Workshops with Lonnie
Awkward to Honest
The Awkward to Honest feedback program covers both halves of having difficult conversations — giving constructive feedback so it lands, and receiving hard feedback with a growth mindset.
Everyone is having half the conversation
Managers soften their message until it disappears because the alternative is too uncomfortable.
Leaders ask for honesty, then flinch when they get it.
And the people in the middle stop telling the truth, because nobody ever showed them that doing so is safe and effective.
Here's what that costs you:
You make decisions without all the information you need. The person nobody coached keeps doing the frustrating thing, and your best people leave rather than engage with that. Half-conversations become the culture, and before you realize what's happening, it's become just the way things are done here.
Why Lonnie?
Lonnie Weaver-Johnson has delivered more than 1,500 performance reviews. Early in her career, she had to sit on the other side of a difficult one, and was put on a Performance Improvement Plan. She also once lost her job for standing up for her people.
She knows what it costs to hear the hard thing. And she knows the much deeper cost of never hearing it at all.
Lonnie has 25 years of leadership experience and has given talks across five continents. Every talk is built from something she's actually lived.
The only complete feedback training program
Every feedback program on the market focuses on delivery: how to say the hard thing without losing the message. Lonnie teaches that, too (with her own unique spin), but she also teaches the part everyone skips: How to make sure your people can hear that feedback in a way that helps everyone grow.
Four components of the Awkward to Honest program
Lonnie's program includes four components, each of which can stand on its own or be combined, to build the program that's best for your organization.
Awkward to Honest keynote talk
Lonnie gives a memorable, funny, and honest keynote about what feedback actually costs. This is the talk people will be quoting in the hallway weeks later. It works as a standalone talk for conferences or all-hands meetings, or as the program kickoff that gets everyone on the same page before the deeper work starts.
Two frameworks driving the conversation
Regardless of which program components you include in your package, Lonnie creates an interactive and engaging experience, built around two key frameworks.
For giving feedback
For receiving feedback
Lonnie's approach is built around teaching leaders her HONEST framework:
Humble
Open
Nurturing
Empathetic
Sincere
Timely
These six elements separate feedback that changes behavior from feedback that ruins someone's week.
To help people learn to receive feedback more effectively, Lonnie focuses on her Four R's framework:
Ready
Receive
Respond
Reflect
Download the full framework below.
Download the 4 R's Framework
Get The 4 R's Framework for Hearing Hard Feedback Without Falling Apart — a one-page guide you can pull up before your next tough conversation. It's the difference between bracing for feedback and actually growing from it, and it's yours free.
FAQs
Interested in the Awkward to Honest Feedback Program? Here are answers to some of the questions you might have about bringing Lonnie's program into your organization.
What's the HONEST framework for giving feedback?
HONEST is Lonnie Weaver-Johnson's framework for giving hard feedback: Humble, Open, Nurturing, Empathetic, Sincere, and Timely. It's designed to keep the message intact rather than softening it until it disappears.
Who is the Awkward to Honest program for?
This program is designed for teams facing the difficulties of giving and receiving tough feedback. It suits leadership teams, whole departments, and individual leaders through coaching. It can be delivered as a keynote, as workshops, or as a combination.
What are the 4 R's of receiving feedback?
The Four R's are Ready, Receive, Respond and Reflect. Most feedback training covers only delivery; the Four R's framework trains the other half of the conversation, so feedback actually lands.
How many people can attend a feedback workshop?
The Giving and Receiving workshops run with 6 to 30 participants. Leadership coaching is delivered to individuals or groups of up to 10 leaders. The keynote has no size limit.
Why does feedback training often fail?
Most of it only teaches how to give hard feedback (often in an ineffective way). Almost nobody trains the receiving end at all — so half the conversation is left to chance. Awkward to Honest covers both sides of giving and receiving hard feedback, which is what makes it stick.
What does the Awkward to Honest program include?
Four components you can combine or implement on their own: the Awkward to Honest keynote talk, a full-day Giving Feedback That Lands workshop, a half-day Receiving Feedback That Sticks workshop, and leadership coaching for individuals or small groups.