As someone who thinks a lot about using intentional communication to help others, I have often thought about the idea of feedback. When I served as a supervisor, I thought long and hard about how to talk with team members about their performance in a way that was helpful. As a Motivational Interviewing (MI) trainer, I have tried many ways of communicating to training participants about their use of MI skills. As an instructor/advisor of graduate students, I frequently experiment with different strategies when helping students identify areas of growth and strengths in their professional development. I have thought a lot about giving feedback, but it was not until recently that I had thought about how I receive feedback. After reading Thanks For the Feedback, I am convinced that intentionally receiving feedback is an important and often overlooked aspect in the feedback process. I think that in regards to the practice of cultural humility, the skill of receiving feedback is even more important than the skill of giving feedback.

​Communicating with someone with a different viewpoint can be challenging, and most of us can understand this from experience. Maybe you dabbled in politics at the thanksgiving table with family members who have drastically different perspectives on the role of government than your own. Perhaps you have experience sharing some religious differences with someone who was equally convicted of their faith (or lack thereof). Heck, for some people bringing up the success of a rival sports team can set the tone for an angry exchange of words. 

Cultural Humility and Motivational Interviewing
The concept of cultural humility refers to the practice of respecting folks from other backgrounds and identities on their own terms. A culturally humble approach seeks to understand others “in relation to aspects of cultural identity that are most important to the [person]” (Hook, 2013, p. 2). These most important aspects of one’s identity(ies) may not be obvious to others, thus the process of being culturally humble requires of the practitioner a non-judgmental curiosity, deep listening and self awareness among other qualities (Chavez, 2012; Tervalon & Murray-Garcia, 1998).