Protocol
Ask for advice on the next attempt
Make the question point forward.
Before you use it
- Use when
- You want developmental input but keep getting vague praise, broad criticism, or replaying other people's reactions.
- Avoid when
- The word “advice” is not magic. The recent experiments improved concreteness and rated usefulness of input, not downstream performance. Advice can still be wrong or poorly matched; use knowledgeable sources and verify high-stakes guidance.
An idea to explore.
Try this idea.
Inspect the example, try the idea in your situation, then check your next move.
Why it matters
Choose a knowledgeable observer and a real piece of work, then ask a narrow, future-looking advice question: what should change on the next attempt? A 2025 preregistered field experiment and two laboratory studies found that advice prompts produced more concrete and actionable input than feedback prompts, partly because providers focused more on the future. That improves the input you receive; it does not guarantee better performance.
Steps
- Name one observable uncertainty: clarity, accuracy, pacing, prioritization or another task feature.
- Ask someone who saw the work and has relevant knowledge.
- Point to a concrete moment or artifact and ask what you should change next time.
- Capture one testable change; if the answer stays vague, ask for a specific example.
An example
After a client walkthrough, replace “Any feedback?” with “For the next walkthrough, what should I shorten or reorder so the decision becomes clear earlier?”
Check your result
The answer names a change you can inspect or test on a comparable next attempt.
Keep this limit in mind
- The word “advice” is not magic. The recent experiments improved concreteness and rated usefulness of input, not downstream performance. Advice can still be wrong or poorly matched; use knowledgeable sources and verify high-stakes guidance.
My learning
Read. Recall. Repeat.
Save this idea and return to it on any device.
Connected ideas
Use beforeMake feedback earn a second attempt
These ideas link to this one. Check their conditions and limits before use.
Useful with this ideaPlan the response before you open the result
Evidence and sources (4)
A 2015 meta-analysis concluded that the relationship between workplace feedback-seeking behavior and performance was small, and that direct inquiry and monitoring are distinct feedback-seeking tactics rather than interchangeable measures of one behavior.
The meta-analysis does not show that seeking more feedback causes higher performance, and the usefulness of a tactic can depend on the source, task and social context.
A 2020 meta-analysis of 62 studies with 15,141 participants found a positive overall association between feedback seeking and individual performance (r = 0.329); inquiry showed r = 0.350 and monitoring r = 0.288, while the longitudinal paired subset showed a smaller association of r = 0.154.
Heterogeneity was high, effects varied by cultural background and study design, and the evidence is largely correlational. The pooled estimates should not be read as a causal return from asking for feedback.
Does seek feedback improve performance? A meta-analytic review about feedback-seeking behavior and individual performance · Abstract and meta-analysis tables
A 2021 review of 13 longitudinal employee studies (N = 1,527) concluded that more research is needed to clarify how feedback-seeking behavior influences performance over time.
The review focuses on longitudinal organizational studies and does not test a specific wording or timing protocol for asking for feedback.
Across a preregistered field experiment with 27,432 comments and two laboratory studies with 806 participants, prompts for future-looking advice produced more concrete and actionable developmental input than prompts for feedback; the reported effect on concreteness was mediated by providers' future focus, and a follow-up study found concrete input more useful by independent ratings.
The studies establish an effect on the content and rated usefulness of developmental input, not on recipients' later task performance. They compare advice prompts with feedback prompts, not every possible form of well-designed task-specific feedback.
Eliciting Advice Instead of Feedback Improves Developmental Input · Abstract
All sources (4)
- How Are We Doing After 30 Years? A Meta-Analytic Review of the Antecedents and Outcomes of Feedback-Seeking Behavior
- Does seek feedback improve performance? A meta-analytic review about feedback-seeking behavior and individual performance
- Feedback-Seeking Behavior in Organizations: A Meta-Analysis and Systematical Review of Longitudinal Studies
- Eliciting Advice Instead of Feedback Improves Developmental Input
Edition and review
Version 0.2.0 · Published
No review details are supplied for this edition.