How Companies Benefit from Con­struc­tive Criticism

Dealing with errors is crucial for both personal and pro­fes­sion­al progress. How we assess errors and deal with them is shaped by con­struc­tive criticism. Within a company, con­struc­tive criticism can pay dividends in the form of motivated employees and long-term effects.

We explain what exactly the term “con­struc­tive criticism” means in the workplace, why many busi­ness­es are still far removed from actually providing an ideal en­vi­ron­ment for con­struc­tive criticism, and what they need to do if they want to establish it in their workplace.

The term “con­struc­tive criticism” is used in economics and social sciences to describe how people in social groups deal with risks and errors. It has its origins in mid-20^th century science and man­age­ment. It means en­cour­ag­ing a more positive in­ter­ac­tion with errors that have been committed and aims to learn from them and avoid further damage. In this way they become catalysts for future success.

The United States is con­sid­ered a per­for­mance-oriented society. The fact that errors are a bad thing is deeply rooted in our culture. As early as in school, we already start learning that anyone who makes mistakes gets bad grades and therefore suffers negative con­se­quences in the long run.

Success is most important in man­age­ment. Mistakes in this field, so we have learned, must be avoided at all costs. For this reason, when companies here in the US talked about dealing with errors, for a long time they actually meant avoiding errors. A different un­der­stand­ing of how to deal with errors first reached the main­stream in the 1990s.

At that time, the Japanese economy had ex­pe­ri­enced a huge boom. The West could quickly perceive the very different use of con­struc­tive criticism as the reason for this. While in the Western world we tended to look for a guilty party and the reasons for an error, in Japan they focused on the solution and al­ter­na­tive ap­proach­es.

Today, little has changed in these different attitudes. On paper, the concept is well-known in most companies, though few manage to put it into practice.

The fact that con­struc­tive criticism in the workplace is integral to promoting economic success has already been known for quite some time at man­age­ment level. Nev­er­the­less, in practice it is frequent to observe tra­di­tion­al ap­proach­es: threat­en­ing with negative con­se­quences when employees make a mistake, thinking this will force them to work more at­ten­tive­ly and thor­ough­ly, and improve their results.

In fact, companies mostly achieve the opposite in the workplace with this type of approach. Anyone who in­tro­duces this kind of maxim may at first observe a real decrease in their error quote. Yet even if managers often feel validated initially, this doesn’t mean that the results will be better in the longer term. Rather, it means that fear reigns and that the company could end up in a negative spiral as a con­se­quence.

This is because employees have a dwindling incentive to take risks due to a fear of penalties. They are worried about making a mistake, as it could result in a lecture from their boss, perhaps even a warning, or, in the worst-case scenario, a dismissal. Yet in a society where economic success is becoming in­creas­ing­ly more dependent on a company’s ability to innovate, an aversion to risk can be dis­as­trous. It can go so far as employees pre­fer­ring not to act at all instead of po­ten­tial­ly making mistakes. If such an avoidance culture is es­tab­lished, it can threaten to sabotage the company’s success.

Char­ac­ter­is­tics of a negative work en­vi­ron­ment regarding mistakes

• Finger-pointing
• Covered-up errors
• Naming and shaming those who caused the error

Using con­struc­tive criticism is not just a good deed the company does for its employees. Nor is it only a social benefit that improves the work en­vi­ron­ment. More than anything, it is an effective measure for ensuring a company’s economic success.

This is because in every error there lies an op­por­tu­ni­ty for a company to become better – provided that they don’t ignore or gloss over it, but instead analyze missteps con­struc­tive­ly. This ensures that the employee in question not only learns how to avoid this error in the future, but also works better and more ef­fi­cient­ly going forward. Others also benefit when the error is spoken about in a way that is open and con­struc­tive.

Char­ac­ter­is­tics of a positive work en­vi­ron­ment regarding mistakes

• Openly ad­dress­ing errors
• Respect for when others admit errors
• Focus on the factual level and the future

A changed, positive culture for con­struc­tive criticism in the workplace cannot be in­tro­duced overnight by decree, but must instead be the shared re­spon­si­bil­i­ty of employees. It must also be allowed to evolve. With these tips, you will lead criticism within your team in the right direction.

If an employee confesses to making an error, your reaction as a manager should not be overly emotional, re­proach­ful or include personal insults. In doing so, you ensure a poor work en­vi­ron­ment and strength­en the tendency to cover up errors – until the problems have gotten to be so big that you no can no longer sweep them under the prover­bial rug. In your pro­fes­sion­al com­munca­tion  you should instead ap­pre­ci­ate the employee’s honesty if they, for example, proac­tive­ly approach you, and focus on helping to find a solution.

Anyone who es­tab­lish­es an open and re­spect­ful manner of dealing with errors and wants to move away from a workplace culture of threats and ac­cu­sa­tions, should set a good example as a manager and openly own up to their own errors. At the same time, however, they should also point out the potential for de­vel­op­ment that comes with it. In doing so, you do not undermine your expertise, but instead exemplify what you demand from your workers.

A re­quire­ment for learning from errors is the ability of every in­di­vid­ual employee to self-reflect. Only when the in­di­vid­ual rec­og­nizes their error them­selves, and as early as possible, can any cor­rec­tion and im­prove­ment options be thought about. Encourage your employees – in spite of the high pressure to be pro­duc­tive – to take time to reflect by ex­plic­it­ly dis­cussing their mistake in weekly reports or per­for­mance reviews.

Just as important as en­cour­ag­ing employees to admit their errors is the con­sis­tent dis­ap­proval of ad­di­tion­al cover-ups. If you observe that employees do not admit to errors or are too in late in doing so, you should promptly try to have a one-on-one con­ver­sa­tion in order to clearly com­mu­ni­cate your dis­ap­proval. Most of the time it is not at all necessary to threaten or impose penalties. The emotional impact of a one-on-one con­ver­sa­tion is more than adequate. If word gets around that one can no longer get by with the old avoidance strategy and that the boss really backs a new approach to openness, then it will sweep up all team members in a positive way.

If you observe that your company culture needs to fun­da­men­tal­ly change with regard to how errors are handled, it can be useful to assemble a project team. Instead of dictating all reforms from above, employees can become part of the process. The prob­a­bil­i­ty is great that they will support changes made in this way with more will­ing­ness and com­mit­ment.

In order for con­struc­tive criticism to be effective, you must establish clear processes for learning as much as possible from the errors that have been committed. Document your error-handling processes and introduce processes that ensure that what you’ve learned is also truly in­cor­po­rat­ed into daily business practices.

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