Refueling with ‘COIN’

Greetings my friends,

I have two questions for you this week:

1. Do you work with employees or live with any human beings, and
2. Have you ever heard of the term “constructive criticism”?

It has been my experience that when we interact with human beings, at some point we are going to have to offer some type of feedback.

A common term for feedback is “constructive criticism”.

I have always wondered how criticism could be contructive. I’ve always thought criticism was more destructive than constructive.

Therefore, I have always been challenged by giving feedback (and I’m a Norwegian from Minnesota…ya know, we’ve got that “Minnestoa Nice” reputation to live up to).

I would like to share with you (4) steps -the C.O.I.N. model– that can help make giving (and receiving) feeldback an easy, natural way of communicating.

C.O.I.N.:
1. (C) Context: describe the situation your are referencing
“Yesterday, when you were conducting the estimate…”
2. (O) Observation: evidence, or what you “observed”
“…I observed you eliminated some pertinent details,
such as the numerous pet stains, ink stains and heavily
soiled walkways …”

3. (I) Impact: specific impact this observable behavior had on
the situation :
“These stains will have an impact on both
the final cost and our time spent at the customer’s
home. Not discussing this increase in cost and time
during the estimate appointment will leave the customer
confused and angry with the final bill.”

4. (N) Next time: state what behavior you would like to see in the
future:
“In the future please be sure to cover all the details with
the customer during the estimate appointment and take
time to answer any questions they might have. That
we, our reputation will remain intact and the customer
will be our best advertisement.”

Utilizing the C.O.I.N. model will deliver the information that is necessary but do so in an “objective”, non-defensive manner.

Feedback in necessary. Feedback works for both positive and negative behaviors. WHEN YOU FOCUS ON POSITIVES, YOU’LL GET MORE POSITIVES. When you use COIN feedback, you’ll turn the negatives into positives.

And guess what, this model even works with CUSTOMERS!

Good luck and until we visit again, I wish you well,
Kathlynn
Duluth,MN