This website requires certain cookies to work and uses other cookies to help you have the best experience. By visiting this website, certain cookies have already been set, which you may delete and block. By closing this message or continuing to use our site, you agree to the use of cookies. Visit our updated privacy and cookie policy to learn more.
This Website Uses Cookies
By closing this message or continuing to use our site, you agree to our cookie policy. Learn More
This website requires certain cookies to work and uses other cookies to help you have the best experience. By visiting this website, certain cookies have already been set, which you may delete and block. By closing this message or continuing to use our site, you agree to the use of cookies. Visit our updated privacy and cookie policy to learn more.
ISHN logo
search
cart
facebook twitter linkedin youtube
  • Sign In
  • Create Account
  • Sign Out
  • My Account
ISHN logo
  • Home
  • Magazine
    • Current Issue
    • Digital Editions
    • Archives
    • Buyer's Guide
    • Subscribe
  • Topics
    • Environment
    • Environmental Health and Safety
    • Government Regulations
    • Health
    • Industrial Hygiene
    • Occupational Safety
    • PPE
    • Product Case Studies
    • Psychology
    • Safety Culture
    • Training
    • Transportation Safety
    • More Topics
  • Construction
  • Oil & Gas
  • Columns
    • Editorial Comments
    • Best Practices
    • Positive Cultures
    • Training Strategies
    • Closing Time
    • FR Protection
    • Thought Leadership
  • Products
  • Conventions
    • Convention Companion
  • Multimedia
    • eBooks
    • Infographics
    • Photo Galleries
    • ISHN Podcasts
    • Your Digital Mentor Podcasts
    • Videos
    • Webinars
    • White Papers
    • ISHN YouTube Videos
  • More
    • Awards
      • 2020 Readers' Choice Awards- Submit Products
    • eNewsletters
    • Events
    • ISHN Store
    • Product Case Studies
    • Product Innovations
    • Showrooms
    • Vendor News
  • Advertise
    • Contact
Home » "Can I give you some feedback?"
Psychology

"Can I give you some feedback?"

April 24, 2000
E. Scott Geller
Reprints
Safety-related conversations often come across as confrontational. One person tells another he or she is working unsafely and needs to do something about it. This points out that people expect the worst when safety feedback is offered. If you confirm those expectations, you'll have trouble being an effective safety coach. Here are five ways to avoid potential problems:

Stress that feedback is necessary

Repeat after me: Practice does not make perfect. We can practice the wrong way of doing something over and over, and develop a bad habit. Only with specific behavior-based feedback can we improve and eventually 'make perfect.'

Remember, risky behaviors are naturally followed by reinforcing consequences such as comfort, convenience or efficiency. That makes it easy to develop unsafe habits. Coaching with the right kind of behavioral feedback is the best way to help people practice the right way and develop safe habits.

Be positive

How do you feel when someone asks: "Can I give you some feedback?" Do you really expect the incident to be rewarding? Most people do not. Based on a lifetime of experience, feedback is more often linked with 'reprimand' than 'praise.'

Your first feedback session really needs to be positive and constructive to set the tone and change those expectations. In general, the context of how feedback is delivered is crucial. The nature of the conversation or group discussion surrounding a feedback session determines whether such a process will be appreciated, supported and sustained.

Use "trial-and-success learning"

It's popular to believe that the best way to learn is by making mistakes. If we believe we learn more from our mistakes, and we act on this belief, we'll be ineffective coaches.

Behavioral scientists have shown quite convincingly that we learn more from focusing on our successes than our failures. Edward Lee Thorndike demonstrated this at the beginning of the 20th century. He discovered that cats, dogs, fish, chickens, monkeys, and humans solved problems through a process he called 'trial and accidental success.' The subjects learned to solve the problems with greater and greater ease by discovering which behavior worked and then repeating that behavior.

It's ironic that descriptions of Thorndike's work referred to "trial-and-error learning." But Professor Thorndike knew better. We do learn something from feedback about our mistakes. We learn what not to do. But it's the positive feedback from our successes that produces the most learning. It helps us feel good about ourselves and the task at hand.

So if we want people to feel good about safety-related behavior, we better offer more positive than negative feedback.

Be careful with public praise

Whether positive or negative, individual feedback should not be delivered publicly without the recipient's permission. Many people feel embarrassed when receiving special attention in a group context. They might fear harassment by their peers. You know the jealousies that can surface: "Why did you deserve that special recognition? Have you been kissing up to management again?"

