Want to use it?

Motto - Those are not questions but mottos for the current session.

Example: This is not a shit sandwich session. Praise what you see as positive, and suggest improvements for things - you think - can be done differently.

Positive (reinforcement) - About others 

Example: 3 things I would like _ to help me get better

What can be improved (improvements) - About others

Example: What’s something you feel _ is undervalued on their contribution to the team? Why?

Personal questions - To speak about yourself

Example:  What would be the simple indulgence or gift you would really appreciate when tired or under stress

There are 12 of each so you can do one feedback session a month (without repeating). 

The idea is to provide either positive questions (to reinforce behaviour), or constructive questions (to offer options to things or behaviours we believe should be different).

The biggest point is avoiding the common “you did this wrong”. That just makes people become defensive. Besides, feedback needs to provide an alternative way to do something, it helps the person giving feedback to really think about it not just rant.

People are not machines. If you trust and like to work with people around you.. it’s better for everyone. To make this possible you normally need to know the people around you so you understand their decisions/behaviour.

This deck is composed by 50 playing cards, distributed among 4 categories:

Motto, Positive Reinforcement, Improvements and Personal Questions

Each category has three different levels to be considered when selecting the set of cards for the session:

Level 1 (*) is associated with superficial questions

Level 2 (**) with intermediate questions

Level 3 (***) with deeper questions.

Get a deck (!), then...

1. Gather the team (remember: no laptops, no mobile phones on the room)

2. Make sure that everybody has a pen and a sheet of paper.

3. Set a timer to 60 min* (For each session to be productive, the timer should always be visible to everyone — either if it's physical or digital… and make sure it's respected)

4. Deck faced down, select 4 cards from the deck, one of each (Motto, Personal Questions, Positive Reinforcement and Improvements). Read them out loud.

5. Give 5 minutes for everyone to note down the answers to each card (Personal Questions card is about themselves; the others about every other team member).

6. After that, ask for a volunteer to be the first to receive feedback in the session. Going clockwise, every team member shares the answers to the Positive Reinforcement and Improvements cards about the volunteer (without it being a conversation).

7. When it reaches the volunteer, she can briefly comment the feedback received and then share the answer to the personal question.

8. Proceed clockwise to the next person that will receive feedback. Follow the same rules described above. Stop when timer marks 5 min left.

9. Ask for comment on the session itself, and how people felt about and on it.

10. Done!

* 60 minutes is the reference time for teams with 5 members (point to 10 minutes each + 10 minutes for startup and closing)

Jump here!