I was in the US last weekend.  I was working hard in the Florida Keys! 

Whenever I travel to the US a number of things strike me.  Let's take the easiest example: the different approach to service.  Waiting staff in the US are different - the norm is different.  Refilling your coffee, providing iced water, being attentive are all the norm.  Of course, leaving a tip is also a norm!

We can all see these differences - many things better, some not - but what I love about travel is that it challenges your own norms and perceptions.  

It is very easy to keep on doing the same thing.  Setting the same goals/targets each year in your performance appraisal.  Asking 360 feedback questions that are asking "do you behave in the same as we always have done".  But to challenge yourself, you need to see a change in behaviour - a different norm.

Not everything is better of course - I had a breakfast where an omelette was placed inside a croissant! - but rather than just doing the same thing a bit faster isn't real improvement.

Next time we're working on a performance appraisal form or a 360 feedback questionnaire I'll be reminded that the aim of these exercises is to help improvement not just repeating the norm.

Brendan

The short answer to this is 'with care' - We have had a spate of new performance appraisal projects with clients who interestingly have all requested integrated 360 degree feedback.

This is nothing new in itself but the frequency of the requests is intriguing and perhaps suggests a groundswell in the belief that assessing performance against objectives, identifying learning & development needs, and setting objectives going forward, is not enough.

Defining desired organisational behaviours and soliciting feedback on these is an essential element of any effective performance management process.

The key to success in bringing together the outputs of both the performance appraisal and the 360 feedback into a meaningful conversation is to clearly recognise what they are designed to do; appraisal on the 'what' and 360 on the 'how'; appraisal for evaluation, 360 for development.

Sometimes just keeping the conversations separate and giving equal importance to both can be all it needs.

John

A topic we often discuss with clients is where the responsibility should lie with regard the 360 degree feedback debrief; this being the face-to-face session where the recipient explores and discusses their 360 feedback report.

We would say ideally that the debrief should be conducted by someone outside of that person's line management; this could be someone from HR, L & D or someone external to the company, with the caveat that whomever it is should be suitably skilled/trained.

However, we recognise that this is not always practically possible; the internal resources within HR and L & D just cannot dedicate the time required to take all recipients through a 90 minute debrief, and the budget doesn't stretch to external facilitation.

So it falls to the line manager, which prompts the question; how should a line manager debrief a 360 degree feedback report? The first answer must be again, with skill; line managers need to be effectively trained to conduct such a debrief conversation.

The challenges for line managers in conducting debriefs are numerous; their feedback is in the report, they can find it hard to switch from 'performance review' mode, they can find themselves jumping in with solutions to development areas which haven't been fully explored.

Line managers need to step back within a debrief; their role is to be curious, ask questions which raise awareness not ask for rationale, listen intently, trust in the recipient and not jump to resolution.

It's a different mode of thinking and a significant 'gear shift' downwards; only for 90 minutes, but it can make the world of difference to the outcome.

John

Here is a rather comprehensive blog post from David K Schneider which takes a balanced view of 360 degree feedback, describing the various possible outcomes as 'Heaven', 'Hell' and 'Purgatory'; nice analogies!

I found myself nodding at numerous points throughout this piece, particularly those which picked up on how if a 360 feedback project becomes an 'I.T. solution' to be implemented, then something is going to awry.

It's all too easy sometimes to put in the hard miles at the beginning of a project; taking time to design a behavioural questionnaire that is relevant and resonant, communicating the process clearly and consistently, and implementing an online system which creates an easy-to-use process, before faltering at the end with poor training of debriefers or failing to ensure that recipients are adequately supported when absorbing their feedback.

Heaven is in reach, Purgatory is avoidable, and Hell is a painful lesson.

John

The latest news regarding the Department of Education (DoE) new approach to underperforming teachers is slightly depressing; it is introducing measures which will allow them to be sacked within a term.

I don't dispute that underperformance is an issue in any organisation and in teaching the effects of such poor performance can have far reaching consequences for the pupils and the school.

However, in a similar vein to the argument for 'Protected Conversations' (a post on this can be read here), the response of Government seems to be weighted in favour of punitive measures rather than a desire to improve the situation i.e. find a way sack employees more easily, remove the red-tape that binds employers, etc.

Michael Gove speaks of headteachers being able to intervene when there are 'alarm bells ringing and red lights flashing' over a teacher's incompetence; I think it's rare that incompetence is truly the root cause, more likely it is weak management, poor training, lack of support, systemic issues, absence of regular feedback and confidence.

