Card-sorting as a tool for communicating the relative importance of supervisor interventions

A card-sorting activity was used to stimulate communication about the perceived relative importance of supervisor interventions within a supervisory dyad. Pairs of supervisors and supervisees ranked 10 cards of supervisor interventions in the order of perceived importance and conversed about their rankings. Results indicated that supervisees perceived feedback and correction as more important than supervisors, whereas supervisors perceived allowing for debriefing and validating supervisee's feelings as more important than supervisees. Dyads agreed that the activity was fun, easy to do, and would contribute to a climate of honest feedback, facilitate the working alliance, and help prevent unspoken negative dynamics.