Feedback and Motivation are two significant dimensions of agility. However, they’re seldom looked at as related. Our motivation levels are entwined in the small, everyday things we say and do. As interdependent, social beings operating in collaborative environments, we affect each other profoundly. A co-worker’s warm, smiling “Hello” brightens my day, while a “I see you, but I don’t notice you” look from a superior could make it gloomy. Such feedback is all around us and motivates us to be who we are and do what we do. Isn’t it imperative then, that we use the power of feedback to motivate ourselves and others to be the best we all can be? Come, let’s explore some concepts & tools provided by Transactional Analysis to express the intent and content of our experience as powerful, motivating feedback!

1. REGIONAL SCRUM GATHERING
INDIA 2017
BANGALORE | SEPTEMBER 6-7
FEEDBACK AS A MOTIVATIONAL TOOL
SRINATH NADATHUR

2. Hey!
I’m Srinath
Dad-to-be, Agile Coach, TA Trainee, Comic Author
Connect with me
srinath.gn@gmail.com
srinathgn, roflatwork
srinathnadathur
https://about.me/srinathnadathur

3. “Build projects around motivated individuals.
Give them the environment and support they need,
and trust them to get the job done.”
http://agilemanifesto.org/principles.html

4. #RSGI2017
Motivation
the desire to do something or act in a
certain way

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Stimulus Hunger
Physical Touch
Recognition Hunger
Eye contact, Hello, Feedback
Psychological Hungers
“Berne postulated that adults need
physical contact just like infants,
but have learned to substitute
other types of recognition instead
of physical stimulation”

6. Motivation & Hunger
The need to satiate our hungers drives us to do
something or to act in a certain way
Susan Pinker’s TED Talk on “The secret to living longer may be your social life”

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Motivating
Feedback

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Feedback
Intent
ContentEnvironment

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Intent (Why?)

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OK Corral (Ernst, 1971)
Intent

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Real-life Situation
•At the start of my career, I was responsible for the maintenance of software
applications for a bank and in one of my late-night shifts, I fixed an issue in the
billing systems (at around 1AM, stretching beyond the shift-time).
•The next day:

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Let’s look at the Manager’s INTENT

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OK – OK initiation by Manager

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OK – OK Response

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Content
(What?)

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An Effective Feedback
Qualifier
• The adjectives that
qualify a feedback
Data
• Facts. The meat of the
feedback - provides
information
Impact
• Describes how the
giver is impacted by
the recipient;
personalises the
feedback.

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Some examples…
›The proposal you submitted is excellent!
›Qualifier =
›Data =
›Impact =

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Some examples…
›The quarterly report you sent for review had a major error. It
had last year’s profit numbers instead of this year’s.
›Qualifier =
›Data =
›Impact =

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Environment
(How?)

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Strokes
› A stroke is a unit of recognition, when one person recognises
another person either verbally or non-verbally.

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The Stroke Economy
›We are born princes (and princesses) and the civilising process makes us frogs - Dr. Eric Berne
› The stroke economy creates a scarcity of love and affection by imposing a set of rules that govern the
exchange of strokes

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Defy the Stroke Economy - Opening the heart
›We can defy the stroke economy by opening the heart

28. ›In summary…

29. Know thy intent
Qualifier
Data
Impact
share thy content
and, open thy heart

31. #RSGI2017
References
• Berne, E. (1964). Games people play: The psychology of human relationships. New York: Grove Press.
• Nadathur, Srinath (2016). “Effective exchange of feedback to enhance working relationships”. SAATA
Journal 2(2), August 2016. (http://saata.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/SAATA-Journal-Volume-2-
Number-2-August-2016.pdf)
• Franklin H. Ernst, Jr., The OK Corral: The Grid for Get-on-With, Transactional Analysis Journal, October
1971; vol. 1, 4: pp. 33-42
• Mountain, A. and Davidson, C (2011). Working together: Organizational Transactional Analysis and
Business Performance. Gower publications, UK.
• Steiner, Claude M, MD. (1971). Stroke Economy, Transactional Analysis Journal 1: 3, July 1971, 9-15..
• Steiner, Claude 1999. http://www.claudesteiner.com/economy.htm,
http://www.claudesteiner.com/learn.htm
• Kent Beck et al, Manifesto for Agile Software Development & Twelve Principles of Agile Software, 2001
(http://agilemanifesto.org/).
• Comics created using Pixton
• http://www.ericberne.com/transactional-analysis/