A mindset which believes that there is a lot of incompetent teachers out there will reach for the solutions we are seeing implemented by the DoE, but it misses the opportunity to introduce real measures which will help teachers improve where there is underperformance, which has to be a better alternative to sacking them.

John

Our new website now really captures our philiosophy of what we believe makes for success in the context of a 360 degree feedback project; the idea of working backwards through 5 key steps.

1. Working backwards means starting with the end in mind; starting with the clear intention of ensuring there is a meaningful conversation at the end of the process in the face-to-face debrief above all else.

2.  The debriefer needs to be skilled enough to conduct such a conversation; willing to explore and be curious, offering challenge and support in equal measure.

3.  A report prompts a meaningful conversation when it displays ratings and comments in an insightful way; an individual should be able to quickly grasp what the feedback is relaying.

4.  Enabling this to happen efficiently should be a simple, customised, quiet online system designed to fit your organisation.

5.  A relevant, resonant and well designed questionnaire is an underlying key element; it should reflect your organisation - it's culture, values, and strategic direction.


If you want to know more, then take a look at the new website; there are free seminars, whitepapers and system demonstrations available to help you work through the process from end-to-end and ensure the best outcome for your 360 feedback process.

John

I really recommend reading the following article in a New Zealand online website www.stuff.co.nz/sport/opinion/6195646/The-myth-of-team-culture .  It is well written and well though through.  At first read, the author is so convinced of his own view that you find yourself agreeing with him.  And even on the second or third read I did find myself wondering whether 360 degree feedback really is useful for team sports.

The ultimate issue I have with the article is that it falls for a classic "either or" structure.  In summary he says either you have sportsmen (forgive me following his male assumption!) taking responsibility on the field or you have people working to develop performance goals, team culture, or consider the mental side of the game.  He sees these as conflicting goals.  I believe you can have both.

It strikes me that regular performance reviews and regular feedback sessions (360 degree feedback in this context really is just having team feedback sessions I'd guess) are sensible parts of delivering a high performing team.  That underneath this process each team member is responsible for their own contribution and performance fits well with such work not against it.

So, while I sympathise with some of his general sentiments of overly pampered sports stars I don't subscribe to the argument that working on teamwork, having well defined goals, and working on the team culture works against high achievement.  

Clive Woodward's autobiography/book on England winning the World cup (Winning!) and the excellent book "Sacred Hoops" by Phil Jackson; coach of Chicago Bulls and LA Lakers show how great coaches and leaders balance team management, leadership and culture with letting great individuals thrive.

Brendan

We would first like to wish all our readers, colleagues, partners and clients a Happy New Year and hope that you enjoyed a restful break.

With our New Year resolutions, comes a new website which offers us the opportunity to share much more about 360 degree feedback and performance appraisal in 2012.

• As ever, we have interesting free whitepapers to download around the topics of implementing both 360 feedback and performance management processes from end-to-end; our 360 whitepaper in particular has complete new sections on 360 reporting which is a critical element of the whole experience.
• In addition, you can now request online system demonstrations of both our 360 degree appraisal and performance review solutions; just register your details with a preferred date and we will come back to you with available times.
• Similarly, with the ongoing success of our seminar and webinar series, we have now provided a registration page such that anyone can reserve a place at these and be informed in advance of general release.

We look forward to speaking and meeting with many more of you this coming year and thank you for your continued interest and support; Happy New Year!


John

A final post before the year end to wish all of our clients, partners, associates, colleagues, friends and readers a peaceful Xmas and New Year.

It's been a significant year for us here at Bowland; many new & interesting 360 degree feedback and performance appraisal projects, the deepening of our relationships with existing clients, and the introduction of new training programmes to support our work.

We have enjoyed presenting our thoughts through this blog and other online communities, publishing new whitepapers, delivering keynotes to the CIPD & other HR networking groups, as well as continuing our series of live seminars and webinars.

Thanks to all of you who took the time to read, listen, talk to us and work with us; we look forward to sharing more next year and to embarking on some new projects with many more of you in 2012.

Merry Xmas
All the team at Bowland Solutions

A brief note of thanks to all those who attended and contributed to our latest webinar, 'Successfully implementing 360 degree feedback'; if you missed this one then we will schedule another one in the New Year and hope you can join us then.

Thanks to all those who requested the webinar slides; I am happy to provide these to anyone else who would like to see the content of the session - some of the context is naturally lost but there should be a fair amount that makes sense.

