The Feedback Sandwich

Our guidance on the Feedback Sandwich.

If you go on the internet, where everything is true, especially management guidance, you’ll read a lot about the feedback sandwich technique. Weirdly, it’s also called a praise sandwich, or a compliment sandwich, both of which make no sense. That’s like calling a ham sandwich a bread sandwich - it focuses on the outside of the sandwich and not the reason for the sandwich to begin with.

Surely you’ve heard of it. When a manager has to deliver negative performance communication, she “sandwiches” her criticism between two positives. The idea here is to soften the criticism.

And in this guidance we will take a look at its pervasiveness and effectiveness, and discuss an alternative approach.