Bowland Solutions

Bowland Vanilla offers our clients the chance to run a non-branded 360 degree process for any number of recipients, being a fully managed on-line 360 feedback service it takes away the administrative burden from our clients.

Clients pick from a selection of competencies and behaviour questions (we're happy to look over these if required), provide us with the recipient and respondent details and we do the rest. We send the invites, reminders, monitor the completion rate and let the client know how it's all going at key stages of the process. When the 360 is over PDF reports are available on the same day that the final feedback is completed.

Feedback from clients has indicated that they have found the Bowland Vanilla process

• simple
• stress free
• effective

So as the Walker Brothers once sang 'Make it easy on yourself...'

Vicky

I watched the end of Wednesday night's Champions League game in the UK between Lyon and Liverpool.  Liverpool conceded a goal in the last few minutes which made their chances of progressing in their favoured competition most unlikely.  Within 10 minutes of the end of the game, their captain Jamie Carragher - a rare scouse in the Liverpool team - was asked a series of questions on what had happened in the game.

The question that threw him the most (he was admirably cool while looking devastated) was "was it a loss of concentration that led to the goal being conceded?".  The question would have assigned fault to two of Carragher's colleagues.  Carragher answered after a brief confused look with "it looked like the ball was just bouncing around and then it the next thing I knew it was in the net.  We'll have to look at it later to see what happened".

In the midst of a standard well-oiled interview by a great professional this answer demonstrated the folly of trying to work out what went wrong so soon after the event.  We are often encouraged as managers to ensure that performance appraisal occurs at the time of the event, while everything is fresh in their mind.  But here the "manager" (captain) was ill-equipped to give feedback.

You can take "in the moment" feedback too far.  I recommend a day or two after the event, when the emotion has subsided yet memories are fresh.  A short period of reflection allows for a considered performance appraisal rather than a reactive one.  If you were one of those central defenders devastated by defeat you would not have been receptive to your captain pointing out your fault 10 minutes after the game.  But after a day or so, that same performance feedback delivered well would allow you to develop and avoid the same mistake twice.

Performance appraisal and feedback can be difficult.  Timing of the feedback really matters.

Brendan

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

I've heard it said so many times that nature is the best designer, there's something to be said for survival of the fittest. Natures designs that surround us are only there having fought off many other designs to be the best, granted there has been some evolution along the way.

I'm looking into the usability of our 360 degree appraisal and performance review tools and considering where our products need to evolve in order to meet the growing needs of our users, however, I'm now keeping in mind that some of our features have been around in some form or another since the beginning and have stood the test of time. So, maybe those features deserve to remain, albeit after some evolution of their own.

What are your thoughts? Are there features you just can't live without, features that are great, if only they had a little bit extra? Let us know!

David

I was asked at a recent marketing seminar : what is your ideal 360 degree feedback client?  It is a great question - extremely helpful from a marketing perspective but also helpful for thinking about the service you offer.

So, are you our ideal client?  If you are, then I believe you would have one or more of the following characteristics.

• Your primary focus is the individual in the 360
• You believe that 360 feedback offers a great chance to start a conversation with a recipient which can lead to them taking responsibility for their own development
• You have your own ideas and welcome our expertise
• Either you want us to take the process on for you or you have the administrative support ready in-house
• You're a small team wanting a big intervention or a large organisation needing a smooth, easy-to-use, process

I 'm sure I could think of more but when I look at our current clients, all of whom we rely on to be our referees for us, they all fit into one or more of those categories.

If you recognise yourself then get in touch.

Brendan

Following on from Part 1, this is a look into the process of moving a customer's existing paper-based performance appraisal form into an electronic format, and the benefits that are associated with doing so.

Comments?

Employee comments and feedback is what a performance appraisal is all about. A well laid-out form with clear instructions is vital to capturing people's thoughts efficiently.
A paper-based form is often a compromise between getting enough information onto the page, and leaving enough space for the responses.
Thankfully, online we can forget about these limitations; the focus is primarily on presenting the questions so that they are given enough thought by the appraisee. A popular method of achieving this is to split the form into 'chunks' that display separately, meaning that the appraisee can focus fully on one area of the form before moving on to the next.
Additionally, we can display tips and help panels to jog the memory and inspire useful feedback, which again can change or appear/disappear depending on what section is being displayed.
Finally, and crucially, if a section of the form really must be filled in, we can specify required fields and prevent the appraisal from going any further until they're completed.

