CAST 2019

Receiving feedback can be tough. It can be hard to remember that it is meant to help improve work going forward, not to point out current flaws. It can be incredibly easy to take feedback or comments personally in the workplace, but what is the impact when we do so?

When we personalize situations we tend to lose sight of the bigger picture. It becomes easier to focus in on minute details and not look at the overall context in which the feedback is being given. The impacts of this lower level of focus can result in wasted time from; chasing the wrong issues, laying blame, making up excuses, refusing to ask for help, and ultimately avoiding discussions around the root cause and ways to improve.

This workshop will begin by drawing on experiences and examples of situations such as; testing debriefs (tester to tester interactions), bug discovery (tester to developer interactions), and inter team projects (team to team interactions) and discuss tactics for each on staying objective and productive. Once we’ve learned some of these tactics we will dive in with some hands on demonstrations before we break off into groups to give them a try on our own; from both sides of the conversation! When we look at feedback for what it truly is - a way to improve - we can build better relationships between communities and teams to make them stronger as a result.