LUCIAN OF SAMOSATA
120 AD -200 AD
Advice has two provinces — one of choice, the other of avoidance; let us first decide what .. to avoid — of what faults they must purge themselves—, and then proceed to the measures they must take for putting themselves on the straight high road.
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How To Give Advice/Criticism/Feedback/Reprimand/Redirect
I remembered being introduced to this concept as the “Cambridge Sandwich,” it is a rhetorical technique to deliver criticism in a way that it is accepted by the criticized person. Or supposed to be anyway.
It is attributed to Mary Kay Ash, of that ilk, the founder of Mary Kay Cosmetics in her 1945 book, Mary Kay on People Management (1984), where she says:
“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.”
Lucian seems to want to dispense with the first (positive statement). I think current management thinking is more on his side than Mary Kay Ash’s. As the structure is “praise, but…. criticism, praise” I think most people have generally accepted that anything before the word “but” can be ignored or worse implies that the first statements not true.
It is also called a Criticism Sandwich, a Praise Sandwich, a Feedback Sandwich, and sometimes a sandwich with a very unsavory filling!