Thanks for the Feedback: The Science and Art of Receiving Feedback Well

"Thanks for the Feedback is an extraordinarily useful book.  It's full of helpful techniques that can be put to use by anyone seeking to manage an organization, lead a team, engage a business partner, or navigate a relationship.... Stone and Heen have done a remarkable job of showing individuals and organizations how to leverage the enormous value of feedback, one of the most powerful instruments available for human learning."  

~strategy+business magazine

 
Surprisingly little attention has been focused on being an effective recipient of feedback. Enter Stone and Heen with a well-rounded consideration of "the science and art of receiving feedback well.” As they write, both of those disciplines are required to receive feedback in productive ways—not only in the workplace, but in personal life as well....the authors do an excellent job of constraining the applications to feedback usefulness while also exploring some of the other ways we can define what "feedback" consists of in our lives.
 
With a culture increasingly focused on the individual and the self, this book on developing the ability to accept and utilize the input of others constructively deserves a wide readership.
~Kirkus Reviews
 
"I'll admit it: Thanks for the Feedback made me unconformable. And that's one reason I liked it so much. With keen insight and lots of practical takeaways, Stone and Heen reveal why getting feedback is so hard -- and then how we can do better. If you relish receiving criticism at work and adore it in your personal life, then you may be the one person on earth who can safely skip this book."
~Daniel H. Pink, author of To Sell is Human and Drive
 
"Thanks for the Feedback is a potentially life-changing look at one of the toughest but most important parts of life: receiving feedback.   It's a road map to less defensiveness, more self-awareness, greater learning, and richer relationships.  Doug Stone and Sheila Heen have delivered another tour de force."  
~Adam Grant, Wharton professor and author of Give and Take
 
"Imagine an organization where everyone is actually good at receiving feedback. Collective anxiety would be reduced.  People would learn and grow. Impossible you say?  Thanks to this insanely original and powerful book, maybe not."
~Judy Rosenblum, Former Chief Learning Officer of Coca-Cola, and Founder of Duke Corporate Education
 
"Startlingly original advice for how to make feedback truly useful."
~Chris Benko, Vice President of Global Talent Management, Merck
 
"If you want to lead a learning organization, improving the quality of feedback is job one. This book is an essential guide to making that happen."
~Amy C. Edmondson, Novartis Professor of Leadership and Management, Harvard Business School, and author of Teaming
 
“Learning and HR professionals aren’t the only ones who will love this book.  It should be required reading for anyone receiving a performance appraisal -- and anyone who is striving to improve."
~B. Alan Echtenkamp, Executive Director, Global Organization and Leadership Development, Time Warner Inc.
 
“Accepting feedback at work is important, but in families, it’s vital. This simple, elegant book teaches us how.”
~Bruce Feiler, New York Times columnist and author of The Secrets of Happy Families


 

DOUGLAS STONE and SHEILA HEEN are lecturers on law at Harvard Law School and cofounders of Triad Consulting. They both live in New England.