Question
What makes it hard to give and get honest feedback in many organizations?
Answer
The conflict of interest created by the cooperation/competition structure of a corporation (or any organization) is the reason. That's one reason you can be surprisingly open with a random stranger you meet while traveling, who you don't ever expect to see again, or want to.
There is basically no way you can give honest feedback if you also have a vested interest in either the success or failure of the work of another person, and expect to have to interact with them over an extended period. And this is always true of any 2 people in a corporation who know enough about each other that there is data to fuel the feedback. The people who come closest to honesty are the ones who are on their way out and don't care about consequences.
By the very nature of a corporation, there are no neutral relationships. The work of any other person either supports your work or impedes it, if only through competing for the same budget. People in widely separated parts of a corporation have a relationship that approximates neutrality, but typically they know nothing about each other.
There are engaged people who compete/cooperate ironically, and two such people can be honest with each other, but they are extremely rare. Most people are either non-ironically engaged or bitter.
I like Marshall Goldsmith's "What Got You Here, Won't Get You There"... it is about the 360 degree feedback from the guy who is most associated with the technique today. This is about as good as feedback can get within an organization. Which is "pretty good" but far from "honest."
http://www.ribbonfarm.com/2008/0...
Despite all this, there is enough honesty that a smart person can carefully correct for the conflicts of interest and biases and get some genuine value out.
But those who believe that it is possible to create a positive, enlightened culture of honest, thoughtful feedback, in a group of smart and effective people, has clearly never met real human beings. There are two types of people in corporations. Those who eagerly go to seminars promising to create such cultures, who achieve very little. And those who roll their eyes and avoid this stuff and go get the work done, and play the games necessary, without making any pretense of "complete honesty."
There is basically no way you can give honest feedback if you also have a vested interest in either the success or failure of the work of another person, and expect to have to interact with them over an extended period. And this is always true of any 2 people in a corporation who know enough about each other that there is data to fuel the feedback. The people who come closest to honesty are the ones who are on their way out and don't care about consequences.
By the very nature of a corporation, there are no neutral relationships. The work of any other person either supports your work or impedes it, if only through competing for the same budget. People in widely separated parts of a corporation have a relationship that approximates neutrality, but typically they know nothing about each other.
There are engaged people who compete/cooperate ironically, and two such people can be honest with each other, but they are extremely rare. Most people are either non-ironically engaged or bitter.
I like Marshall Goldsmith's "What Got You Here, Won't Get You There"... it is about the 360 degree feedback from the guy who is most associated with the technique today. This is about as good as feedback can get within an organization. Which is "pretty good" but far from "honest."
http://www.ribbonfarm.com/2008/0...
Despite all this, there is enough honesty that a smart person can carefully correct for the conflicts of interest and biases and get some genuine value out.
But those who believe that it is possible to create a positive, enlightened culture of honest, thoughtful feedback, in a group of smart and effective people, has clearly never met real human beings. There are two types of people in corporations. Those who eagerly go to seminars promising to create such cultures, who achieve very little. And those who roll their eyes and avoid this stuff and go get the work done, and play the games necessary, without making any pretense of "complete honesty."