The COIN Model for Feedback

Developed by Anna Carroll in her book The Feedback Imperative: How to Give Feedback to Speed Up Your Team's Success, this model for gives a structured and effective way to provide objective and actionable feedback.

The COIN Model is designed to help managers and leaders improve their communication skills and empower their team members through constructive feedback.

What is the COIN Model for feedback?

The COIN model, as per Anna Carrol's book, mentions the following parts:

1. Connection
2. Observation
3. Impact
4. Next Steps

Some people replace connection with context when they are implementing the model. In Voohy, we provide a guidebook to use which uses both connection and context to enhance the feedback process and encourage growth.

Connection and Context

If you start your feedback out of nowhere, you may blindside them. Start by establishing a connection with the person and broaching the topic you're about to talk about. Establish some context and view it as the scaffolding for your feedback. Find common ground and go from there.

Establishing connection could be as simple as some small talk to get going (asking about them and how they are doing works well) and then referencing the topic or incident briefly could be useful. For example, after asking exchanging pleasantries and asking about how they're doing, you could mention something to the effect of "I want to talk a little bit about your presentation yesterday, ...", or "You've been working on this complex project for a while, and I noticed ...".

Understanding the situation and creating a comfortable environment for receiving feedback is crucial for effective communication and leadership development.

Observation

Detail what you observed without judgment. Stick to the facts, and keep it as objective as possible. Avoid vagueness. Keep it clear and avoid infusing personal biases. It's about what happened, not what you think about what happened.

Use neutral language and avoid labeling or making judgments. For example, instead of saying "You were distracted during the meeting," say "I noticed you were on your phone frequently during the meeting."

When providing feedback, focus on specific actions or behaviors rather than making generalizations about the person's character.

Impact

Dive into the repercussions. How did the observed action affect the team, project, or goals? Connecting actions to outcomes brings clarity and underscores the importance of the feedback. Tie the impact to the observation (e.g, the behavior or action demonstrated) rather than them as a person.

Based on what you observed, what impact is it having on work results, people, teams, strategy etc? Keep in mind sometimes there might be no impact currently, but it left unchecked, it could lead to significant impact later on. Explain your reasoning here.

Some examples could be "Your focus on rapid execution really enabled everyone to stay in-scope and release the future in our promised timeline", or "This delay cause us to fall behind in our promised timeline, which now also effects our estimated revenue goals this quarter".

Helping the receiver understand the impact of their actions is a crucial part of the COIN feedback model, as it encourages self-reflection and promotes personal growth.

Next Steps

Ending feedback without a roadmap can leave individuals feeling lost or overwhelmed. The final phase of the COIN model addresses this by suggesting actionable next steps. This is a collaborative phase where both parties can discuss solutions, strategies, or behaviors that can lead to positive change in the future. Providing a clear path forward ensures that the feedback is actionable and productive.

Anna Carrol mentioned in her book:

You will need to discuss, suggest and agree upon a specific request you are making [...] getting active involvement in this discussion is important because it increases the team-member's commitment to the goal.

Here you have to work together with the receiver to come up with some next steps. Make sure you get buy-in and commitment from the receiver instead of just asking them to do it. They should see the value in these next steps.

Remember - It should come from a place of caring

When offering feedback, the intent should always be to enlighten, not to belittle. Adopting models like COIN, and grounding your feedback approach in genuine care and concern, can make all the difference in nurturing personal and professional evolution.

Effective leaders understand that providing feedback is an essential part of management and a powerful tool for improving team performance and individual growth.

COIN Model Guidebook in Voohy

If you're about to give feedback and thinking of structuring your thoughts using the COIN Model, we at Voohy have a guidebook inspired by the model to use. The guidebook asks you the right questions and structures your thoughts in the right manner, so that you're well-prepared for that conversation.

If you're curious about how to enhance your communication skills and become more effective at providing and receiving feedback, then sign up for Voohy to learn more about this feedback model and many more.