Joshua Fraser describes how Data Nerds uses CFRs (Conversations, Feedback, Recognition) to boost team performance. Every Friday at 4 pm, the team writes gratitude notes on post-its and shares them. Managers should hold a CFR with each direct report every two weeks, using the "shit sandwich" technique: positive feedback, constructive criticism, then positive again.
Chapters
Conversations, feedback and recognition. One of the things that we did at Data Nerds was every Single Friday at 4:00pm I would pretty much make everyone shut their computers off and we had a little box that people would put post its in about gratitude that they had for the week. We would recognize each other, we would have conversations and we would give each other feedback. We'd all hang out, we would talk about how the week went. We were really diving into like, what the hell is going on? This is very much for the manager of whoever has the objective. They should be checking in at least every two weeks and having a CFR with them. How a conversation, ask them for feedback, give them feedback and then recognize a win. I used to call it a shit sandwich. Good news, give them the shit. Good news, keep them happy. All they're going to hear is the shit. You want to give them good feedback about things that they're doing well and then kind of slide in the part that you're like, okay, this is a little dodgy. It's going to be a harder conversation that we're going to have to talk about. That's a cfr. They help us enhance communication within the company. It allows us to be transparent with each other and allows us just to keep a good pulse on what the hell is going on, right.