Delegate

How the IT Industry's Best Workplace Use Feedback to Make Their Values Concrete

How do you avoid that company values simply end up as nice words on a website — and instead become a meaningful guide to your work?

Sara Tugcu Pedersen has a good idea of that.

She is a Senior Consultant and Team Leader in Delegate. It is an IT consulting house of 200+ employees working with Microsoft products. They have also been named the IT Industry's Best Workplace (and the IT Industry's Best Workplace for Women) in 2022.

“In Delegate we have 3 values: presence, reciprocity and recognition. In working with these values, the feedback techniques we have learned from Feedwork have been worth gold,” Sara told me.

“Feedback has always been important to me, but complex. I needed a framework for it. After getting to know some of Feedworks tools, it has become more manageable and easier to implement. I love that you can take a tiny thing, test it off pretty simple and then scale up from there.”

Sara notably uses feedback in two places to support Delegate's values. This happens in the relationship with the customers and in the relationship with the employees.

So let's get completely low-practical and show you how a skilled team leader has implemented some relatively simple techniques in everyday life:

1) How feedback can strengthen the relationship with customers

Once Sara has completed a project with a client, she always books the project manager for a feedback meeting of about 1 hour. Together with the meeting invitation, she sends 2-3 questions for the project manager to prepare for.

“I intentionally ask no more than 2-3 questions so as not to overwhelm people and book the meeting well in advance so that they have time to reflect,” says Sara. “But often these questions act as a can opener for a lot of other things that the customer comes to mind. Part of it I can use immediately, and the rest comes in an idea bank.”

Sara uses e.g. Technique 'What's the one thing' like this:

What's one thing I did really well in the context of x on the project?

What's one thing I did less well compared to y on the project?

So what does Sara get out of these feedback sessions?

“Firstly, it is a really good way to end a project because the customer gets the opportunity to reflect and be honest about how the collaboration has gone. I'm getting stronger at what I'm good at and what works. It can be really hard to figure out for yourself what value you are creating. That way I get input on what I do that works well — and what may be my development points in the future.”

In addition to using feedback as a good end to a customer task, Sara also uses the tools to inspire her employees and colleagues on how to use feedback in their own development:

2) How Sara makes her employees more skilled with feedback

“I always encourage my employees and colleagues to seek feedback along the way. I spar with them about how to convene a feedback meeting and what might be good questions for such a meeting. And then we talk together about how it went and what they can use the feedback for.”

Sara elaborates:

“I talk openly with my employees and colleagues that it is a shared responsibility to seek learning. We also talk about the fact that it's ok to say “no, it's a bad fit right now” when someone wants to give feedback.

And so they have figured out exactly how to do it and what is the best way to formulate it so that there is not just sandwich model (the model consists of giving 1) positive feedback 2) constructive criticism 3) positive feedback again, ed.) in it.

“In this way, my employees feel that they are mandated to take their development into their own hands. The way they can be empowered by taking a tiny feedback tool and implementing it is exciting and really cool to experience.”

Does Sara think others could benefit from learning feedback tools?

“I guess I want to ask more specifically: Who couldn't benefit from that? Having the tools to be able to master a feedback situation is a foundation we should all have, just like that I think we should have “how to fix your taxes” on the school schedule. It's about how you commit yourself as a human being. So, in my opinion, it's relevant to all employees in all organizations.”