The Complete Feedback Skills Training Book

Citation

Cattell, A. (2000), "The Complete Feedback Skills Training Book", Industrial and Commercial Training, Vol. 32 No. 7. https://doi.org/10.1108/ict.2000.03732gae.004

The Complete Feedback Skills Training Book

The Complete Feedback Skills Training Book

Sue BishopGower2000£65.00

Keywords Feedback, Interpersonal communications, Skills

Several months ago, colleagues and I were discussing the possibility of designing a course specifically on feedback skills, rather than just including feedback as an element within other courses that we run.

The publication of Sue Bishop's new book was timely in that the content both mirrored our discussions and aided our course design process. The text itself is divided into Part 1, covering "Feedback principles" as regards the generic skills required in giving and receiving feedback, and Part 2, which covers "Applications" under a number of identified managerial feedback scenarios. In brief, these are: appraising, coaching, correction, counselling, meetings, organisational, presentation, selection, teams and telephone.

The reader is offered a number of choices as to how the content of the book can be practically applied. For those seeking a reflective self-development approach for themselves, there are a number of self-study exercises and development activities. For those wishing to design courses or workshops, there are a range of well-written case studies, role-plays and practical exercises, each of which can be reproduced as training resource materials.

One of the real strengths of the book is that the writing style of the author allows the reader to view feedback from a number of different angles and perspectives, which are both thought-provoking and stimulating. As such, I found myself reflecting on my own performance as both a giver and a receiver of feedback at various stages of my life. Wearing my learning programme/course designer's hat, this then gives opportunity to include personal anecdotes if relevant, as part of workshop/course design and delivery.

Bishop's book can be utilised as a dip-in, dip-out resource, the advantage being that each of the 20 chapters can be used as stand-alone units. Within each of these, there are tips, checklists, briefs and exercises which are simple and easy to read, understand and apply. Formal and informal feedback situations are identified and explored and, although most of the scenarios are biased towards one-to-one feedback, one chapter does cover group feedback.

My only disappointment with the text was that it lacked a conclusion/summary of key points (whatever the scenario) at the end of the book. Perhaps because of the stand-alone nature of much of the content, this was not considered appropriate by the author. However, I personally would have found this useful as a reinforcement of the important common elements of feedback. Despite this, Sue Bishop has produced an eminently flexible learning resource which is of value not only to those interested in their own self-development, but also to trainers and developers wishing to design participative and interesting learning interventions.

Alan CattellStaff Development Manager and Health Lecturer, University of Bradford School of Health Studies