Performance conversations that produce change, not defensiveness.
The Feedback Fix is a one-day immersive workshop for leaders who care about their people but struggle to challenge them directly. The programme is not about communication techniques. It is about the psychological and neurological mechanics of why feedback so often fails to land, and what leaders can do, structurally and behaviourally, to change that.
Duration
1 Full Day
Primary Audience
Managers, Senior Managers, Team Leaders
Delivery
In-person, cohort of up to 25
The programme is grounded in the neuroscience of feedback, examining how the brain processes feedback exchanges as social threat or social reward, and what that means for how conversations must be structured to be received rather than deflected. The Emotion Tracker, an ExperienceLearning activity specific to this programme, gives every participant a personalised map of their own emotional triggers in feedback situations, which becomes the reference tool for everything that follows.
Four modules build progressively from science and psychology through structured delivery frameworks, difficult conversations with high and low performers, and the practices that sustain a genuine feedback culture. The CORE Model and Feedforward practice rounds give every participant live muscle memory, not theory. The programme closes with each participant designing a 30-day feedback cadence for their specific team.
Every session includes practice, not presentation. Participants leave with muscle memory, not notes.
Module 1: Neuroscience of Feedback
Participants examine how the brain processes feedback as social threat or social reward and what that means for how conversations must be structured to be received rather than deflected. Five dimensions of threat response in feedback situations are explored: status, certainty, autonomy, relatedness, and fairness. The Emotion Tracker ExperienceLearning activity gives every participant a personalised map of their own emotional triggers and intended alternative responses, which becomes the reference tool for all modules that follow. Caselet: The Defensive Performer.
Module 2: The Three C's of Effective Feedback
Effective feedback is Clear (specific and factual, not vague or evaluative), Constructive (focused on the behaviour and its impact, not the person's character), and delivered with Care (demonstrating genuine investment in the recipient's growth). Three frameworks practised in live rounds: the CORE Model (Context, Observation, Result, Expected Next Steps) for structured delivery; a future-focused growth input approach that replaces backward-looking critique with forward-looking development; and a direct-with-care framework that challenges performance while maintaining personal regard. Caselet: The Underperforming New Hire.
Module 3: Navigating Difficult Feedback Conversations
ExperienceLearning practice rounds structured around seven specific moves: identifying common challenges and defensive reactions; calibrating feedback approach for high and low performers differently; managing emotions in the conversation; creating a psychologically safe opening; stating observations with verifiable facts rather than interpretations; actively exploring the recipient's perspective; and committing to a clear, named action with a defined timeline. Peer observation frameworks are used in every round.
Building a Feedback Culture
The final module builds the practices that sustain continuous feedback: real-time feedback delivered immediately, peer feedback as a team norm, and upward feedback as a standard part of how the team operates. Each participant designs a specific 30-day feedback cadence for their team, shared with the group for peer review and accountability.
Leaders who dilute difficult feedback to protect the relationship, and end up protecting the problem instead
Conversations that leave the recipient unclear on what specifically needs to change, by when, and to what standard
Emotional triggers that derail feedback conversations before they land, on both sides of the exchange
Teams without a feedback culture, where the annual review is the only structured performance conversation anyone receives
Managers who treat high and low performers identically in feedback conversations, with consistently poor results for both
From vague feedback that protects the manager to specific, structured conversations that produce clarity and change
From reactive feedback delivered when problems become crises to a continuous rhythm as the team's operating standard
From emotionally reactive exchanges to psychologically informed conversations the recipient can receive and act on
From one-directional performance feedback to multi-directional feedback including peer and upward channels
These are the named outcomes from the programme design document. Commitments are signed at close and tracked at 30 and 90 days through structured manager conversations. Kirkpatrick Level 3 measurement is standard on every engagement.
Feedback Confidence: Leaders initiate difficult performance conversations without delay. At 30 days, participants report delivering structured feedback conversations using the CORE Model or Feedforward approach with measurably fewer defensive reactions.
Structural Precision: Feedback conversations are specific, timed, and followed by a named next step. The recipient leaves every conversation knowing exactly what needs to change, by when, and how it will be measured.
Psychological Safety by Design: Leaders actively create the conditions for feedback to be received. Team members report higher safety in development conversations. The tone, timing, and framing of exchanges shifts noticeably.
Continuous Feedback Rhythm: Each participant establishes a 30-day feedback cadence. At 90 days, real-time feedback, peer feedback, and upward feedback are operating practices, not aspirations.
Every ProventusHR programme is designed bespoke to your organisation’s context. No two engagements are identical.
Explore Leadership Capability ›The Emotion Tracker is an ExperienceLearning activity in which participants encounter a sequence of feedback scenarios and map their own emotional responses at each stage, naming their specific triggers, default reactions, and intended alternative responses. The completed tracker becomes a personal reference tool for live feedback conversations.
The CORE Model is a structured feedback delivery framework covering Context (the situation in which the behaviour occurred), Observation (the specific, observable behaviour), Result (the impact on the work, team, or relationship), and Expected Next Steps (the specific change required and the timeline). It is practised in live rounds during the programme.
Feedforward replaces backward-looking critique with forward-looking growth input, asking the recipient what they could do differently in future rather than reviewing what went wrong in the past. It is particularly effective with high performers who respond to possibility rather than correction.
Managers, senior managers, and team leaders who give performance feedback regularly but struggle with clarity, with difficult performers, or with building a culture where feedback is welcomed rather than feared. Also relevant for HR business partners and L&D practitioners who coach managers on feedback practice.
The programme is designed for immediate application. Participants leave with a designed 30-day feedback cadence, a personal Emotion Tracker, and the CORE and Feedforward frameworks practised in live rounds. Most report their first structured feedback conversation within five working days.
Yes. The Feedback Fix pairs naturally with Lead Talent Code: Leader as Coach and with The Culture Compass. It is also regularly delivered as a standalone module within LEAP leadership journeys where feedback culture is a specific development priority.
Feedback Fix is ProventusHR's programme on building a culture of developmental feedback. It builds managers' capability to give specific, behavioural, forward-looking feedback in real time - not as an annual event but as a daily leadership practice. The programme uses structured conversation tools and REEL|Life to surface participants' own feedback avoidance patterns.
Every engagement begins with a diagnostic conversation. Tell us the leadership challenge and we will design from there.
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