SBI Feedback Communication Framework Training Course

Course overview

Managers, project leads and specialist professionals are often expected to address missed deadlines, poor collaboration, quality issues and strong performance without damaging working relationships. Yet feedback is frequently delayed, diluted into vague comments, or delivered as a judgement about personality. The result is defensiveness, repeated mistakes and inconsistent expectations across teams. This course gives participants a reliable structure for turning observed workplace events into clear, respectful conversations that prompt action.

The programme teaches the Situation–Behaviour–Impact (SBI) feedback model in detail: how to identify the precise situation, describe observable behaviour without interpretation, and explain the operational or interpersonal impact. Participants practise choosing between reinforcing and redirecting feedback, separating facts from assumptions, using neutral language, asking follow-up questions, and agreeing practical next steps. They also learn how SBI differs from annual appraisal language, coaching conversations and formal performance-management processes.

Delivered over five instructor-led days in a classroom or live online setting, the course uses filmed scenarios, role-play, peer observation, case analysis and structured rehearsal. Participants work with realistic examples from performance reviews, project meetings, customer service, quality incidents and cross-functional handovers. Each participant leaves with a personal SBI Feedback Playbook containing prepared feedback scripts, an observation checklist, a conversation-planning template, phrases for handling defensive responses and a 30-day workplace application plan.

The course is particularly valuable for first-line managers, team leaders, technical specialists and HR practitioners who need to make feedback routine, evidence-based and useful. It suits professionals moving from informal comments to consistent feedback conversations that improve accountability while preserving trust.

Course objectives

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Apply the Situation–Behaviour–Impact model to structure reinforcing and redirecting feedback conversations.
• Distinguish observable behaviour from assumptions, labels and personality-based judgements.
• Draft evidence-based SBI feedback statements from workplace incidents, meetings and performance data.
• Use neutral language, specific examples and impact descriptions to reduce defensiveness.
• Conduct two-way feedback conversations using inquiry, active listening and clarification questions.
• Respond to denial, emotion and disagreement while keeping an SBI conversation constructive.
• Select appropriate next steps, ownership statements and review dates after feedback discussions.
• Produce a personal SBI Feedback Playbook with scripts, templates and a 30-day application plan.

Benefits of attending

Target competencies

Who should attend

• Line Managers — who must address performance, conduct and collaboration issues consistently.
• Team Leaders — who need to reinforce standards and correct behaviour during day-to-day work.
• Project Managers — who must give timely feedback across cross-functional project teams.
• Technical Specialists — who influence colleagues without formal authority and need feedback to be accepted.
• HR Business Partners — who coach managers on fair, evidence-based performance conversations.
• Newly Appointed Supervisors — who are moving from peer relationships into people-management responsibilities.

Requirements and prerequisites

This is a foundation-to-intermediate course and no prior formal training in feedback models is required. Participants should have basic workplace experience, an understanding of their organisation’s reporting lines and examples of real conversations they need to handle. Familiarity with routine one-to-one meetings, performance reviews or project debriefs is useful but not essential. Complete beginners should expect to start with the difference between observation and interpretation before progressing to difficult feedback practice. No psychology qualification, HR certification, coaching credential or specialist software expertise is required. Live online participants need access to Zoom or Microsoft Teams and a device with audio and camera capability.

Training methodology

The instructor demonstrates SBI feedback through worked examples before participants analyse language, identify assumptions and rewrite weak statements. Short case studies cover missed deadlines, unsafe shortcuts, customer complaints, peer conflict and high-performance recognition. In paired role-plays, participants alternate between feedback giver, recipient and observer, using an SBI checklist to record evidence, wording and response handling. Facilitated debriefs connect practice to participants’ own management contexts. The final day combines a feedback clinic with application planning, enabling each participant to leave with prepared conversations and a practical implementation schedule.

Course outline

Day 1: Foundations of evidence-based feedback

• Purpose of feedback in performance, learning and accountability
• The Situation–Behaviour–Impact model and its intended use
• Difference between feedback, coaching, appraisal and disciplinary action
• Observable facts versus interpretations, labels and assumptions
• Identifying specific situations with time, place and context
• Recognising reinforcing feedback and redirecting feedback
• Psychological safety and the conditions for useful feedback

Workshop: Participants convert vague workplace comments into fact-based situation and behaviour statements for three common management scenarios.

Day 2: Constructing clear SBI messages

• Writing concise Situation statements without unnecessary history
• Describing behaviour using observable actions and exact language
• Articulating operational, customer, team and personal impact
• Avoiding attribution bias, mind-reading and absolute language
• Using positive SBI feedback to reinforce repeatable performance
• Using redirecting SBI feedback to address gaps and risks
• SBI message planning template for one-to-one conversations

Workshop: Participants create and peer-review four written SBI messages drawn from their own workplace situations.

Day 3: Delivering feedback as a two-way conversation

• Opening an SBI conversation with purpose and permission
• Voice, pacing and body language in feedback delivery
• Active listening techniques for checking understanding
• Inquiry questions that explore context without abandoning accountability
• Clarifying disputed facts and differing perceptions
• Moving from impact discussion to agreed next actions
• Documenting commitments, owners and review points

Workshop: In triad role-plays, participants deliver an SBI message, receive observer scoring and revise their conversation approach.

Day 4: Handling difficult feedback responses

• Recognising defensive, emotional, silent and dismissive responses
• De-escalation language for tense feedback conversations
• Responding when the recipient denies the behaviour or impact
• Separating explanation from excuse during accountability discussions
• Giving feedback to peers and senior stakeholders without formal authority
• Addressing recurring behaviour and missed commitments
• Escalation boundaries and links to formal performance-management processes

Workshop: Participants conduct a difficult-feedback simulation involving a missed deadline and produce an escalation and follow-up plan.

Day 5: Embedding SBI in daily management practice

• Using SBI in one-to-ones, stand-ups, project reviews and debriefs
• Preparing feedback from notes, metrics and stakeholder observations
• Balancing reinforcing and redirecting feedback across a team
• Creating team norms for timely and respectful feedback
• Feedback observation checklists for managers and peer partners
• Thirty-day practice cycles and self-reflection prompts
• Measuring adoption through conversation quality and follow-through indicators

Workshop: Participants complete their personal SBI Feedback Playbook, rehearse a priority conversation and present a 30-day implementation plan.

Tools & standards covered

Microsoft Teams, Zoom, Miro, Microsoft Word

A typical training day

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in the East Africa Time zone, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

How you can take this course

Certification

Participants who complete the full five days receive the Skillset Development Certificate of Completion, stating the course title, course code, dates and delivery format — suitable for professional-development records and employer reimbursement.

Frequently asked questions