Most efforts to improve individual and organizational learning focus on teaching people how to give feedback. After years of advising organizations around the world on how to navigate their most difficult conversations, Heen and her colleagues realized they may have been looking at the problem the wrong way. She explains why figuring out how to receive feedback—even inappropriate or poorly delivered feedback—and use it to foster growth is smart if you want to improve learning in your organization.

With plenty of examples and a natural charm, Heen delivers a talk that will change the way you think about feedback. Most of us have a love/hate relationship with feedback, but Heen believes we can learn to accept it as the valuable tool it is. If we handle it correctly, we can use it to improve our performance and strengthen our most important relationships.

Heen is founder of Triad Consulting Group and a lecturer at Harvard Law School. For the past 20 years, she has worked at the Harvard Negotiation Project to develop negotiation theory and practice. Her work takes her around the world, helping people and organizations navigate their most difficult conversations.

She is the author of two New York Times bestsellers and specializes in particularly difficult negotiations – when emotions run high and relationships become strained. Sheila is a frequently consulted expert by the media and receives daily negotiation training from her three children. For more information about Sheila Heen, visit http://bit.ly/1IQ0azH.

This talk was delivered at a TEDx event that used the TED conference format but was independently organized by a local community. For more information, visit http://ted.com/tedx

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