This is what we call feedforward.

This was the conversation we had with a client when we were preparing a training programme for their managers.

It happens to us quite often.

It turns out that feedback everyone knows about it, everyone has taken a course or read a book, everyone talks about it (although I don’t know how much it is “properly” practised … hahaha) and, on the other hand, the feedforward haven’t heard as much. When, in essence, what we are talking about is an improved evolution of thefeedback. Feedforward = feedback + proactivity.

What is Feedforward?

Feedforward is like a GPS for your professional and personal life. Instead of telling you “You ran the red light three blocks ago”, it warns you in advance “At the next intersection, turn right”;

This technique is future-oriented, giving you recommendations and advice on how to improve in your future tasks or day-to-day situations.

Unlike feedback, which evaluates past behaviours and outcomes, the feedforward provides guidance and advice for your future, through concrete and targeted improvement.

Before we go on, I would love us not to forget another very important point: what is our relationship with criticism.

It may be the elephant in the room that no one wants to comment on.

Most of us take criticism badly. According to some statistics, 70% of people react by feeling hurt by a critical comment, 20% reject it by denying it, and only 10% reflect calmly, internalise what they are told and decide whether or not to change their behaviour.

This difference in the reception of criticism can be due to a multitude of factors. However, it is usually quite closely linked to our internal insecurity: the less secure we are, the more vulnerable we are to criticism.

Therefore, feedback can sometimes be perceived as critical and even negative (especially if it focuses on errors); whereas the feedforward is generally positive and motivating, as it focuses on future improvement actions.

In my experience, feedforward is a valuable tool when working in a team. Being more appreciative tends to strengthen relationships and create a more collaborative working environment. Offering suggestions for the future empowers people, giving them the confidence to improve and succeed.

How to use Feedforward

Very good.

And how is that done?

Giving feedforward is like being a good sports coach: not only do you point out what was not done well, but you give specific advice on how to improve.

Schematically, it is a conversation that should be structured in 3 parts:

1.- What I like about ….

I love it…

Concrete things (Facts) that I have done right

2.- What I would like to see more of…

And if in addition…

1 specific thing you want it to do differently

3.- Benefits

This will allow you/us to…

2 or 3 benefits

As you can see, being proactive is essential.

It is crucial that comments are directed towards future behaviours and outcomes, avoiding a focus on past mistakes and, above all, that they are concrete and practical so that they can be easily implemented. Instead of saying “improve your presentation”, you could suggest “try structuring your presentation into three main sections for clarity”.

This is where empathy plays a key role. By offering feedforward, we must be able to understand the other’s point of view and be in tune with it. Without empathy, our suggestions may sound cold or insensitive. It is not just about giving instructions, but about creating an atmosphere of trust and understanding.

The key is to phrase the suggestions in a way that motivates the person to improve, for example, by saying “I am sure that, with your communication skills, you can improve even more if you practice clarity in your points”. Instead of pointing out what is wrong, suggest some tip of how it could be better. In the example, it could be “To better capture the audience’s attention, you could start with an interesting anecdote”.

OK. Very good.

I know how it is done.

And the other, what?

What about the one who is receiving feedforward?

You are absolutely right. Doing so effectively is also crucial for personal and professional growth. And, above all, for your professional relationship.

It is essential to listen with an open mind. That goes for being willing to consider new ideas and/or approaches; not dismissing suggestions immediately just because they are different from what you usually do. That is the first of all.

Also, showing gratitude to those who have taken the time to offer you that feedforward is critical; a simple “Thank you for your suggestions, I will take them into account for my next task” can make all the difference.

In practical terms, evaluate and prioritise suggestions, as not all of them can be implemented immediately. Focus on those that are most relevant and prioritised for your current situation. Look for ways in which you can incorporate and put into practice the suggestions received.

Finally, take the time to reflect on the feedforward received and how you can adjust it to your style and context. Not all suggestions will work for everyone, so adapt them to your needs.

