Picture a sandwich made entirely of meat. Turkey on the outside, ham on the inside. If that doesn’t sound enticing, picture instead a sandwich made entirely of bread. Wheat on the outside, and rye on the inside.
Doesn’t sound appetizing? Much better to have bread on the outside and filling on the inside. Bread alone results in no flavor, while only filling assaults our senses.
Think of feedback as a sandwich. Imagine the bread as your compliment and the filling as an area for improvement. Package your feedback appropriately and you will make a snack that is fulfilling. An evaluation consisting purely of compliments lacks substance. An evaluation consisting only of areas for improvement will be distasteful.
Providing an area of improvement sandwiched by compliments helps the recipient digest the feedback. Sure it is like sugar-coating and in an ideal world would be unnecessary. We don’t live in an ideal world though, and if you would like someone to take heed of your suggestion, you need to package it accordingly.
A word of warning though. Use of this technique can be obvious. The recipient may see the constituent parts of the sandwich rather than the meal. This could make them resent the feedback.
I love the pictures on your new website. I had trouble navigating around the site. Overall I thought the site was nice.
As you become more experienced, you can modify the sandwich. Creating multi-level sandwiches will disguise your intent.
The pictures on your site are so expressive. I especially liked the one of the boy and the dog. I am not sure if the color photos captured the mood as well as the black and white photos. I was able to navigate between sections ok although sometimes I got lost. Once I was in a section I was fine. Your writing really brought alive the information and made it a pleasure to visit.
This approach telegraphs your intent much less. The multi-layered approach is more intricate, fostering more specific feedback. You have to break apart your general feedback, forcing you to think more about what you are saying. This really helps the recipient.
The only real rule with sandwich-based feedback is to begin and end on a positive note. If you don’t do that you risk alienating the recipient.
Learn to sandwich your feedback and your input will taste much better. A perfect combination to provide flavor and substance without assaulting the senses.
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