We were very pleased to have been invited last month to present at a 'HR in Law' breakfast briefing seminar on how to implement a 360 degree feedback process within a firm.

As well as a high number of attendees, there seemed to be a real appetite for the topic with some great questions being raised about how to introduce the process within a partnership structure.

Not unsurprisingly, the concerns raised were less to do with the technology of an online system to handle the process, and more to do with how the critical face-to-face debrief should be approached.

We have written many times before as to what makes this stage of the process go well, and we re-iterated the points during this seminar; namely, that you quickly establish the boundaries of the debrief which is not to give the feedback but to explore the feedback with the partner.

The dynamic of the debrief changes instantly, as the recipient feels they have the opportunity to discuss the feedback without being judged; it becomes all about helping raise their self-awareness and where appropriate challenge them to accept that there are things worth paying attention to.

John

A brief note to highlight a recent article which had an interview with Google Europe boss John Herlih, in which he describes, amongst other things that make Google work well, how they take their people through 360 degree feedback every 6 months.

It is clear that they have a passion for attracting, recruiting, developing and retaining the best people, and this comes through in most articles written about Google - what is interesting here as well is how the 360 degree feedback results are shared with the whole company, providing a transparent process, which presumably serves to foster a more open culture.

Certainly not for everyone, but then when did Google ever follow the crowd...?

John

Here is a recent blog post I came across recently which lambasts a few management practices, one of these being 360 degree feedback processes.

As with many articles of this nature, I often find myself agreeing with some of what is said; poorly executed management practices, such as a badly implemented 360 degree appraisal process, can do more harm than good - so if people have a 'bad experience', it can colour their view about such practices permanently.

However, as with most things in life, this isn't a 'black & white' situation, and despite their being poor practice in evidence, there is also (certainly in our own experience) very good practice around which suggests that there is a danger of throwing the proverbial 'baby out with the bathwater' as one looks to kick against bad practice.

360 degree feedback should complement the whole myriad of management practices, tools and processes out there - it isn't a complete substitute for open, honest and regular communication between bosses and direct reports, peer to peer, etc,  which should most definitely be encouraged, but it certainly adds value as organisations seek to create this kind of transparent culture which can take time to take root.

John

Following the success of our last 360 degree feedback seminar in December, we are really pleased to announce a date for the next one in March.

Spaces will again be limited, so if you wish to register your interest then please click here.

"How to succesfully implement a 360 degree feedback process"

Date: 24th March 2010
Time: 10am-12pm
Location: Davenport Lyons, London

Just a brief pointer to a news story which caught my eye last week; the annoucement of a new soon to launch website www.failin.gs which offers the opportunity get feedback from anybody who knows you.

With a slight air of whimsy, it allows users to sign up and request anonymous feedback from anyone they choose; friends, family, colleagues, etc.

Not unsurprisingly, the comparison with 360 degree feedback in the workplace is made and it naturally brings out comments from psychologists and alike who question it's usefulness and merit; rightly so, they highlight that it has to be handled appropriately if being used for meaningful ends.

The idea of feedback from outside the workplace is potentially a good one for people who may wish to pinpoint changes they wish to make in their lives; it carries forward the idea that others can see our strengths and weakenesses with greater clarity then sometimes we can.

Or maybe it's just a chance to tell a friend they are a little mean when it comes to buying a drink after work.....

John

I thought of this phrase again recently after another of our one-day 360 degree feedback debrief training sessions.

In this instance I was delivering the training to a number of managers who were going to conduct the debriefs with their own team members; as their 'Line Manager', they had contributed to the 360 degree feedback report itself, and so their ratings and comments were on show accordingly.

What I noticed this time and before, is the way 'Line Managers' can find it more difficult to do a debrief more so than say a HR person, or a Coach, or any independent person who doesn't have a direct supervisory relationship with the 360 feedback recipient.

The challenge they often face is that they want to 'solve the problem' for the recipient (and themselves in the process); in doing so, they will often move very quickly from exploring the feedback to simply asking 'So what are you going to do about this issue?'.

Whilst this may be a vaild question when the recipient comes to put an action plan together, it is far too early to move to solution mode before understanding the feedback in greater depth.

For much of the debrief, in fact pretty much all of it we would advocate, the focus should be on raising the self-awareness of the recipient and having them accept there is something to be done.

