The Feedback Stick

When I am working on a tough problem and trying to get something to work, there is a delicate part that happens during the early stage of maturity in the creation of a solution. There is a flicker of an idea that is being coerced into a small flame. This stage is very crucial but can be easily snuffed out by the wrong kind of enthusiasm when there is early progress.

Let's say we have a fictional innovative engineer named Mike who is working on a little idea that could very quickly become a huge idea…if it works. Mike diligently does the hard work of battling the brick wall of the problem trying to break it down, or at least make some progress. 

Suddenly, a ray of light appears where some mortar has fallen away! Progress! Elation! The rush that everyone working to innovate craves! Mike is beyond excited and goes to his stakeholders to show off the little win.

This, dear reader, is where the enthusiasm from the stakeholders can be devastating. 

"WOW! This is great! Now that we have this, we can start scaling it and we can add these ten other requirements now that we see that this works and then we can, and then we should…"

On the face of it, this type of reaction seems like exactly what Mike needs to keep going. But there is a catch. Mike already has a bunch of next steps already in his mind that need to happen. Areas where he is unsure the idea will work at all. The firehose of feedback and additional ideas can be paralyzing as Mike tries to update his plans to include everything that just got thrown his way. 

Result of the feedback firehose

At some point, this firehose is not only needed, but critical to ensure the innovation is ready for prime time and maximizes the benefit it delivers. The key is knowing when.

Ok Mark, how do I know when?

Enter the "Feedback Stick"!

The fictitious "Mike" above was actually me at a previous company. The company was small and scrappy doing work for a massive organization. I set my mind to solving a big pain point that they had. The idea I was working on seemed like it could provide an effective solution. The solution had one of my favorite characteristics…it was very simple.

The situation outlined with "Mike" happened exactly as described. I had a small breakthrough and was FIRED UP that after weeks of trying, there was a flicker of light that meant it might really work. Off I go to show leadership and they were just as fired up and out comes the firehose. What I had hoped would be energizing to keep going, became demoralizing. 

Luckily I had a great rapport with my leaders so I called them out on it and lucky for me they pushed back with "How do we know when?". Right then I looked over and there was one of those mini bats that they give out on "Bat night" at a ball game lying on a desk. 

Not this kind of mini bat

Although, if you want someone to stop talking and giving you feedback, it would be effective to hand them one of these.

What follow is verbatim of what I said, depending on your company culture you may need to edit the phrasing.

"See this? This is the feedback stick. If I don't hand you the feedback stick, the ONLY response to what I show you is 'That is FUCKING AWESOME!'. When I hand you the feedback stick, it means I am ready to talk through all of the things that need talking about. You can ask for the feedback stick, but I can say no."

I ended up using a sharpie to inscribe the bat with the words "Feedback Stick". This became a great source of pride in our culture because we could keep the all important energy flowing when trying to get an idea up and running. 

The stick also created an environment where I could feel safe to keep my leaders informed on progress no matter how small. Before, I would try to wait until I thought the solution could stand the scrutiny. Which led to innovating alone in the dark which can be very dangerous for your budget allocation to do the work in the first place.

Recently I have been thinking a lot about that stick and realized something I missed that it was providing. It gave my leadership a way to convey trust in me. Trust that I would know when it was safe to turn on the firehose of feedback. This sense of ownership in my work empowered me to keep going when the path wasn't clear or things weren't working like I thought. 

Trust your innovators. Let them tell you when the time is right to turn on the feedback firehose.