It can be useful to give group feedback publicly. Since individual responsibility is diffused or dispersed across the group, there's little risk of individual embarrassment or peer harassment. But it's critical for this group feedback to be more positive than negative. It should be presented in terms of achievement rather than failure. Remember, we want people to look forward to the next feedback session.

Give feedback first (sometimes)

If you're already motivated to do your best, when do you want feedback in order to improve? When do you want the coach to remind you of specific behavioral steps to perform? It often makes sense to give individual feedback immediately before the next opportunity to perform the target behavior.

Jason DePasquale and I recently conducted rigorous field research that found teenagers who were learning to drive increased their safe driving practices significantly only when they received specific behavioral feedback before their driving session. During baseline observation, our research assistants rated several driving behaviors of students as 'safe' or 'at-risk' on a critical behavioral checklist. After these baseline observations, one group of 14 drivers received specific behavioral feedback at the end of their driving session; student drivers in another group received it immediately before the next session. Only this later group improved their driving safety, as measured by our research assistants' use of the checklist.

I hope you can see from these five steps the importance of dispelling some common myths about feedback. These myths can actually hinder safety improvements. Set the record straight and you help enhance understanding and buy-in for a behavioral feedback process.

Five myths about feedback

1. Practice makes perfect

2. Feedback is viewed as positive

3. We learn more from our mistakes

4. Give positive feedback in public

5. Feedback should always follow behavior

By E. Scott Geller, Ph.D., senior partner with Safety Performance Solutions, and professor of psychology at Virginia Tech. Dr. Geller and his partners at Safety Performance Solutions (SPS) offer seminars, books, videotapes, audiotapes, and customized consulting services on the effective application of feedback techniques. Call SPS at (540) 951-7233; www.safetyperformance.com.

Links

  • www.safetyperformance.com

Subscribe to ISHN Magazine

Recent Articles by E. Scott Geller

Dig deeper into system factors behind at-risk actions

Humanistic behaviorism: The essence of effective behavior-based safety

The Human Side of Safety

How can we increase self-motivated behavior?

Critical behavior checklist for effective behavior-based coaching

E. Scott Geller, Ph.D., is Alumni Distinguished Professor, Center for Applied Behavior Systems, Virginia Tech, and senior partner with Safety Performance Solutions, Blacksburg, VA. For more information visit www.safetyperformance.com. "Actively Caring for People's Safety: How to cultivate a brother’s/sister’s keeper work culture," co-authored by Scott’s daughter Krista, was recently published by ASSE. Scott’s 15-minute TEDX talk on You Tube can be accessed at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sxpKhIbr0E

 

Related Articles

20 guidelines for giving feedback

Can I trust you on that?

Related Products

Top Ten Pitfalls in OSHA Recordkeeping and How to Avoid Them

Related Events

Contractor Safety in the Oil and Gas Industry Can Make or Break You

Construction Safety – Can We Make It Better?

Related Directories

American National Standards Institute - ANSI

DMS - Diverse Manufacturing Solutions LLC

Subscribe For Free!
  • Digital Edition Subscriptions
  • ISHN eNewsletter & Other eNews Alerts
  • Online Registration
  • Subscription Customer Service

More Videos

Popular Stories

Today's News

2 young part-time UPS workers killed in California

Today's News

Steel worker injured at Indiana plant

Tesla

Report finds worker injuries are “routine” at Tesla’s Nevada plant

crystal ball

Safety and health trends for 2020

Lendlease

Humorous workplace safety campaign features mothers

ISHN Readers' Choice Awards 2020 product submissions


Events

March 7, 2019

Safety and Wellness: The Combination that Drives Engagement and Profitability

On Demand Attend this webinar for the keys to success, as well as mistakes to avoid, when targeting safety and wellness with a Recognition & Reward Program.

View All Submit An Event

ISHN Podcasts


ISHN Podcasts

ISHN Magazine

ISHN1219_cover.jpg

2019 December

Among the articles in the December 2019 issue of ISHN Magazine, we have expert insight on selecting the right respirator, a link to the 2020 Buyers’ & Resource Guide, 10 safety mistakes that can land you in a courtroom, and much more.
View More Create Account
  • Resources
    • List Rental
    • Safety A-Z
    • Custom Content & Marketing Services
    • Market Research
    • Web Exclusives
    • Privacy Policy
  • Want More
    • Connect
    • Subscribe
    • Survey And Sample

Copyright ©2019. All Rights Reserved BNP Media.

Design, CMS, Hosting & Web Development :: ePublishing