The Start, Stop, Continue retrospective is the best way to give feedback.

There is a lot of pressure to be productive in the workplace and as an individual.There is David Allen's Getting things done, Lean Management, a general pressure to cut costs, and even the need to see the Manneken Pis when we go.Can anything be done to ease the pressure?

One way to be productive is to use feedback.For several reasons, the sandwich model is the most used model and Alison Wood wrote about it here on "Feedback sandwiches all round - why I like the "sandwich method"

I wrote about why I didn't like this model on "Where can I get a feedback sandwich?"

The main thing for me is how you listen to feedback.It might work if you don't know how it works.Regardless of what else is said, you are going to listen to the criticism in the middle.There are ways around this.

The Start-Stop- Continue feedback model is a possible way to do it.Why is it different?It is possible to focus on 3 types of feedback.If focuses on:

If you give feedback, you should go through the 3 steps in order to get a complete overview of what you are doing.You will listen to all 3 aspects because you know that each of these matters.

The sandwich feedback model which may work well in a North American culture but not in others, such as the Portuguese culture, is unlikely to work in other cultures.

You can always use it with your peers, as long as you get feedback from them.

Don't give your thoughts in this fashion to someone who is not expecting it or aware of it.Your CEO might not know anything about this feedback model.When you meet him in the elevator, what do you think about the last board changes?

I don't think you'd get the chance to say what your CEO should continue doing and what he should stop doing.

I belong to a club that requires us to use the sandwich feedback model.I try to deliver my feedback in the form of a sandwich when I give feedback on a speech or a session.The possibilities are next to endless.

It works really well if you use feedback to increase performance.Pick the model that works best for you.The Start-Stop- Continue model should not be used just because someone says it is great.The benefits and the cons should be considered in your context.

I like the Start-Stop- Continue feedback model a lot and believe it provides great results in any given context.Let me know if you give it a try.