Beneficial, Lasting Change Is a Holistic Process (Premise 6)

No More Feedback — Chapter 14

This chapter is an excerpt from No More Feedback: Cultivate Consciousness at Work, the first in a series of books on toxic practices in the workplace. Read the introduction and previous chapter here on Medium, and find links to purchase the full book here.

The behavior of a part within a system is the result of the interconnected set of patterns of the whole system. Thus, the whole must be considered when one is working to change or correct any apparently independent part, including a person. For this reason, it is not effective to isolate an individual element (a person or a team) when attempting to change or improve a system. An example is isolating a person who appears to have a discipline problem and working to “fix” them without considering the systems relationships that need to be taken into consideration and developed at the same time.

Most companies have instituted a system called rating and ranking, which I will explore in depth in a later book in the Toxic Practices Series. I visit it briefly here because it has a strong connection to the toxicity of feedback, when feedback is used to improve or correct the behaviors of individuals in a system.