{"id":2492,"date":"2021-10-06T10:00:09","date_gmt":"2021-10-06T10:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.spotlight.com\/?p=2492"},"modified":"2024-01-10T10:44:15","modified_gmt":"2024-01-10T10:44:15","slug":"reframing-feedback-by-tahlia-norrish","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.spotlight.com\/news-and-advice\/the-industry\/reframing-feedback-by-tahlia-norrish\/","title":{"rendered":"Reframing Feedback"},"content":{"rendered":"

On the list of things most of us have a love-hate relationship with, feedback would be towards the top. Actor and writer Tahlia Norrish explains how performers can reframe this feedback to progress in their career.<\/h3>\n

Intellectually, we appreciate the purpose of feedback is to make us better. Emotionally, it can still be hard to take. As actors, however, our ability to effectively integrate feedback (direction) can be the defining factor in whether we book work, and when we do, our experience on the job.
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Fortunately, smart humans at Harvard Business School and Stanford University have a simple, ready-made strategy we can employ to grow from useful and\/or necessary suggestions\u00a0while\u00a0keeping our sense of self-worth stable. All it takes is a little reframing.<\/p>\n

The current paradigm<\/h4>\n

The current feedback paradigm (for the most part) ties the comment(s) to an action that occurred in the past, for example, \u201cYou weren\u2019t connecting with your partner at the top of that scene\u201d. While the comment itself may be factually correct, there isn\u2019t anything we can do to change a past action.<\/p>\n

Due to feedback\u2019s inherent roots in the past (which the word itself implies), receiving it can feel like a final evaluation\u00a0–\u00a0much like receiving a big, red \u201cC\u201d stamped on a school paper – a permanent reflection of us and our limited potential. In many cases, this is enough to trigger our species\u2019 \u201cthreat response\u201d (fight, flight or freeze), and this is where the issue lies.<\/p>\n

A joint meta-analysis by professors\u00a0Avraham N. Kluger and Angelo DeNisi<\/a>\u00a0revealed that, as a result of the perceived \u201csocial threat\u201d, over a third of the time, feedback actually has a negative correlation to our future performance. No doubt we can all recall a time that this has proved true in our own lives.<\/p>\n

The question then becomes: how can we assimilate direction productively?<\/p>\n

A more empowering alternative<\/h4>\n

The answer (and the more empowering alternative) turns out to be \u201cadvice\u201d. We simply have to switch the words and therefore our focus.<\/p>\n

\u201cAdvice\u201d may still reference a past action, but comes packaged as something we can actually do and change moving forward. If feedback presents an evaluation, advice presents an opportunity.<\/p>\n

As Alison Wood Brooks and Francesca Gino, professors at Harvard Business School, explain: \u201cWhereas the past is unchangeable, the future is full of possibilities. So, if you ask someone for advice, they will be more likely to think forward to future opportunities to improve rather than backwards to the things you have done, which you can no longer change.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the strategies below will help us put this reframe into practice for the most part, there will inevitably come times when we still receive tactlessly delivered critiques. The key here is to read the \u201cadvice\u201d between the lines, that is, to flip the thing we didn\u2019t achieve in the past (the given feedback) to something we can now execute in the future.<\/p>\n

For instance, if we take the feedback example above (\u201cYou weren\u2019t connecting with your partner at the top of that scene\u201d), we might conclude, \u201cListen to my scene partner with my whole body\u201d is a more advantageous directive. On these occasions, we become our own coach in a sense,\u00a0which is a tremendously enabling response, so be mindful we\u2019re being a compassionate one!<\/p>\n

Putting into practice<\/h4>\n

In crude terms, there are two sources of exposure to external feedback: unsolicited (not-asked-for) and solicited (asked-for). Each has a different method of implementation, but both result in a more valuable experience for all.<\/p>\n