Comment pouvez-vous répondre efficacement aux commentaires négatifs lorsque vous communiquez la stratégie de votre organisation ?

Most importantly is to create culture where everybody sees issues as an opportunity to jump into resovle and create huge positive impact to the organisation. Once such culture is established, the negative feedback will always come with what is to be done next from same person. Just mere acknowledgement and appreciating may just encourage everybody to just be on the other side of fence to be torch bearer of what's going wrong. This needs to be changed

There's one sure-fire way to limit negative feedback on communicating a strategy - giving more people a voice in helping to create the initial strategy. You will receive a greater diversity of perspective and employees will feel more engaged with the strategy that they had a hand in creating. This can be done via surveys, extending invites to planning sessions beyond the executive level, or even 'strategy jams'.

It is often said that people are not inherently bad, but rather they are often victims of bad assumptions. This is particularly true when it comes to communication. Assumptions can lead to misunderstandings, and misunderstandings can lead to negative feedback. Uncertainty and a lack of clear vision can create a breeding ground for assumptions and misunderstandings, which can ultimately result in negative outcomes. To avoid this, it is important to strive for clear and open communication that is founded on facts, not assumptions. By doing so, we can work towards a more positive and productive outcome.

This is an important step where acknowledging and appreciating the person who gave the feedback builds up trust and lay the foundation for more constructive dialog going forward. It's also a chance to help the other person understand the context in which your strategy was communicated which also opens you to feedback around that context.

In my experience, negative feedback (both internal and external) on projects are almost inevitable. There’s one guaranteed way of reducing these negative feedback to a minimum and that’s by early stakeholder buy-in. It can be tough rallying diverse individuals or teams and ensuring they are on the same page with the project/product vision in the early developmental stages but it does pay off as every doubt and concern is treated and risks mitigated in time before the big reveal .

Listening with an intent to learn is key. Asking a lot of open-ended questions lets you leverage expertise around you and reveal blind-spots in how your perceived the situations while formulating the strategy. It also lets you take a more positive outlook to the feedback from a learning point of view rather than being defensive and misinterpreting intentions.

I managed crisis communications for the largest product recall in the history of a Fortune 500 company and learned a very valuable lesson - acknowledge comments from your audience and respond quickly and with full transparency. Be upfront about the good, bad and the ugly. And then be ready to share what you're doing about it, how it's affecting each audience and what they can expect next. Being defensive or trying to hide will only get you in a deeper hole.

Keep an open forum for feedback, monitor it and respond quickly and consistently. If you don't have a direct answer, say that, then find one and circle back. If the feedback is inappropriate, say that, and refer back to guidelines that have been clearly shared as to how to communicate feedback. It's a two way street and everyone needs to follow the rules and be respectful of each other.

Indeed one should act differently if the feedback has merit vs simple push back to anything new. If the latter, effective response can be to turn the table on the responder and ask things like "so what do you suggest we do" or "why not take this path" or "what's the cost of failure" etc.

In my opinion negative feedback is more valuable coz it means the person who has given the feedback has actually used your service/product or read your paper/document/presentation. It's not only an opportunity to learn and improve based on the feedback but can be very effectively used as a marketing tactic. We can show that we not only improved ourselves to delight our customers/stakeholders but also demonstrate our commitment for the community at large whom we are serving.

To me this is the most important thing. Every opportunity where things don't work out is a chance to learn and be better next time. The learning could be on multiple fronts be it the strategy itself or the way it's communicated and helps to further build trust across the organization and at the same time setting a culture of speaking up and giving feedback without fear.

Proactive communication is the best way to stay a step ahead of negative comments. Listen, understand and be open, honest and consistent with communication coming from the top. Addressing needs before they happen is the responsibility of a good leader and team.

Even the best strategy will have its critics! The aim should not be to "respond" to the negative feedback nor to design a strategy that has no critics, but to let the key performance metrics tell the story - be it market share and growth, or topline and bottomline, or company culture and employee engagement, or any other metrics that objectively measure the outcomes as a result of implementing a given strategy.

Not all feedback warrants a response. To decide which one does, consider its specificity, relevance to organizational goals, and potential for improvement. A useful tip is to establish clear criteria: respond to feedback that provides actionable insights, addresses strategic concerns, or aligns with the organization's objectives. Regularly review these criteria and prioritize responses based on their potential to enhance strategy execution or customer satisfaction, ensuring a focused and effective communication approach. But indeed, as Tathagat already correctly mentioned below, even the best strategy strategy will have its critics.

When someone gives you negative feedback, it's important to listen carefully. Don't just listen to respond, but truly listen to understand their perspective. This means taking the time to process what the other person is saying, and asking questions if something isn't clear. It's natural to feel defensive when you receive criticism, especially if you're implementing a change strategy. However, being defensive can prevent you from gaining valuable insights and feedback that can help you improve. So, try to keep an open mind and see negative feedback as an opportunity to learn and grow.

The Communication of the Strategy is often times as important as the strategy itself. Besides building a strong shared purpose & mission, it also conveys a strong culture of transparency & credibility. Besides, with the strategy window constantly collapsing from 5/yrs to 3-yrs to…., strategies are always a work-in-progress and needs to reflect the bigger market, customer and technology trends. Needless to say, Communication is a 2-way process and the management must be receptive & welcome the idea for refining the strategy based on feedback.

The negative feedback is to be analysed and measured against the organisation’s strategy. Map it with the process being alluded to and evaluate. Tweak the strategy if it is relevant otherwise junk it. The origin and source of negative feedback is also important to assess its veracity and applicability to the core strategy of the organisation. A sound mechanism to evaluate negative feedback helps in identifying and improving strategies which should be dynamic and flexible to respond to ever evolving competition and needs of clients. Renewable strategy is key to survival.

Make sure that you don’t become defensive but instead view criticism as an opportunity for improvement. Seek to understand the specific issues and consider whether adjustments are warranted. Transparency is key; communicate the rationale behind strategic decisions to provide context. Engage in a constructive conversation, inviting further input and alternative perspectives. Demonstrating a willingness to learn and adapt enhances your credibility.