Perhaps the title should read, 'Line Managers are from Mars, Skilled debriefers are from Venus'...comments on a postcard please....

John

We hear much today about what the environmental cost is around manufacturing, flying, food production, etc - It struck me that there is a parallel here to 360 degree feedback which provides a glimpse of the 'environmental cost' of our own behaviour.

It has become clear that it is not enough for companies to make vast profits for shareholders whilst dumping toxic waste in nearby rivers; the 'What' was being achieved but the 'How' was creating terrible fallout.

As employees,  it is often the case that whilst people are achieving their goals or targets, how they go about it can come at a cost to their immediate environment; the office, their colleagues, their family, etc.

360 degree feedback provides the ideal opportunity for respondents to indicate what the fallout is of certain behaviours they see as that person goes about achieving the 'What'.

The 'How' becomes important, because without succeeding in both areas, you cannot have a sustainable model for success.

John

Many of you may have seen this research which touches on the benefits of 360 degree feedback covered by BBC Breakfast last week.

It referenced a new report co-funded by the Health & Safety Executive, the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development and Investors in People.

The essence of it was to highlight that managers who received upwards feedback, with regard to certain management behaviours that are believed to help prevent and reduce stress amongst their staff, were more likely to modify their behaviour in these areas for the better,  compared to the test group of managers who didn't receive such feedback.

A good example of the need for people, managers or otherwise, to use 360 degree feedback to improve their behaviour in the workplace.

Alas, the media, seeking a more punchy story, reduced it to the headline of 'standing up to your boss works wonders...assuming you don't get the sack!'.


John

As we start another year back this week and my thoughts turn to our work again (after a great 10 days off thinking off anything but....!), I was very taken by a request from a friend who asked me for some feedback on him.

It was simple enough; he wanted to know what he was really good at, what I enjoyed most about his approach to life and a single word that summed him up.

I found it easy and a privilege to be asked; he said that the feedback was to help him reflect on what he should focus more on in 2010 and consider how he could be his best at work and at play.

If you have the inclination and opportunity to ask for some feedback from your friends and family, I would heartily recommend it; a simple SMS text message sufficed and made it easy to reply for the person giving feedback (as face-to-face is sometime more difficult).

All the best for 2010; I hope to speak and meet with some of you again this year.

John

I saw an interview with Dr.Kerry Spackman on the BBC recently, publicising his new book, 'The Winners Bible'; my ears pricked up at the mention of 360 degree feedback as part of the process he advocates to help people make changes and keep to their New Year resolutions.

He calls it an 'Anonymous Audit' whereby you ask for feedback from others close to you (in this instance friends and family as well as potentially work colleagues) on what are your strengths and weaknesses.

Not unsurprisingly (at least to me anyway) was that he saw this step in the process of rewiring your default settings as fundamental to making lasting change; the notion being that it is difficult for people to self-evaulate their own strengths and weaknesses without some blind spots leaving their interpretation open to debate.

John

We have spoken many times about when to share an individual's 360 degree feedback report and have always stated a firm belief that this should happen in a face-to-face debrief.

I used the following analogy the other day to explain our thinking on this - If the report represents some kind of 'True North' for an individual, a balanced view of both the positive and the negative, then our role as a debriefer is to guide someone along that route heading North.

If they receive the report beforehand, they can travel off into the distance, veering away from True North very quickly, focusing on particular bits of feedback (usually the 'negative' feedback as they would see it), and ending up more and more remote from the balanced view which we wish to help them see.

This leads to a debrief session, where lots of energy and time is expended trying to pull them back to True North; it can be exhausting, and with limited time leave them some way off where they should be.

Better to guide them on their journey, inevitably they will veer left and right from True North, but only marginally, with your help to bring them back onto the path.

The image below was a hastily scribbled attempt to convey this on a flip chart, but it hopefully sums up the key reason to have a face-to-face debrief from the off.



John

We had a very enjoyable and productive 360 degree feedback seminar on Friday 11th; thanks again to all who attended and for those who had expressed an interest but unfortunately couldn't make it.

A special thanks as well to our client, Reynolds Porter Chamberlain, for providing their offices as a great venue near St.Katherines Dock, and for all their hospitality.

The session was very interactive, with lots of discussion and debate, coupled with a presentation by Brendan Walsh around our latest whitepaper on the topic.

