What are the barriers to seeking feedback?

Goals can be hard to work towards when there are things that get in the way of achieving them.

Sometimes these things affect our capability or ability to know what to do and when, our ability to take action, or our motivation for engaging in something.

Let’s start with vegetables as an example. Some barriers to eating more vegetables may be:

• Capability or skill for knowing which vegetables to purchase, how to prepare them, or remembering to purchase them
• Lack of time or opportunity to purchase and prepare vegetables
• Cost and/or convenience of purchasing vegetables compared to other foods
• Thoughts or emotions that may influence choosing other foods over vegetables, e.g. some people may not like the taste of broccoli (thought deterrent) or may prefer to eat foods other than vegetables when they are in a specific mood
• Beliefs about ability to prepare and consume vegetables, such as, ‘I can’t make foods with vegetables well’
• Social opportunities such as cost of vegetables, going out for dinner and eating at a restaurant with limited vegetables available, or social influences to eat certain foods over others

When it comes to seeking feedback, we might identify some barriers such as:

• Knowing how to ask for feedback effectively
• Struggling with identifying and taking advantage of the opportunity to seek feedback on work or skills
• Believing that seeking feedback might not be helpful and/or that feedback received will be all negative
• Thinking that you do not have the time to seek feedback or implement the feedback that you receive
• Perceiving your friend, colleague, lecturer, manager or supervisor won’t have the time to respond to your request for feedback

Sometimes the barriers can be in our control (e.g. our thoughts and beliefs around seeking feedback) or they may be out of our control (e.g. the availability of a colleague or peer to seek feedback from).

When trying to work towards a goal, we need to consider different types of barriers that may get in the way of reaching our goals, such as:

• Our own skills, knowledge and capabilities to do what we want to achieve
• Opportunities for implementing the behaviours in line with our goals
• Our own motivations, thoughts, beliefs, emotions and current behaviours that may arise and conflict with achieving our goals

Once we have an idea of what some of the main barriers to achieving our goal of seeking feedback might be, we can develop an if-then plan or intention for overcoming that barrier. The key thing about writing if-then plans is having the situation identified and the action you will then do if the situation occurs.

Using the vegetable example, we might write something like, ‘If I think I will be too busy to buy and cook fresh raw vegetables for the week, I will then buy and heat frozen vegetables to eat instead.’

An example for seeking feedback might be, ‘If I submit a piece of work to my supervisor by email, I will write in the body text up to three specific things I would like feedback on’ or, ‘If I think that my supervisor won’t have the time to respond to my feedback request, I will ask a trustworthy colleague who is less busy for some honest and helpful feedback on my work.’

Some tips:

• Try to choose solutions for barriers that are feasible according to your individual circumstances, and where the implementation of these solutions is under your control. For example, if you feel that you are more confident writing an email than making a request verbally, choose to write an email as the solution.
• As per the module about goals, write down your if-then plans on a piece of paper or sticky note and put them somewhere that will help to remind you how to overcome barriers in the way of your goals.
• Review your solutions, intentions or if-then plans with a trusted family member, friend or colleague if you are unsure about the kinds of actions you could take.
• Read your if-then plans aloud or say them in your head repeatedly to help you to remember them.
• We are more likely to engage in a behaviour if we have rehearsed it. Practise your if-then plan, for example, by writing a draft email about seeking feedback, or writing down what you would say to someone when asking for feedback.
• Revise your if-then plans when you revise your goals if you need to.

Practise your skills

Make a table with three columns: Barrier, Solution and If-then plan. You can use a pen and paper or your computer.

In the first column, write up to three main barriers that may stop you from working towards one of the goals you developed in the previous activity. In the middle column, write down a possible solution that may help you to overcome that barrier. In the third column, write down your intention using the if-then plan structure for how you would overcome that barrier.

Once you have completed the table, share one of your if-then plans with the group. Provide comments on others’ if-then plans. Is their solution feasible? Is it something you had not thought of that might be helpful for you, too?

Optionally, add extra barriers, solutions and if-then plans for the current goal you chose to work on, or choose one or more of your other goals to list barriers, solutions and if-then plans for.

Save or put your table somewhere safe. Share a summary of it in the comments below.