I’ve just read a piece by Adam Grant where he talks about trying to get people to give honest feedback. He was trying to get students to do 360 degree feedback, and, unsurprisingly the students he was teaching didn’t want to do it. They didn’t want to criticise each other publically.
So, he got one student to evaluate themselves in front of the group for a minute or so, and then opened up comments to the floor, and he said ‘the floodgates opened’. Essentially the self-evaluating student had signalled ‘permission to critique’…
I think it would be possible to use a similar technique in qualitative research – particularly in a co creation session. The client could critique their own idea, thus inviting more frank and honest responses from other participants…