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Why This Training Matters
Managing through difference is both challenging and generative. When your team spans different identities, experiences, roles, and positional power, feedback becomes complicated. Managers worry about "putting their foot in their mouth," avoid critical feedback for fear of being perceived as biased, or default to vague assessments that don't actually help people grow.
The result? Inequity disguised as kindness.
When managers withhold honest, actionable feedback—especially from employees from marginalized groups—they deny those employees the clarity and support needed to succeed. And when feedback ignores structural context (like how power, identity, and organizational dynamics shape performance), it can reinforce the very inequities you're trying to address.
This training teaches you how to give feedback that's both honest and power-conscious—building the skills to navigate ambiguity, address challenges directly, and support your team's development across difference.
Who Should Attend:
Managers and supervisors leading diverse teams
Anyone responsible for performance evaluations or development conversations
Leaders navigating complex interpersonal dynamics across difference
HR and People Ops professionals supporting managers with feedback challenges
Anyone who's ever avoided giving critical feedback because they weren't sure how to navigate identity, power, or structural context
1. The Feedback Dilemma: Why Managing Through Difference Feels Hard
Managers often avoid giving critical feedback across lines of difference, and that avoidance—however well-intentioned—causes harm. We'll explore the gap between "niceness" and equity, examining how withholding feedback perpetuates inequality. Drawing on research revealing feedback disparities (who gets vague praise versus concrete critique, and why), we'll unpack how power, identity, and structural context shape feedback. This session establishes why honest feedback is an equity issue, not just a management skill.
2. Foundations: What Feedback Actually Is
Feedback is both Evaluation (assessment against standards) and Invitation (offering perspective someone can integrate and act on). We'll examine why your standards aren't neutral—exploring your "priors" (assumptions, experiences, cultural knowledge, professional training, mood) and how they shape evaluation. A critical distinction emerges: Person versus Performance. Conflating who someone is with what they did creates fertile ground for bias. We'll also discuss how performance type matters—embodied performances like presentations have higher person-performance overlap than written work, requiring extra precision.
3. The CRMPS Method: A Framework for Precise, Equitable Feedback
This section introduces the CRMPS method for building prior-conscious (aware of assumptions you bring), performance-centric (focused on what people do, not who they are), and precise (specific, actionable, tied to clear standards) feedback. The framework has five components: Clarity (know what you're evaluating before you start), Rationale (explain why this feedback matters), Metrics (name which criteria you're addressing), Performance (focus on what they did, not who they are), and Specificity (give concrete examples). Key principles: Clarity and metrics are your north star, preventing bias from distorting feedback. Your evaluation isn't neutral—your priors shape perception. Person ≠ Performance. Performance type matters. Equitable feedback isn't perfection—it's intentionality.
4. Navigating Ambiguity: Giving Feedback in Complex Scenarios
Real workplace situations are messy. This section tackles how to give feedback when power dynamics are at play, address interpersonal conflict connected to identity or structural position, and navigate uncertainty about whether an issue stems from bias, skill, or context. We'll explore handling pushback without abandoning necessary feedback and discuss when to acknowledge structural barriers versus focus on individual performance. The goal: build capacity to stay in uncomfortable conversations using CRMPS to maintain precision and fairness.
5. Invitations vs. Impositions: Making Space for Agency
Not all feedback needs to be directive. This section explores framing feedback as invitation to reflect rather than imposition of rigid standards. We'll discuss acknowledging structural realities—like how certain communication styles are privileged—while coaching for strategic effectiveness. The key is offering multiple pathways for growth rather than implying one "right" way, respecting people's agency and cultural identity while giving them tools to navigate systems not designed with them in mind.
6. Practice: Applying CRMPS to Real Scenarios
Interactive practice with challenging workplace scenarios: giving feedback when interpersonal style creates conflict but identity dynamics may be at play; addressing performance gaps when structural barriers (workload, unclear expectations, power imbalances) contribute; navigating feedback with less positional power than the person you're managing; supporting growth when someone's defensive or interprets feedback as bias. These scenarios mirror real management complexity, giving you supported practice applying CRMPS.