And it is here that I do not want to forget another fundamental element: face-to-face communication plays a crucial role in this whole process. Sometimes, the excessive use of technologies, such as e-mails, Teams, Slack… can impoverish the quality of our relationships and increase conflict. Direct conversation allows for a better interpretation of suggestions and avoids misunderstandings. Moreover, it demonstrates a level of empathy and concern that simply cannot be conveyed through a keyboard.

And now, what…

I invite you to try it.

Feedforward is a powerful tool that allows us to look to the future with optimism, improving our present.

At a time when the world is changing so rapidly, when continuous improvement is key, we cannot afford to miss any opportunity to grow and develop. Using feedforward gives us the ability to anticipate and adapt, whether at work or in our personal lives.

Learning to give and receive feedforward effectively can transform our interactions, our relationships and our results.

Remember, criticism can be difficult to handle, especially when we feel we are being labelled or judged. Therefore, offering feedforward can be much more effective and less painful. And if in addition…in this time where the quality of communication is often compromised by technology, recapturing those face-to-face conversations can make a big difference in how we give and receive these valuable suggestions.

So, let’s get on with it!

*Article written by Antonio Moya – AM Coaching.

La entrada Feedforward: Looking to the Future to Improve the Present se publicó primero en Agencia comma.

Most commonly, however, you will need spokesperson training if you are going to be a spokesperson for an organisation or public activity of any kind. To begin with, let’s assume that you know how important it is to insert spokesperson activity into a communication strategy that is well designed and laid out. No matter how good a spokesperson you are, if you are not clear about your messages, their impact and their purpose, your work and your flamboyance are likely to be, at best, useless, if not counterproductive.

Everything communicates

At comma we defend a well-proven theory: everything communicates. Yes, both your presence and your absence communicate. Not going where someone asks you to go to talk about a topic in which you are relevant is a way of conveying a message, usually a negative one. The space in your sector that you do not occupy will be occupied by someone else.

The way you dress, your gestures, the words you choose to express yourself also communicate. The examples you give, how often you smile, and how you do it, whether it is more or less forced… Everything! Good personnel trainers for call centers know that if you speak with a smile, that smile shows on the other end of the phone. But you can also tell if the smile is fake: smiling doesn’t sound the same as gritting your teeth. Eyes don’t cheat either, they lie, but they don’t cheat.

When we face a spokesperson training, one of the first suggestions we propose to the person we are going to train is to disarm, to take off the corsets, the armours, the protections, and to relax. We are going to have fun, we are going to play with your ego, we are going to break it into little pieces and we are going to put it back together so that you come out stronger, knowing yourself better and with new and fundamental skills when you have to effectively convey an interesting and useful message to and about your organisation. We are not going to give them another voice, we are going to find their own voice, and for that we try to make them as relaxed as possible. And we usually succeed.

Knowledge of the environment: back to school

The first challenge is to make them aware of the communicative universe in which they operate, i.e. what they call “knowledge of the medium” at school. Usually, he thinks he knows it only because he reads and understands articles and news items in the press. Nothing could be further from the truth: the product of the press is simple to understand because that is precisely its function, but behind that product, there is an elaboration process that has a myriad of peculiarities. For example: behind the best key message ever (in my opinion) there is a work of decantation, analysis of the discourse and the spokesperson, search and find, which has a lot of thinking, strategy, training and a little bit of luck. It was so good that Ciudadanos copied it from PSOE. The “burns” were not born with the networks, as we can see, and in fact, the “go away, Mr. González” was a hit refrain that is still remembered today.

Once the communicational paradigm in which we move is well understood, liquid, unfriendly and stark, the apprentice spokesperson should understand that in this map, trust in institutions has decreased, and faith in leaders has grown, although not in all of them.

The most recent Edelman confidence barometer shows how the level of trust in leaders varies from country to country, but in general, trust in government leaders is low. For example, in the UK, confidence is 29%, while in China it is 86%. For business leaders, confidence is high, with 95% in Indonesia, 91% in India and 88% in Saudi Arabia. In general, trust in political leaders is low compared to other groups, such as scientists or CEOs of companies.

