Revolutionizing the Development of Social, Relational and Emotional Skills

Once turned into practice, the science of human feedback will transform the way we think about the skills we value most, but feel most pessimistic about being able to learn or teach: The social, emotional and relational skills that modern businesses prize most.

You say charisma, collaborativeness and relationality cannot be taught? You may be right; but if by that you mean these things cannot be learned, you are wrong. The unteachable can be leaned through feedback that is precise, adaptive, targeted, iterative, actionable and developmental.

The coach trained in human feedback science focuses on the basic unit of social work of the learner — say, footage of a real presentation, meeting or work session in which the learner interacts with others. To be precise and specific, each communicative act (in increments of 10 to15 seconds) of the learner is mapped into all of the ways in which it conveys information: message (use of imagery, coherence, responsiveness); voice (tone, pitch and the emotions they convey, as well as their fit with the learner’s message); body movements (amplitude, emotionality and fit with message); facial actions and micro-expressions (expressiveness, congruence, positivity, negativity) — and the effect of each ‘micro-behaviour’ of the learner on her group is fed back, along with actionable suggestions for small, incremental and adaptive changes.