Business · Book club
HBR's 10 Must Reads on Giving Feedback book club questions
Here are 11 book club questions for HBR's 10 Must Reads on Giving Feedback by Harvard Business Review, ordered to open easily and end somewhere worth arguing about. Copy them, print them, or bring them up one at a time.
HBR's 10 Must Reads on Giving Feedback is an anthology collecting some of the most cited Harvard Business Review articles on feedback, including pieces by Marcus Buckingham and Ashley Goodall, Douglas Stone and Sheila Heen, and others.
Harvard Business Review · 2019 · 3h 45m
Full summary and key takeaways →The 11 questions
- 1.
Buckingham and Goodall argue that most feedback tells us about the giver rather than the receiver. Does that match your experience of receiving feedback?
- 2.
Think of feedback you've received that actually changed your behavior. What made it land when so much other feedback didn't?
- 3.
Where in your organization is feedback stuck as theater — the form is there but honest exchange isn't happening? What is preventing it?
- 4.
The collection distinguishes between coaching and evaluation. Do you conflate them in your own feedback conversations? What would separating them look like?
- 5.
Stone and Heen argue that receivers have more agency than they're typically given. When was the last time you actively chose how to receive difficult feedback rather than reacting to it?
- 6.
The anthology includes pieces that disagree with each other. Which argument about feedback challenged your existing assumptions most?
- 7.
If you had to describe your natural style of giving feedback — direct, indirect, avoidant, over-qualifying — what would it be, and what shaped it?
- 8.
The 'feedback fallacy' piece suggests focusing on what you noticed when someone was at their best. Pick someone you manage or work with and try that framing now.
- 9.
What organizational conditions in your workplace make honest feedback feel risky? Who has the power to change those conditions?
- 10.
How does the power differential in a feedback relationship affect how it's given and received? Is there an asymmetry in your team that distorts the quality of feedback?
- 11.
The articles suggest that feedback frequency matters more than feedback format. Does your organization's feedback culture support frequent, low-stakes exchange?
How to run the discussion
- Pick six to eight, not all of them. An hour of real discussion covers fewer questions than anyone expects, and racing the list is what makes a book club feel like homework.
- Open with what people noticed, not what they concluded. Asking for a verdict first hardens opinions before anyone has heard each other.
- Let the disagreement run. The questions below that split a room are the ones worth the time; the ones everyone answers the same way can be skipped.
- Ask the quiet person a specific question. A direct, narrow question is far easier to answer than an open invitation to contribute.
Themes worth steering toward
If the conversation stalls, these are the threads that usually restart it.
Common questions
What are good book club questions for HBR's 10 Must Reads on Giving Feedback?
Here are 11 book club questions for HBR's 10 Must Reads on Giving Feedback by Harvard Business Review, ordered to open easily and end somewhere worth arguing about. The strongest openers ask what each reader noticed rather than what they concluded, and the discussion usually turns on feedback, leadership, communication.
How long should a book club discussion of HBR's 10 Must Reads on Giving Feedback last?
Most groups run 60 to 90 minutes of actual discussion. That is roughly six to eight questions, not all of them, so pick the ones that suit your group rather than working down the list in order.
What are the main themes in HBR's 10 Must Reads on Giving Feedback?
Feedback, Leadership, Communication, Performance management, Organizational culture. Those are the threads most likely to divide a room, which makes them the useful places to steer a discussion that has gone quiet.
Picking the next one? See books like HBR's 10 Must Reads on Giving Feedback or questions for other book club picks.
