A good project gets you the facts, the data. Talk objectively with those facts and you have a water tight case for any ‘rhetoric’!

In my Blog Man v. Machine I talked about PBL; ’Performance Based Leadership’, basically Behavioral Science that at Bechtel they use hand in hand with DMAICT. They have an acronym called NORMS that I use when stating a case or giving difficult feedback. This has dug me out of many tricky confrontations. When giving feedback ensure it’s:

• Not an Interpretation – an unbiased statement about an event or behaviour
• Observable – Based on specific behaviours or events that are actually seen or heard
• Reliable – 2 or more people can independently agree on events that are seen or heard
• Measurable – a number can be used to describe behaviour
• Specific – who, what, where, when, context, sequence

I find it especially useful for Black Belts who often have the facts and the data and it’s especially useful in providing feedback to colleagues / individuals.

Do you have any other methods of delivering effective feedback?