One of the key advantages of agile projects—the daily alignment within the team—can quickly turn into a challenge if a strong feedback culture is missing. Scrum lives from this culture and ultimately justifies its existence by subordinating everything to a shared goal: delivering a great product. To achieve this, team members must hold each other accountable. In many projects, however, we observe a kind of staged harmony: everyone is friendly, emphasizes how well they get along—but beneath the surface, tensions simmer. Out of politeness, team members often avoid saying what really needs to be said.
Since tone matters, feedback sessions do not need to be overly harmonious. Whether in the Daily, Review, or Retrospective: constant mutual praise is more a sign of team immaturity than genuine appreciation.
When team members respect one another and clearly separate role and person (you can read more about “role and soul” in our article on holocracy), a climate emerges that allows—and even demands—fact-based criticism of work results.
What matters is focusing on the issue at hand and the goal of the current sprint. A constructive, fact-oriented statement might be:
“I feel the product is missing feature X.”
Less helpful would be:
“You should have thought about feature X.”
The latter can easily be perceived as personal criticism. At the latest during the retrospective, it becomes implausible if nothing is mentioned that could have gone better. How else should a team continue to develop?
Radical Candor in Scrum projects
Former Google manager Kim Scott developed a feedback model that offers valuable guidance—not only for leaders. She advocates a communication style she calls “Radical Candor.” Radical candor becomes possible when team members connect on a human level. When the personal foundation is solid, people can speak clearly and challenge one another—without becoming aggressive. As impulse editor impulse-Redakteurin Kathrin Halfwassenputs it, radical candor means “being direct while still caring personally.” Kim Scott distinguishes between four types of feedback. Only radical candor combines honesty with genuine care for the individual.
Four types of feedback. Kathrin Halfwassen presents the method of radical openness (radical candor) at impulse . It was developed by the ex Google manager Kim Malone Scott.
Business coach Stefanie Voss explains the value of this approach: “If someone repeatedly does something that is inappropriate or simply not effective, it is only fair to point it out. You can assume that the other person has a blind spot—behaviors they are not aware of themselves. In such cases, people need very clear, sometimes even tough, but still respectful feedback in order to change. And only that is fair.”
Adopting this mindset requires practice and courage. Stefanie Voss reports that 90 percent of participants in her workshops describe their own feedback style as “false empathy.” The reason people tend to hold back their opinions is simple: We all want to be liked and therefore avoid making others angry or hurt. Honest feedback, however, can do exactly that. Without it, a heavy and unproductive work atmosphere develops—and product quality and performance inevitably suffer.
Silence is not a solution either
On the other hand, radical candor also means praising colleagues and celebrating successes together. Expecting top performance in silence and speaking up only when there is something to criticize poisons any work environment—and is clearly not the intention of this approach. Instead, praise gains real value within authentic communication because it is expressed when there is genuinely something to appreciate. Strong teams are characterized by their ability to criticize and praise each other in a fact-based way—and to accept both. Above all, it must always be clear that feedback refers to work results, never to the person. Only in such an environment do team members feel safe enough to share bold ideas. This open mindset cannot be valued highly enough—because innovation thrives precisely on this foundation.
Does something feel off in your team, or do you find it difficult to give honest feedback? Get in touch with us. We are happy to advise you and offer tailored training sessions.