)
- Days 31-60 receiving skill to build
- Specific weekly practice for Days 31-60
- Days 61-90 team ritual to launch
- Accountability partner name and how they will check in with you
- Day 30 review date (calendar entry confirmed?)
- Day 60 review date (calendar entry confirmed?)
- Day 90 review date (calendar entry confirmed?)
- Primary signal that the plan is working
Checklist: Formal Feedback System Audit Checklist
- Our 360 process includes a coached debrief — not just score delivery
- We run a pulse 360 within 90 days of the main cycle
- Our 360 questions are behavioural (observable actions) rather than trait-based (personality descriptors)
- Our performance review is separated from compensation conversations by at least two weeks
- We have quarterly or monthly developmental check-ins rather than relying solely on annual reviews
- Managers have a written COIN structure or agenda template for check-in conversations
- We have at least one active team ritual (retro, 4:1, AAR) that has survived three cycles without going rote
Your Action Plan
- Write one SBI feedback message today for a real situation — deliver it within 24 hours
- Score yourself on the three baseline dimensions (SBI fluency, defensiveness, feedback-seeking) and record the numbers in your workbook
- Identify your accountability partner and tell them about your 90-day plan this week
- Schedule your Day 30, Day 60, and Day 90 plan review dates in your calendar before you close this course
- Run Edmondson's 7-item Psychological Safety Scale with your team within the next two weeks
- Choose and script one team ritual to introduce within 30 days — write the launch script using the exercise in Section 4
- Start your Feedback Reception Log and make your first entry after your next feedback event
- Ask one specific, situationally anchored feedback question this week — use one of the seven questions from Module 3, Lesson 3
- Write your personal SARA scripts for all four stages and store them somewhere accessible before your next challenging conversation
- At Day 30: review your Reception Log for patterns, run your first ritual assessment, and re-score your three baselines
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