How do you know if feedback is helping your cross-functional team?

Feedback is essential for any team, but especially for cross-functional teams that work across different domains, departments, and cultures. However, not all feedback is created equal, and some feedback can even harm your team's performance, morale, and alignment. How do you know if feedback is helping your cross-functional team? Here are some tips to evaluate and improve the quality and impact of feedback in your cross-functional team.

1 Define feedback goals and criteria

Before you give or receive feedback, you need to have a clear idea of what you want to achieve and how you will measure it. Feedback goals should be aligned with your team's objectives, values, and norms, and feedback criteria should be specific, relevant, and observable. For example, if your goal is to improve your team's communication, you might use criteria such as clarity, timeliness, and respect. Having feedback goals and criteria will help you focus on the most important aspects of your team's work and avoid vague, subjective, or irrelevant feedback.

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Marc Monday

Business Development | Go-To-Market | Revenue | Partnerships | Alliances | Ecosystems | Scale
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At the onset of a project or team to team collaboration start by building a shared language. Define terms, define deliverables, define roles, define success criteria, including KPIs and MBOS, and critical, define timelines. As part of the initial team alignment exercise, plan in advance for inevitable conflict, confusion, or misalignment. Agree on a process for how to remediate disagreements, issues, and inevitable conflicts that will arise as the teams forms and storms. Agree on a plan for remediation, including very clear definitions of who/how remediations will be managed. Plan for inevitable escalations as well with clear steps for escalating within the organization if the teams can not solve the conflicts at the front line level

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2 Use feedback models and tools

Feedback models and tools can help you structure and deliver feedback in a way that is constructive, actionable, and respectful. For example, you can use the SBI model (Situation, Behavior, Impact) to describe what you observed, what the person did, and how it affected you or the team. You can also use the STAR model (Situation, Task, Action, Result) to give positive feedback and recognize achievements. Feedback tools such as surveys, polls, or 360-degree assessments can help you collect and analyze feedback from multiple sources and perspectives.

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3 Seek feedback from diverse sources

Cross-functional teams can benefit from feedback from different stakeholders, such as customers, managers, peers, or experts. Seeking feedback from diverse sources can help you gain new insights, perspectives, and ideas, as well as identify gaps, blind spots, or biases in your team's work. However, you also need to be selective and critical when you receive feedback from diverse sources. You need to evaluate the credibility, relevance, and validity of the feedback, and compare it with your own experience and data.

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4 Give feedback regularly and timely

Feedback is most effective when it is given regularly and timely. Regular feedback can help you monitor your team's progress, celebrate successes, and address issues before they escalate. Timely feedback can help you capture the moment, reinforce positive behaviors, and correct negative ones. However, you also need to be mindful of the context and the recipient when you give feedback. You need to choose the right time, place, and tone to deliver feedback, and avoid giving feedback when emotions are high, distractions are present, or privacy is lacking.

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Marc Monday

Business Development | Go-To-Market | Revenue | Partnerships | Alliances | Ecosystems | Scale
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Time and place do matter. Be cognizant of what I call “ingame coaching” feedback that is necessary in the moment to ensure something doesn’t go awry or could negatively impact a key moment or milestones. Versus what I call “training ground coaching” - feedback applied the next day or several days later in a less pressurized environment (using the in game metaphor). Training ground feedback is often the best feedback as it’s reserved for a time/place where the feedback can be thoughtful and ideally the participant is in a good/non-stressed environment. Lastly use “postmortem” feedback. Feedback sometime after the occurrence that generally solicits insights from those who were in the moment. “What could we have done differently there”

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5 Encourage feedback dialogue and action

Feedback is not a one-way communication, but a dialogue that involves listening, questioning, and responding. Encouraging feedback dialogue can help you build trust, understanding, and rapport with your team members, as well as clarify expectations, assumptions, and goals. Feedback dialogue can also help you generate ideas, solutions, and actions to improve your team's work. You need to follow up on feedback with concrete actions, such as setting goals, making plans, or tracking progress. You also need to review and update your feedback based on the results and outcomes of your actions.

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6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?

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How do you know if feedback is helping your cross-functional team?

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1 Define feedback goals and criteria

2 Use feedback models and tools

3 Seek feedback from diverse sources

4 Give feedback regularly and timely

5 Encourage feedback dialogue and action

6 Here’s what else to consider

Cross-functional Team Leadership

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