Using Feedback to Reduce Truthiness ​ Jeffrey Woodard ​ Sr. Manager, Quality Engineering ​ ​

​ “I’m a great tester! Everyone respects and admires the work I do.” ​ “I’m a terrific manager! My team is great. They all love what they’re doing and we work together as a really cohesive unit.” ​ What evidence or facts do you base your choice upon? If your answer includes references to your intuition or “gut,” then you are practicing truthiness - stating what you wish or believe to be true, rather than the facts. Do either one of the following quotes sound like something you would say? Using Feedback to Reduce Truthiness

What’s the Deal with Truthiness? ​ Truthiness is a quality characterizing a “truth” that a person making an argument or assertions claims to know intuitively “from the gut” or because it “feels right” without regard to evidence, logic, intellectual examination, or facts. It is the idea of passion and emotion and certainty over information. What you feel in your gut, that's more important than information. Using Feedback to Reduce Truthiness

​ Truthiness should have NO place in the testing that you do. As testers, we are constantly seeking information, seeking and using facts. ​ While truthiness shouldn’t exist within your testing, you have likely encountered it practiced by others that you work with. For example, “I believe that the ABC bug is fixed with the XYZ change. Just go and retest it.” That has a ring of truthiness to it. Especially without any additional information on why you should also “believe.” How Does Truthiness Relate to Testing? Using Feedback to Reduce Truthiness

​ It is likely within your team. At some time, we each have some amount of truthiness. ​ You also are likely to encounter truthiness from outside your team. Most often in the form of feedback. Sometimes it might be truth. Sometimes it is truthiness. “If only one person is saying it is so, it probably isn’t so.” How Does Truthiness Relate to Leadership? Using Feedback to Reduce Truthiness

​ “Feedback includes any information you get about yourself. In the broadest sense, it’s how we learn about ourselves from our experiences and from other people— how we learn from life.” ​ -Thanks for the Feedback: The Science and Art of Receiving Feedback Well Feedback Using Feedback to Reduce Truthiness

Heuristic Feedback Conversation Model ​ A simplified model of what makes up a feedback conversation. Using Feedback to Reduce Truthiness

18 Testers 7 work remote from Indy 3 time zones Split among 10 squads Feedback conversations occur during 1:1 meetings * Exceptions: Retrospectives Other meetings/forum where every participants is expected to give feedback to the group Some Context About My Team Using Feedback to Reduce Truthiness

1. Before you tell someone what you think, be sure to actually think. Feedback Heuristics Using Feedback to Reduce Truthiness

2. Shut up (verbally and mentally) so you can listen. Feedback Heuristics Using Feedback to Reduce Truthiness

3. If you think, “that’s wrong.” Ask, “tell me more.” Feedback Heuristics Using Feedback to Reduce Truthiness

4. Leave the answer out of your question. Feedback Heuristics Using Feedback to Reduce Truthiness

5. You get what you give, and what you ask for. Feedback Heuristics Using Feedback to Reduce Truthiness

6. Whether ‘Bitter’ or ‘Sweet’, keep them separate. Feedback Heuristics Using Feedback to Reduce Truthiness

7. Are you giving someone baggage or fuel? Feedback Heuristics Using Feedback to Reduce Truthiness

For most of us, the component of feedback most in need of development is seeking and receiving feedback. Start small. Keep trying. Determine your own feedback heuristics. What works for you for within your own context. Developing The Feedback Habit Using Feedback to Reduce Truthiness

​ If you are just starting to make feedback a part of your team’s culture, expect it to be difficult at first. PRACTICE and continued use to make it a part of your tool set. Recognizing the types of feedback you are receiving. Seeking alignment when what you receive is different from what you asked for. Invite and encourage feedback from your team. Don’t fall victim to assuming “silence is golden”. People around you may assume it is someone else’s responsibility to tell you. ​ ​ Well-delivered, timely feedback drives performance, enriches relationships, and creates strong, highly functioning teams. Strengthening a Team with Feedback Using Feedback to Reduce Truthiness

1.Douglas Stone, Sheila Heen. Thanks for the Feedback: The Science and Art of Receiving Feedback Well ​ Lots of recommendations on how to understand and work through the differences between the feedback you expect versus the feedback you actually receive. Contains ideas that can also make you more skilled at giving feedback. 2.Scott, Susan. Fierce Conversations: Achieving Success at Work and in Life One Conversation at a Time ​ The templates for the conversation models in this book are very useful for preparing and giving feedback, especially evaluation or coaching. 3. Harvard Business Review. Giving Effective Feedback (HBR 20-Minute Manager Series) (20 Minute Manager) 4. Eryn J. Newman, Maryanne Garry, Daniel M. Bernstein, Justin Kantner, D. Stephen Lindsay. Nonprobative photographs (or words) inflate truthiness. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 2012; DOI: /s /s If you’re still determined to practice truthiness, using pictures can help. Also includes references to comedian Stephen Colbert’s first use of the word “truthiness.” References Using Feedback to Reduce Truthiness

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