Feedback in 5 minutes
A job aid for Brightline people managers — use it during your fortnightly one-on-one. Keep it open; you don't need to memorize this.
The structure: five moves, five minutes
1. Situation
Name the specific time and place. "In Tuesday's evening handover…" — not "lately" or "always".
2. Behavior
Say what you observed, not what you concluded. "…the allergy line was missing from the sheet." — not "you were careless".
3. Impact
Say what it caused, factually. "…so the late team had to call the ward for the history."
4. Request
One clear, doable ask. "Could you run the checklist at the end of each evening handover?"
5. Listen
Stop talking. Ask "What's your take?" — then actually listen. Their view often changes your next step. Agree one next action and book the next one-on-one before they leave.
Three phrasings you can borrow
Reinforcing good work: "Wednesday's referral — you caught the duplicate booking before it went out. That saved the clinic a callback. Keep doing exactly that."
Correcting a pattern: "Three of the last five handovers were missing the allergy line. I want to understand what's getting in the way — what's your view?"
Raising something personal: "This is a hard one to raise, and it matters. In yesterday's huddle you cut a colleague off twice. I don't think that's how you usually are. What's going on?"
If they get defensive
1. Acknowledge, then hold the line. "You're right that the new system made this harder — that's on me to fix. And the handovers still have to be complete."
2. Get curious, not louder. "Help me understand what I'm missing here." — defensiveness often hides a real obstacle you can fix.
3. Park what isn't yours, keep what is. "I'll take the system fix to the ops director this week. The completeness of your handovers stays with both of us."
Before they leave the room
- One next action each, with names on it.
- The next one-on-one booked — same time, two weeks out, in the calendar now.
- A two-line note to yourself: what you said, what they said. Your future self needs it for the review form's new qualitative questions.
Where this fits
The fortnightly one-on-one is the clinic standard; this page is the meeting's feedback piece. If you want to see the moves in action — including the versions that go wrong — play The Handover Problem (15 minutes). The full reasoning is in the case study.