One of the best gifts we can give those we lead is clear communication. That is what God gave us in the garden. After He created us, He communicated to us. After He designed us, He directed us. “Be fruitful and multiply.” After we sin, He communicated again with a question. “Where are you?” Because God loves and appreciates us, He clearly communicates to us.
Since we love and appreciate the production staff and volunteers we lead at church, we should clearly communicate to them. But communicating and giving feedback can be a murky experience. Especially if the project is subjective and involves creativity. When it isn’t clear how important or weighted each piece of feedback is, it can be confusing and frustrating for the person giving and the person receiving feedback. But developing clear and consistent feedback language gets everybody on the same page. This type of communication reduces tensions and allows everybody to be on the same page and solve problems faster.
Over twenty years in ministry, I've found the following types of feedback to be helpful in my interactions with both clients and creatives. Clients are the ones overseeing the project—the ones giving the feedback, and creatives are the ones executing the project—the ones receiving the feedback. So, I will use those terms below. This type of clear language is also beneficial to those outside of typical creative and production roles, so consider using it across your church.
1) Praise
Often the client wants to correct the bad right away that they forget to celebrate the good. Do not forget to include this critical type of feedback. If you do, the creative will feel under appreciated and stop bringing their best work to the table.
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2) Question
Sometimes you don’t have all the information to give feedback. When this is the case, ask the needed questions. When there is an information vacuum, we normally fill it with negative assumptions instead of positive truths. Asking questions helps you avoid this tendency.
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3) Instruction
Something that needs to be corrected. When an instruction is given, the assumption is it’ll be executed. If a creative disagrees with an instruction, they should voice it. But if after voicing the instruction the client has not changed their mind, the creative should execute the instruction. In the end, the client makes the final call.
Pro Tip - If a creative is a volunteer and repeatedly struggles with receiving instructions, they may need to consider a different area of ministry that better aligns with their giftedness. If the creative is a staff member, they may need to consider a different path and work for themselves.
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4) Suggestion
Something that could be corrected but doesn’t have to. When a suggestion is given, the creative makes the call about whether or not they want to execute it.
Pro Tip - The client needs to have a balance of instructions and suggestions. If there are no suggestions, then the creative may feel their voice and unique touch is getting lost in the process which is highly discouraging.
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5) Note
Something that can’t be corrected on this particular project, but it needs to be watched for down the road. An example would be, “You didn’t capture b-roll so this story isn’t visually engaging. Get b-roll next time.”
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Using these five types of feedback will provide greater clarity to the people you led. Which in turn, releases them to their full potential. As an example, here is a video of me using this language to frame my feedback to a Video Director. If your teams need coaching with this type of language, or with other boundaries holding them back, let me know. I would love to partner with you to help them reach their next level. Have yourself an awesome day.