The Feedback Game

Research shows that most people working in organizations today suffer from a lack of feedback; and they, in turn, fail to give feedback to the people around them. An increase in the amount and the quality of feedback that people receive leads to a disproportionate improvement in their motivation, the quality of their work, and their ability and willingness to develop. The Feedback Game is an extremely simple card-sort game that enables everyone to: c practise giving and receiving feedback c to experience the emotional power and the outcomes of good feedback c to identify and learn the opportunities and applications for feedback in any situation. The game is simple to facilitate and simple to play. It is also very enjoyable and offers an extremely safe learning environment. The original version of this game was first published in the Netherlands 8 years ago. Since publication, the game has been successfully used in both group and one-on-one training, team meetings, performance review, career planning, coaching, counselling and teambuilding sessions; as well as in non-work environments. Over 80,000 copies of this best-selling game have been sold worldwide in 12 languages, and the author estimates that over 50% of trainers and over 75% of higher education institutes in the Netherlands use The Feedback Game. The English edition of the game includes a set of 140 four-colour playing cards, along with detailed rules for playing three different versions of the game. 70 cards contain positive human qualities such as: helpful, honest, enterprising, creative, or responsible. The other 70 cards contain, what might be called 'distorted' qualities or weaknesses such as arrogant, inhibited, inflexible, hesitant. The concept of 'distorted' qualities is an important one, as one outcome of the game is to help players spot their 'distorted' qualities and identify ways of turning them to positive advantage. For example, arrogance may be a weakness. But, if you examine this weakness, you will find it contains latent qualities, such as self-belief and self-confidence. The objective for the arrogant person is to understand and develop these positive qualities, whilst recognising and reducing some of the negative aspects of their behaviour.