The success of the session has spurred us on to want to run another one of these in the New Year, both for 360 degree feedback and for performance appraisals.

If you have interest in attending either of these future events then do let me know at john@bowlandsolutions.com, and I will add your name to our advance notice list.

John

Despite vast improvements in technology, 'best' commercial practice and tomes of knowledge from business management 'gurus', 360 degree feedback is often still the preserve of the few.

We will often work with clients and find people who have never been through a 360 degree feedback appraisal in their entire career.

This is not to say that they have 'suffered' as a result of this, however, it makes for an interesting 360 feedback debrief when they see for the first time in black and white how others perceive them.

They are sometimes shocked, pleased, saddened and overjoyed (sometimes all at once!) to read this type of feedback for the first time, but it always re-inforces to us at Bowland Solutions, just how powerful 360 degree feedback can be whether it is a new experience for someone or not.

John

A topic that often comes up for discussion with our clients which is what the remit is of a 360 degree feedback debrief; the session where you share an individual's 360 feedback report with them (ideally for the first time).

We favour that it only goes as far as highlighting the key strengths and development opportunities for the individual; moving into 'coaching' mode and seeking to start creating actions or ways to resolve things in the report is often premature.

Coupled with this is to go at the pace if the individual concerned; sometimes they may well be able to contemplate development actions and begin planning ways to act upon the feedback, in which case you can follow their lead if the report has been fully explored.

Similarly, we often find individuals who need to 'go away and think about it' and this is equally valid.

John

A more common request now when implementing performance appraisals has been the desire on the part of our clients to incorporate multi-rater feedback (typically from other managers) in the appraisal process.

Taken to it's logical extreme, there would be 360 degree feedback from all individuals who could offer valid feedback on that persons behaviour.

However, sometimes it is a good step forward to introduce the idea of multi-rater feedback into an organisation but making it a natural part of the appraisal process; it contributes to a more rounded view on an individual, it creates familiarity with the concept and offers the individual some useful insights, albeit still short of peers and direct reports offering feedback.

When this is coupled with that multi-rater feedback centering on competencies or qualities, then the foundations being laid to phase in 360 degree feedback is even stronger.

John

Just read a short and concise blog post which made a really great point of what can be an empowering starting point with any 360 feedback debrief; namely, highlighting someone's strengths and see how it highlights their weaknesses as well.

An overplayed strength can become a weakness as can an underplayed one; very often this focus on strengths can help someone consider their development areas with a more open frame of mind.

John

During a recent conversation around coaching, one of the group discussing the topic had an interesting background in teaching and working with 'problem' children as the media might describe them.

I asked whether there was a common theme to those children who turned things around and were able to forge a better life for themselves; without pause, the answer came 'they took responsibility for their lives'.

As a coach and specifically in the context of 360 degree feedback debriefs, I am similarly struck by the way in which individuals, having read their 360 feedback report and increased their levels of self-awareness, take varying levels of responsibility for the impact of their behaviours.

Change comes when they say 'OK, what can I do about this situation?' rather than absolving themselves by saying 'Well they would say that', 'It's not my fault, they don't listen', etc etc.

There is a lot in the news which talks of people's rights and how there is a need to emphasise more about people's responsibilities - the starting point with this shift comes through that age old idea of 'facing up' to one responsibilities or becoming self-aware.

John

Sometimes when debriefing an individual on their 360 degree feedback report, you may find that it is relatively bland or 'middle of the road'; the individual neither excels in some areas or is deemed to be in serious need of development in others.

This can seem like a difficult scenario to manage; it may feel that there is nothing to celebrate and little to focus on regards development opportunities, so the conversation may fizzle out.

However, the key here is to allow the individual to consider which competencies could become real strengths and make the most difference in their current role.

The development part of this 360 feedback discussion then shifts to 'do more of this' and consideration of small adjustments that would have them go from good to great.

John

A quick post to point out the most recent 'Horizon' programme on BBC2 earlier this week; entitled 'The Secret You' it delves into the idea of what is consciousness.

At Bowland we are immersed in 360 degree feedback and the part it plays in raising an individual's self-awareness, making them more conscious of what decisions they are making, why they are making those decisions and the affect of their subsequent behaviour on others.

Fascinating stuff!

John