Avoid the Sandwich

It's no surprise that many managers dislike giving constructive and corrective feedback. It's likely that they have often been met with a number of unpleasant reactions when they have given this type of feedback in the past.
For instance,


I'm sure many of us have seen at least one of these reactions to corrective feedback in the past. In essence, our own behavior of giving good constructive feedback has been followed by aversive and unpleasant consequences. As a result, many managers have a learning history that has punished this type of feedback.
Unfortunately, all too often managers choose to use the "sandwich method" to avoid these types of unpleasant contingencies.  If you aren't familiar with the term, you have probably seen the sandwich in action. In this type of feedback, a manager starts with a positive statement, then gives the real feedback, and then ends with another positive statement. In essence, the feedback itself is sandwiched between some fluffy, pleasant, but useless verbal behavior.
From a behavior analytic perspective, the sandwich is sh*t. Please, please, don't use the sandwich. Why?
1. The sandwich adds additional stimuli to respond to which can confuse employees. Just like we do in TAGTeach, we want to give them one clear directive in order to have the best chance at changing the behavior. Athletes that receive pinpointed corrective instruction (What you want to see, One behavior, Objective/measurable, Five words or less) are better at correcting their performance and gaining complex skills quickly.
2. The sandwich can make a manager seem insincere. Often, the positive statements are contrived or irrelevant and can seem forced. As a result, the manager's verbal behavior may be devalued overall and trust can be damaged. (A behavioral definition of trust- a relationship in which SDs for reinforcement are consistently followed by reinforcement). This has wide-ranging effects on behavior in the workplace and none of these effects are good.
3. It may reinforce poor performance. Especially if the manager observes the "bad" performance behavior and then immediately provides feedback, the consequence temporally closest to the "bad" behavior is positive! We know from our basic principles that positive consequences immediately following behavior strengthen the behavior and increase its frequency in the future. Therefore, the manager that uses the sandwich following poor performance may inadvertently reinforce poor performance.
4. It may reinforce the manager's behavior of giving bad feedback. If an employee smiles or reacts pleasantly to the sandwich (which is likely given the last part of the sandwich is a positive statement), the manager may feel that they are "effective" and use it more often. However, the pleasant immediate consequence does not mean that the employee's behavior will actually improve. Using the sandwich may generate more sandwich-giving behavior without correcting underperformance in any way.

If those reasons aren't enough on their own, there's empirical evidence that the sandwich is ineffective. In one study, the highest rates of performance were found when feedback was uniform rather than positive and negative combined (Choi, Johnson, Moon, & Oah, 2018).  In another, no feedback was actually more effective than the sandwich! (Henley &  DiGennaro Reed, 2015). Even more concerning, when comparing the positive, corrective, positive feedback statement sequence to four other sequences, the sandwich was found to actually decrease performance for four of five subjects (Henley, 2014).

If you're looking for alternatives to the sandwich, the following readings provide a good start:
Bringing Out the Best in People
The Supervisor's Guidebook
An Analysis of Feedback from a Behavior Analytic Perspective


Or, if you're in town feel free to attend the Fall Leadership Lecture at Lindenwood University:

Date: Tuesday, November 27^th 

-          Time: 4:00pm – 5:00pm

-          Location: Evans Commons 3020

-          Session Title: Giving Good Feedback: When, Why, and How to Have Difficult Conversations

References:

Choi, E., Johnson, D. A., Moon, K., & Oah, S. (2018). Effects of Positive and Negative Feedback Sequence on Work Performance and Emotional Responses. Journal of Organizational Behavior Management, 38(2-3), 97-115.

Henley, A. J., & DiGennaro Reed, F. D. (2015). Should you order the feedback sandwich? Efficacy of feedback sequence and timing. Journal of Organizational Behavior Management, 35(3-4), 321-335.

Henley, A. J. (2014). An Evaluation of the Interactive Effects of Feedback Sequence and Timing on Efficacy and Preference(Doctoral dissertation, University of Kansas).