It’s time again for my end-of-the-week Feedback Sandwich*. They’re transforming how I think about my week. It’s like a pat on the back, wrapped around a wish. Totally magic. Please, join in and make yourself a sandwich in the comments!
I’m loving the Do-Overs
Turns out that the real magic of the Do-Over Sandwich is just knowing you can do it. I only had to holler Do-Over once or twice this week. But knowing I could do it whenever I wanted made things much, much easier. Surprisingly so.
The first piece of bread: More good stuff
I handled loads of emails in my inbox. I had *cough* hundreds *cough* emails just sitting.I know that there’s good stuff in there, that’s been shoved down to the bottom by the heaps of new emails. That’s part of the reason that I’ve been reluctant to spend time in my inbox.
But, I remembered how much easier it was to deal with when I treated my email inbox like a beloved home, and not Ellis Island circa 1907, and started loving it up with that in mind. I sorted and deleted and archived and filtered and unsubscribed. I’m down to less than 100 now. It feels mostly great.
There are now curtains at Perception Studios! There are curtains over the opening to the closet, and over the windows. I love that I can’t see into my closet anymore. (I face the opening when I sit at my computer.) I also love that I have curtains I can close to dim the room in case I want to do some napping or non-sucky yoga. Or just change the ambiance.
Time for the meat in the middle
One thing that I could do that will make things better, easier, more fun going forward? More Glitter! Everything’s better with glitter, whether metaphoric or literal. It’s like more cowbell but sparklier. (If that’s not a word it should be.) Every time I add more play, more fun, less sitting at my desk forcing something, the easier and better it turns out. I’m often surprised by just how simple things can be when I quit trying so hard.
I’ll tack on here, that staying on top of email will also make my life infinitely easier. In handling those 100’s of emails lately, I’ve found a few that should have had my attention some time ago. I’m not sure I can reach that elusive Inbox Zero, but I can definitely get close enough to not lose important emails in the slush.
And for that final piece of bread
I want to keep using the things I’ve learned from Rally and Secret Playdates to help me move through issues more easily. If I struggle with something for more than a few minutes, then it’s time to look at it a different way. A playful way. A glittery, metaphorical, magical way.
* * *
*What’s this about a Sandwich?
Well, yes, I am hungry, but that’s not the kind of sandwich I’m talking about.
This time I’m talking about giving myself a Feedback Sandwich at the end of each week. Or major project. Or milestone. Or, well, you get the idea.
I first learned about this concept in my NLP Trainer’s Training. We were learning to train, which included learning to give feedback that was useful. The basic format of the Feedback Sandwich is:
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Bread = Compliment, what the person did well, be specific!
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Meat = Suggestion for improvement
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Bread = Compliment, this time an overall positive assessment to take into the future.
This Sandwich comes with a warning.
For starters, it’s not necessary to create a Dagwoodian monolith of a feedback sandwich for it to be useful. It’s okay to keep it simple with a small, elegant tea sandwich. Also, I encourage carbo-loading in this case. More bread than fillings!
Another danger of the feedback sandwich is that you start getting programmed to know that criticism follows that first compliment. If I notice that I start to cringe whenever I try to give myself a compliment, I’ll probably look at another way of reviewing my week. Until then, I think with heartfelt review I’ll be just fine.
(If you’re in a position where you need to give feedback to others on a regular basis, you might want to skip the full carbo-lover’s sandwich and try this open-faced revised feedback method instead.)
What’s your feedback sandwich look like for the week?
Please share yours in the comments below, or on the Perception Studios Facebook page.
Photo by me.
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