Spain, among the most distrustful

In Spain, this trend is even more pronounced: trust in leaders in Spain has declined, with a trust index of 42% in 2024. This places Spain among the countries with the lowest confidence in leaders, and represents a significant change of -7 points from the previous year. Therefore, Spain is among the countries with the highest index of distrust in leaders, according to the data of this annual barometer.

Parallel to this loss of trust in leaders, mistrust in the media (as in all other institutions, NGOs, etc.) remains a problem, because that is precisely where leaders like to go, and for that they hire consultancies like comma, and spokesperson training like the one we usually offer to our clients.

What and who do people trust? Interestingly, one of the most paradoxical revelations of this Barometer is that people trust scientists (what a great opportunity) and their peers. In other words, people tend to give the same level of credibility to what an eminent biotechnologist publishes in the most important indexed journal in her field as they do to what your paddle tennis partner posts in the office WhatsApp group.

If we really don’t see any problem with it, go ahead. Let us continue on the path of speaking to be heard, to impress our competitors, to defend ourselves against journalists and their sometimes uncomfortable questions. But it might be possible to start talking to people as their equal, their partner, their friend, without becoming a ‘Fernando Galindo’, of course. An equal. How many CEOs of large companies, how many political leaders, are capable of doing that?

To be a good spokesperson you also have to understand something else: what I teach you today may be old or incomplete tomorrow. Those who struggled to speak on television in the 1990s had to learn to do so on networks in the 2000s and on tik tok (which is something else) in the Roaring Twenties of this century. As communication is a deeply technologically mediated profession, it is necessary to adapt to developments and learn how to deal with them. Are you ready to be interviewed by an artificial intelligence? Maybe you should.

Framing: How to get people to look where you are aiming and not somewhere else.

One very interesting thing is the frames and how to fix them: framing which, despite being older than time, still works as well as it did on the first day. Not to be confused with the message. The message is part of a strategy of framing in which it is essential to choose the right semantic field of words in order to ensure that the discussion on a topic that interests you takes place on a playing field that you have designed with a prior strategic objective in mind.

Spokespeople need to learn that, once the strategic objective is defined, there is a framework in which the conversation around that objective is favourable. For the public conversation around your target to develop in that field, the choice of words will be crucial. For example: if you are a tobacco entrepreneur and you want to influence public opinion in favour of smoking in open spaces such as terraces or parks, perhaps the key message should not be “smoking outdoors does not harm anyone”, but rather “scientific evidence shows that open spaces are ideal for enjoying freedom without disturbing anyone; there is enough space for everyone”.

Let’s play taboo

To avoid talking about smoking, harm, smoke, etc., we can use the famous game Taboo® with which you have to describe something without mentioning a word or words that are forbidden. I highly recommend playing taboo with future spokespersons, it trains and entertains them, which are things that many letters share. See? You’re already looking at letters and etymology, and you’ve forgotten what we were talking about here. I moved the frame in a moment and you might not have noticed.

Taboo® is not the only game to be played in good spokesperson training. Role-playing games, in which the future spokesperson is subjected to an impromptu press conference with a camera over his or her shoulder (canutazo), to a press conference with journalists, to the need to address a speech, to an intervention in a speakers’ gallery… are fundamental to analyse the result and to improve their oral expression, their dress, their tone of voice and their gestures, all in the hope that the spokesperson trains daily so as not to forget the theory, useful training of enormous complexity.

Often our trainees in spokesperson training are surprised by this fact that anthropologist Albert Mehrabian of UCLA offered us a long time ago: only 7% of communication is verbal. Tone and voice account for 38%, and the remaining 55% is your attitude and body language.

But then, you ask, where is the message? The message, dear reader, is you.

La entrada Spokesperson training: be prepared for mistrust se publicó primero en Agencia comma.