Providing feedback

Using the K.I.S.S. framework

While I know many of you are aware of the K.I.S.S. acronym standing for Keep It Simple Stupid, but there’s a much more nuanced and helpful use of the same acronym. I use it whenever I elicit or provide feedback. It’s simply (see what I did there) considering what to Keep, Improve, Start, or Stop.

I first learned this acronym from the productivity guru Michael Hyatt, but cannot confirm if he’s the creator or not. Luisa Tuzza speaks to this as a self-analysis tool in her blog, A KISS to your happiness. Both of these experts use this as a tool for reflection and consideration in goal-setting. In fact, in my own full focus planner each week I sketch out my answers to those questions as I review my week. It’s a great tool that I rely on regularly:

(Notes from my Full Focus Planner using KISS)

Today, however, I want to suggest you use K.I.S.S. whenever you are giving feedback to others, particularly when helping them to communicate more effectively.

My own students at USC next week will be using this to give one another feedback on their final presentations. Here are some more thoughtful questions to consider within the framework.

• Keep – what worked best? What elements resonated most with you and the intended audience? What aspects seem essential for the communication to be effective?

• Improve—What was unclear and required greater explanation? What felt incomplete or unfinished? Where could the message be amplified or tightened?

• Start—What was missing? What can be added to increase the message's impact? Is there a story, analogy, or fact that would be a value-add to include?

• Stop—What can be dropped or eliminated? What aspects of the content or delivery distracted from the main message? What items feel extraneous or “fluffy” that can be eliminated?

In my experience this richer set of questions makes for far better feedback for teams and individuals. It goes beyond the traditional “likes/dislikes” or “plus/deltas” by asking the evaluator to provide very action-oriented feedback. (Plus/delta might be defined as what went well and what could change.) During one of my own performance reviews I used this framework for my self-reflection, because it was so familiar to me. My supervisor at the time was impressed by this and chose to then provide his feedback using the same four-part framework. It enabled us to be “singing from the same sheet music” around what worked and what could change in the year ahead for us.

So, the next time you are asked to offer feedback on a peer’s business writing or public speaking, consider framing your reactions using Keep, Improve, Start and Stop to help the recipient clearly understand the actions required to bring the communication to a greater level of impact.

JD’s Recommendations: what I’m reading, hearing, and seeing:

• Reading: Speaking of feedback, Adam Grant reminds us to “Stop serving the compliment sandwich.”

• Hearing: my friend Sharon Richmond adds to our feedback theme with This episode of To Lead is Human.

• Seeing:  It’s admittedly a guilty pleasure, but some nights I binge a bit on Britain’s Got Talent, and this teacher moved me to tears. No feedback lessons, just joy.

As always, jds

PS: for those in the Bay Area, consider joining me on Tuesday, April 9, from 5:00 to 6:30 as I interview Bruce Brackett about his brand-new book, How to Breathe While Suffocating, releasing that very day.