Interesting thing about the Toastmasters C-R-C format is that the same concept is applied by intelligence gatherers (competitive intelligence folks in the corporate world and those government intelligence). When trying to elicit some information from a source, the approach is to ask direct questions about non-threatening topics at both the beginning and end of a conversation, but in the middle use a number of techniques (never direct questions) to work around to the information you seek to elicit.

The idea is pretty simple. People tend to remember the beginning and ends of conversations much more than the middle, and are also able to recall direct questions. A person highly skilled in elicitation techniques will get the information they seek while leaving their source unaware of what they have divulged.

However, I’d guess it is hardly the objective at Toastmasters to have the contructive feedback forgotten while the glowing praise gets etched in our memory.