Hello, everybody. Welcome to the Radical Canter Podcast. I'm Kim Scott, co-founder of Radical Cander,

an author of Radical Cander and Just Work. I'm Jason Roseoff, CEO, and co-founder of Radical Cander.

And I'm Amy Sandler, your host for the Radical Cander podcast. And today, we are talking sandwiches.

Not the tasty sandwiches that were beloved by our friend Joey Tribiani. Is it Tribiani? Was it

No idea? No idea. I can help you. It is Tribiani. For those of us who watched Friends,

and we know who we are.

We also know Joey loves sandwiches, but also like, who doesn't love a sandwich?

Sandwiches look delicious on the outside, and inside they're stuffed with something you can't

quite identify.

But somehow, the sandwich maker is hoping those two pieces of artisanal bread or holding the mystery meat together

and you will accept what's inside without too many questions. This is the feedback sandwich.

If you're not familiar with the feedback sandwich, let me explain a little history,

which I was not aware of. So thank you, Brandy, for bringing this to our attention.

In the 1980s, the feedback sandwich was popularized by Mary Kaye Cosmetics founder Mary Kay Ash.

In her 1989 book, Mary Kay on people management, Ash writes, quote, sandwich every bit of criticism between two heavy layers of praise.

A manager should be able to tell someone when something is wrong without bruising an ego in the process. Never giving criticism without praise is a strict rule for me. No matter what you're

criticizing, you must find something good to say, both before

and after. This is called the sandwich technique, end quote. Well, this was touted as a way for

managers who are nervous about giving feedback, and I'm raising my hand here to soften the blow,

or a way to give criticism to sensitive employees. And it was

really popular in the 1980s and 1990s, along with, I think Jason and Kim from an earlier podcast,

you talked about the, let's go out for a cup of coffee for criticism. So it has, the cappuccino of doom.

...