Just drop a note to me at john@bowlandsolutions.com and request 'Webinar Slides'; I will only be able to distribute these until Wednesday 14th December.

Thanks
John

We recently ran our seminar 'Successfully implementing 360 degree feedback' in London and have been asked by a number of people who couldn't attend if we could present this by way of a webinar, so here are the details!

Date: 8th December 2011
Time: 2pm GMT
Duration: 45 minutes

The webinar will focus on four key elements of 360 degree feedback implementation, namely:

• Design of the competency frameworks, questionnaire, and rating scale
• Understanding the different type of 360 reports; what works when
• How to build the case for 360; getting senior level 'buy-in'
• How to share the feedback report in the one-to-one debrief session

In addition, we will be demonstrating an online 360 degree feedback system to show how easily recipients, respondents and administrators can engage in the process if correctly designed.

If you are interested, then please click on the 'Get in Touch' button opposite and register your details; in the field which says 'My project is...' just add the word 'Webinar'.

You will then receive an email requesting you to confirm your interest. just click on the link within this, and we can then send out joining instructions for the 'Gotomeeting' webinar session.

We look forward to welcoming some of you to the session; many thanks.

John

A brief note here to highlight a post on the Harvard Business Review Blog from Scott Edinger in response to Marcus Buckingham's original blog post of last month about what he saw as the 'fatal flaws' inherent in 360 degree feedback.

We have commented ourselves on this post (read here) already, but Scott Edinger's post articulates very well where some of the reasoning made by Marcus Buckingham might lead to the wrong conclusion.

In essence, we see again that if the purpose or intention of 360 degree feedback is not aligned with where it adds most value i.e. to furnish an individual with useful subjective feedback that will help them craft a better plan for personal development, then of course it can be viewed negatively and perceived as not adding value.

Meetings within the workplace is a similar topic that we often hear lambasted as a activity, as in "Meetings are a waste of time"; what is meant is that 'bad' meetings are a waste of time - the proper purpose and intention for a meeting has been lost.

Success follows both these elements.

John

We often talk around the heart of our business ethos relating to how we wish to encourage organisations to focus on the meaningful conversation between employee and their line manager at performance appraisal time or as the culmination of a 360 feedback process.

A good read is 'Authentic Conversations' by Jamie Showkier and Maren Showkier which feeds much into this ethos and offers a way for organisations to change culture through conversation.

Many things stand out as great pointers to how this might come about; the adoption of a mindset which recognises the freedom of choice in others, the intention to move from manipulation to engagement, and how conversations should move away from trying to get compliance and towards committment or engagement.

Performance management is the primary vehicle of communication between a line manager and their team and can drive this engagement; each conversation can build comittment or try to reinforce compliance in others.

With the right intention the right techniques can do wonders; conducting a well structured performance appraisal is a good start but it has to be coupled with a sincere desire to treat people as adults who make a choice to offer their committment.

John

Just a brief visit to CIPD in Manchester this year proved a worthwhile opportunity to catch up on what is happening within the industry and both 360 degree feedback and performance appraisal were very visible.

In fact there was a lot around assessment, diagnostics, evaluation, appraisal, talent metrics and alike; the continued ascent of online, web-based, SaaS and Cloud software is fuelling lower cost and easy to deploy solutions.

Whilst this is all good, the challenge for providers of such software solutions is to ensure that they don't obscure what's really important in all of this,  meaningful conversations, face-to-face interaction, literally 'the human touch'; efficiency is one thing, effectiveness is the goal.

John

A recent post by Marcus Buckingham here is worth a look at the thread of discussion it has prompted; he challenges the effectiveness of them with a focus on what he describes as 'bad data'.

The subjective nature of respondents offering their view on behaviour of the recipient is inherently flawed in his opinion and for them to be more effective, he suggests a focus on the outcomes experienced by the respondents i.e. "I know what the vision of this organisation is" as distinct to "Clearly articulates the vision of the organisation".

I am not so sure; I accept the subjective nature of feedback from respondents/raters but that's fine - we are looking to bring together a host of different world views and see how they stack up against the recipient's own self-evaluation and each other.

We don't subscribe to the idea that people should get scores such as "3.7 in communication"; it is meaningless and in this regard I take his point.

