Reading · 16 min
Name the behavior, then the result
This reading is about feedback at work. The skill is to name a behavior and a result, not a personality. Careless is a portrait. A missing lot number, and a truck held for two hours, is a record. A feeling can be true and still be the wrong opening, because the listener then manages your mood instead of the next file. Always and never turn one date into a character. The questions will offer a kind sentence that cannot be repeated on purpose. Check whether the option names what happened, what it cost, and what the person does next time.
Read it in English first. The other language is a gloss, not the task.
1
Workplace feedback fails when it names a personality. You are careless cannot be changed on Thursday. The packing list left out the lot number, and Haeundae Plant held the truck for two hours, can. The first sentence judges a person. The second names a behavior and a result. A colleague can repeat the second sentence, agree with the fact, and change the next list. They can only defend themselves against the first. Defense is not a correction. It spends the meeting on who someone is, and the lot number is still missing when the next truck is called. Start with the file, not with the character you have decided the person has.
2
The result has to be something the work felt, not something the speaker felt. I was frustrated is true and not useful as an opening. The client received the file after the review had started is a result. Keep them separate. A feeling can sit in one short clause after the fact, or it can stay out. It cannot replace the fact. Feedback that opens with disappointment teaches the listener to manage the speaker's mood. Feedback that opens with the missed lot number teaches them what to fix before the next truck. If you do not yet know the result, say so, and do not borrow a feeling to fill the gap. A gap is more honest than a portrait.
3
Scope matters. One behavior, one result, one next time. A meeting that stores six months of irritation into a single conversation is not feedback. It is a case the listener cannot answer point by point. In Tuesday's note, the figure for May was last year's May is narrow enough to check. You always rush covers every file the person has ever sent and none of them precisely. Always and never are personality words wearing a date's clothes. Drop them. Say the day. If the same miss happened three times, name the three days. A count of days is still a record. A word like always is a verdict, and a verdict does not tell anyone which line to fix.
4
The close is the next behavior, not a grade. On the next packing list, write the lot number before you send it, and I will check the first one with you at 3. That gives an action and a time. Try to be more careful returns the person to a personality and leaves Thursday blank. Praise follows the same rule. You are a natural is a compliment the person cannot repeat on purpose. You sent the agenda the day before, and the room arrived with numbers, is a behavior they can do again. Feedback is a record of what happened and what should happen next. It is not a portrait. A portrait is for someone who is not expected to change the next file.
Questions
Answer every question, then check.