The Power of Peer Meetings and Critical Feedback

How We Transformed Our Workplace Culture

As a business owner, I’ve experienced firsthand the challenges of managing workplace dynamics and fostering a positive company culture. There was a time when our agency felt plagued by personality conflicts, gossip, and a disconnect between management and employees. Managers were constantly playing referee, trying to parse out who was “right” in interpersonal conflicts. It was frustrating and inefficient–honestly, it wasn’t what I wanted to spend my work life doing.

Today our workplace culture has dramatically improved. The rumor mill has quieted and employees are more comfortable addressing concerns directly. So what changed? We implemented two key practices that transformed our communication and accountability: peer meetings and critical feedback training.

Peer Meetings Build Foster Direct Communication

We borrowed the concept of “peer meetings” from another B Corp we admired. The idea is simple yet powerful: every person in the organization has one-on-one meetings with several of their peers each month. This is different from the typical manager-employee one-on-ones. In peer meetings, both participants are on equal footing, sharing the same set of information. But in fact, we use the same format for monthly peer-peer and manager-employee meetings.

These meetings serve multiple purposes:

• 1. They increase transparency across all levels of the organization.
• 2. They provide opportunities for employees to offer feedback and advice to each other.
• 3. They foster regular, meaningful conversations between peers.

The structure of these meetings is crucial. We use a template that includes questions like:

• – What constructive feedback do you have for me?
• – How could I improve to better reach my career goals?
• – How is our relationship going? Where do we have room for improvement?

These questions might seem challenging, but they become easier to address when there’s a regular forum for these conversations which encourages and builds trust. And I’ve found it’s easier to offer criticism, and to hear it, when I am in a meeting where that type of conversation is expected. In fact, a key benefit I’ve received as a leader is critical feedback–something that people don’t give freely in many organizations.

How the Peer-to-Peer Meeting Works

We have a templated spreadsheet that includes our current set of questions. Each pair who meets creates their own spreadsheet shared just between the two of them. They create a new tab every month, typing out their answers for the month before meeting. In the meeting, we talk through our answers, responding to our peer with curiosity, and if appropriate, suggestions.

The format of the meeting has evolved over time. Currently, our questions are:

What did we do this month that was noteworthy, either apart or together? (List 1-3 things. Note: the rest of the questions do not need to focus only on these noteworthy things, but they can)	This starts us off easy.
When did I most feel in the “flow”? (When did work feel like play, in which I was excited and inspired, and I felt empowered doing it?)	I’ve learned unexpected things about what people enjoy doing at work, and I generally hear stories I wouldn’t have heard otherwise.
What is making me anxious? (What is causing me stress, in general or specifically? Are there areas of interpersonal relations, job performance, or company environment we can talk about?)	Helps me understand where they’re at right now, and what they find most concerning.
How are client projects going? Am I facing any client challenges or obstacles? (What am I doing about it? Talking about it here can be your answer.)	Encourages a review of the work, and invites the peer to help.
My peer could be a more effective work partner by…or, My peer could be more effective in their job by…	Asks for direct critical feedback. This is important. If we phrase the question less directly, it’s easier to skate through it. The value is in hearing the feedback.
What’s great about your colleague? Share something you admire, appreciate, are grateful for, have seen growth in, or want to praise.	Also important to building long-term trust is acknowledging people’s strengths.
Quarterly Objectives (List your quarterly objectives.)
How are your Quarterly Objectives and Internal Projects progressing? How can we help each other progress?
Who else are you holding a Peer to Peer Meeting with this month? (helps keep us accountable to keeping it up!)
Additional follow up (Do I have any action items as a result of this meeting?)	An area for personal notes.
Upcoming vacation dates (because we do want people taking vacation! But not surprising our colleagues.)	Sets us up to support each others’ breaks.
Share your operational metrics	Report on the operational metrics we’re asking people to focus on, like on-time task completion, time tracking rate. Reporting on it here helps us take on this responsibility collectively.

Embracing Critical Feedback with Team Training

The second game-changer for us was investing time in training everyone on how to give and receive critical feedback effectively. We held small group sessions where we:

• – Explored our feelings about giving and receiving critical feedback
• – Discussed methods that work well for different individuals
• – Practiced giving feedback in a safe environment
• – Encouraged applying these skills in both work and personal lives

This process, carried out over a couple of years, dramatically improved our team’s comfort level with direct communication. As a result, the number of interpersonal disputes requiring managerial intervention has *significantly* decreased.

Now, when an employee comes to me with an issue about a coworker, my role has shifted. Instead of fixing the problem for them, I coach them on how to address the issue directly:

• – How do you think you could approach your coworker?
• – When do you plan to have this conversation?
• – Would you like to practice what you’re going to say?

This approach turns potential conflicts into growth opportunities, helping employees develop more authentic relationships with their peers and increasing accountability.

The Impact of Peer Feedback and Peer Meetings

The impact of these practices has been profound. Trust between employees has deepened, even as we transitioned from mostly in-person to a mostly remote work environment. The culture of gossip and indirect complaints has all but disappeared, making our workplace a much more pleasant and productive environment.

I’m incredibly grateful to our team, for their personal investment in participating in this process and learning and growing along the way. And we could not have done it without our terrific leadership coach Joan Hibdon, who led our feedback training sessions and has since written a book on the topic, Mastering Feedback.

If you’re a manager looking to improve your team’s culture and communication, I highly recommend exploring these practices. They may seem challenging at first, but the long-term benefits to your workplace environment and team dynamics are well worth the effort.