However, where one sees these different world views within a report, the ability to have a debrief conversation which asks 'does that matter?' becomes interesting - if it doesn't matter and these views can continue in relative harmony then fine; but if as the recipient looks at this and sees that, subjective opinion or not, such disparate views will have a negative consequence over time, then it is sensible that the they take note, accept and consider their options.

360 degree feedback is not about scoring or qualifying absolutely what someone is good or not good at, it serves to offer up feedback for consideration by the recipient which will aid their develoipment; it's not black or white, truth or false, right or wrong, it just is.

John

Despite being a runner of some 25 years, my second visit to the physio proved again that simply raising ones awareness about performance, as we often seek to do through feedback and performance appraisal, can have profound effects.

I had thought my running style quite good; frankly putting one leg in front of the other can't be that demanding to think about can it? However, as I started to run on the treadmill and have my running style assessed, the phyiso started to ask me about my 'cadence'.

I had never heard of this in the context of running; but of course as you reflect for a moment you realise that of course there is a rhythm, a beat, as your feet repeatedly land and take your forward.

Well mine was 143...and apparently all professional runners tend to have a cadence of around 180; this isn't groundspeed, just the number cycles your legs/feet make as you move.

My cadence was putting an undue strain on my calves and tendons, hence the problem I was seeking to resolve; now with a new awareness and new cadence (which to be fair made me feel a little like a keystone cop furiously pedalling my legs), I could feel immediately the difference.

Now out running for the first time again in many months, my new awareness though a review of my performance (or performance appraisal...!) has created a change; I have a new alternative, a new perspective, and a desire to develop and improve my running times, because I now know how.

Again and again, if you simply ask people what they notice about one way of doing things and then ask again what they notice with a new way of doing things...they are savvy enough to make the choice.

John

This is the final piece of the CIPD presentation I made earlier this year relating to how to create a better performance appraisal process and more 'feedback rich' organisation; the first two elements regarding 'Context' and 'Mindset' have been covered in earlier posts.

Duncan Brown of the Institute of Employment Studies (IES) makes excellent reference in his article regarding performance management as to how, despite good intention and ambition, organisations fail through poor practice and delivery.

We might have set the importance of feedback in the context of performance management correctly and adopted the right frame of mind as we come to do it, but without a process which is easy to implement and follow, organisations will fail to create something sustainable.

- Clearly linked to the organisation's purpose and against a broad scorecard of performance.

- Had a focus on the reviewing line managers who have to implement the process HR design.

- Concentrated on the conversation; benefits of a strength-based approach to performance conversations and reviews, building on employees' strengths and energy levels.
Considering all the three elements of context, mindset and process, as one comes to design and implement a performance appraisal project, is a useful guide to help increase success and longevity.

John

 We recently announced the release of our newly revised 2011 edition of our whitepaper, "Succesfully implementing 360 degree feedback; a guide for HR professionals" - a key difference with this new version is the amount of detail around 360 feedback reporting.

It's a crucial element; the report has to be easy to understand such that the recipient can draw meaning and insight to aid their thinking around their own development.

Too often reports are lengthy, repetitious, overly analytical and with data that provides no discernible benefit.

Fundamentally, the report dictates the type of conversation one will have in the face-to-face debrief; a range of different styles is shown below:

If it's reflective (Style A) of everyone's ratings without averaging, then the conversation will spend more time drawing out those differences between the different categories of respondent; a question might be:

One can quickly see that how the feedback is presented is as important as getting the feedback in the first place.

If you would like the whitepaper sent to you automatically, then you can sign-up and confirm your interest in the box opposite.

John

Never one to underplay the power of 360 degree feedback (!), this Green Left article highlights how psychopathic traits are more likely found in corporate managers than the general population.

Through a study by University of British Columbia, including close scrutiny of performance reviews and 360 degree feedback of a selection of individuals identified as management material, it was revealed that on a test looking at psychopathic traits, they were 20 times more likely to exhibit these then the general population.

Heart warming stuff; that lack of empathy you keep noting in your line manager is the very thing which got them to the top...

John

A brief post to say thanks to those who came along to our seminar last week on how to successfully implement 360 degree feedback and a 'Missed you!' to those who couldn't make it as planned.

It was an interesting cross-section of individuals and organisations as ever, and we introduced a lot more new content around 360 reporting, discussing what works and when; this is such a critical element of the process.

Looking forward to running another one in the New Year; if you have a particular interest and wish to come along next time then do let me know at john@bowlandsolutions.com.

For those who did miss it, don't forget that you can download the new whitepaper via this blog or the website.