Associates: Discover “Speedback,” The Art of Real-Time Feedback

Effective, consistent feedback is essential to team and organizational success, yet in my work with Learning & Development (L&D) professionals, I often hear that leaders continue to struggle to deliver input through everyday interactions. These delays can quietly undermine trust, engagement and performance. 

Our recent Associate professional development session, Speedback: The Art of Real-Time Feedback, focused on a simple and powerful premise: input is most productive when it’s offered consistently and through a personalized lens. By aligning timing with Emergenetics concepts, you can help managers reduce intent impact gaps and create feedback practices that actually move the needle. 

Why Timing Is a Vital Engagement Lever 

Only 30% of HR professionals say the average employee in their organization is highly engaged. While many factors influence this metric, one consistent contributor is the presence, or absence, of meaningful guidance. 

Gallup also reminds us that feedback has an expiration date. When leaders wait too long to address a situation, the message often loses clarity, relevance and applicability. Employees may struggle to recall the specific behavior in question or feel blindsided by constructive critiques that arrive weeks or months after the fact. 

➡ Speedback addresses this challenge directly. 

Real-time feedback reduces uncertainty, reinforces expectations and helps employees feel more confident and connected to their roles. When input is shared immediately after an action, individuals can quickly adjust, reflect and apply learning while the experience is still fresh in their minds. 

Associates can promote this practice by reframing feedback as an ongoing practice embedded in day-to-day work rather than a formal event, occurring only during a performance review.  

It’s Not Just What You Say—It’s How You Say It 

In addition to timing, it’s important to consider who you are speaking to and align your message with their needs. Without consideration for another person’s preferences, it’s common for intent-impact gaps to arise, creating space between what we intend to communicate and how our message is actually received. 

Rather than expecting direct reports to “flex” first when giving constructive criticism, speedback begins with self-awareness. By understanding how we naturally show up, we can intentionally adjust our approach to meet the needs of others. 

Associates can coach leaders and managers to: 

• Reflect on their own Behavioral preferences 
• Consider how those tendencies may influence their tone, pacing or delivery 
• Identify moments where past feedback may have landed differently than intended 
• Use the How to Give Feedback Attributes in Action guide (accessible on Emergenetics+) for actionable tips to customize their approach 

When both parties are willing to flex, guidance becomes clearer, less emotionally charged and far more actionable. 

A Hands-On Activity to Boost Feedback Skills 

Creating space for your stakeholders to practice speedback in a psychologically safe, structured way will empower them to be far more effective when real-time opportunities for feedback arise. Try facilitating this activity with teams or groups of managers to support their success. 

Step 1: Explore Expressiveness as a Team 

Participants begin by lining up according to their Expressiveness scores, similar to what you do in a Meeting of the Minds. This visual immediately highlights the team’s Behavioral distribution and often sparks conversation about communication dynamics, energy levels and misunderstandings. 

Invite team members to share real workplace scenarios, where their Expressiveness styles and differences may have contributed to a miscommunication. 

Step 2: Use Brainwork Made Easy as a Guide 

Next, ask team members to reference the Brainwork Made Easy handout (which is available to Associates print after logging into Emergenetics+) to pinpoint: 

• Strengths of their preferred Behavioral style 
• Tendencies and how they may appear under stress or pressure 
• Biases they may hold toward the opposite end of the spectrum 

This step reinforces how quickly assumptions can form during feedback conversations. 

Step 3: Apply a Realistic Scenario 

Participants can then work through a scenario involving a missed deadline that impacted team results. From their Behavioral perspective, they: 

• Reflect on how they might naturally approach the conversation 
• Identify where an intent–impact gap could arise 
• Select one flexing strategy from the “Remember To” column to improve the outcome 

The same exercise can be repeated for Assertiveness and Flexibility, or delivered over time as a learning “drip” to reinforce skill-building without overwhelming employees. 

Preparing for Feedback Before It’s Needed 

One of the most powerful outcomes of this activity is proactive awareness. Rather than reacting in the moment, individuals build insight into how they may be perceived and how others may experience their communication style. 

So, when opportunities for input emerge later, team members have already done the internal work of identifying: 

• Potential blind spots 
• Behavioral biases 
• Specific strategies to close intent–impact gaps 

Making Speedback a Sustainable Practice 

Speedback makes a difference in delivering better feedback. Paired with Emergenetics, real-time input becomes a repeatable, human-centered practice that strengthens accountability without sacrificing trust. 

Associates can position speedback as: 

• A tool to increase engagement and clarity 
• A skill that elevates performance without formal reviews 
• A mutual responsibility rather than a top-down directive 

With these small tweaks, organizations can transform feedback from something people avoid into something they value. 

Discover more ways to positively transform your workplace. Explore our Certification programs and our continuing education courses for practitioners, egElectives.  

Want more information? Fill out the form below to speak with one of our staff members today. 

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