More coming soon.

Peter

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

Hearing somebody speak passionately about a subject can be so inspiring, regardless of the subject. Sometimes, however the subject is of importance and can have rather impressive side effects.

Bowland Solutions believes (passionately) in the value of quality feedback and it is this passion that has inspired the development of our performance review and 360 degree appraisal tools to capture this feedback and deliver it out in the best way possible.

Now, those of us of a geeky disposition are passionate about the software we produce, but we feed off this passion to both produce annual performance review tools that we are proud of and create the best environment possible for delivering quality feedback.

Our passion doesn't stop there though! People who believe in what they are doing inspire others, just as I have been inspired and hopefully, those administering the process are inspired by the tools they are using to deliver it into the organisation. People feed off this and, when driven with vigour, we see greater completion rates and I would hazard a guess that the quality of the feedback is improved also!

I guess I'm going to spend some time thinking about how we can make our tools more inspirational...not a small task I would think!

David

Many of our customers use our software as a means of cutting out the proliferation of paper forms that go hand-in-hand with a manual performance appraisal process.

In this series of posts I'll try to explain the steps we go through in moving a customer's existing paper-based form into an electronic format, and the benefits that are associated with doing so.


Who are you?
This is the first question a paper form will commonly ask the appraisee; pre-printed forms tailored individually to an appraisee are very costly, so employees usually end up re-entering their own details onto the form, or their manager will do it on their behalf.

This need not be the case with an online performance appraisal. We are able to import employee data from many HR systems and/or user directories, allowing us to pre-populate a user's appraisal form with all the relevant information. It's a small detail, but not having to identify themselves to the company they work for makes the appraisee feel part of the process, let alone saving time that could be better spent elsewhere!

More to come soon.

Peter

A recent post on the signal vs noise blog grabbed my attention stating that the CEO would be "standing by" to take calls, emails etc between given times on given days. Firstly, a bold and brave move with clear benefits to the customer, but later I started to wonder what is the benefit to the CEO. The answer is quality 360 feedback.

People often talk of exchanging job roles for a day to experience life on the other side of the fence, but this can often be inpractical. A 360 degree appraisal just might be the answer!

I'm very eager to gain feedback from the users of our system, the recipients, respondents and also the administrators.

More on this soon...

Often, new starters are excluded from 360 degree feedback.  The reasoning goes that they are too new for others to have formed a valid opinion of them.  At the extreme of the first few weeks, I agree.  But, after a few months I believe that tailored 360 degree feedback would be very helpful. 

People are forming impressions of you very early - some of those impressions will stick whether they are valid or not.  The earlier that you can get useful feedback the sooner you can tackle the impression you are giving.

If you consider introducing 360 degree feedback for new starters then you should of course take care on the questions - perhaps a full competency framework would not apply yet.  But, consider using 360 feedback as a tool around the 6 month period.

Brendan

A number of our clients have been asking us to draw broader conclusions for their organisation from a 360 degree feedback implementation.  This is a very useful trend.  Having run 360 for a key set of people in an organisation there is a real opportunity to draw out broader learning and development needs.

We support this process by drawing on summary reports, analysis of narrative responses, and the conversations that were held with 360 recipients around their report.  Rather than relying on simple statistical analysis this brings out the real narrative from the 360 feedback.  A report of our findings supports a management discussion that we attend.

I confess to this being one of the most enjoyable elements of our service.  It offers a real opportunity to make a difference in an organisation and makes proper use of the information that has been gathered in the 360 degree feedback exercise.  It rings the last drop of return from the investment.

Brendan

With three separate performance review projects I have been reminded of one of the great benefits of reviewing performance.  Often, performance appraisal projects focus on objective setting and development plans.  But, one of the key reasons that employee's want performance reviews is to give them the opportunity to discuss the past year and what they've done well.

There is a real tendency to skip over this - both in the performance appraisal meeting and in the documentation that supports the meeting.  But, is it too much to ask of a manager that they take a bit of time to review what has gone well and give praise where it is due?

In a recent exercise on working out the employee objectives for a performance appraisal process there was a passionate argument from those contributing to ensure that the opportunity to talk about what went well in the day-to-day job in the past year was recorded and valued.  To my own discredit it took a number of people saying this for the message to get home properly.

Brendan

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

Here is an excerpt from our recently published white paper on how to successfully implement performance appraisals in your organisation.

Purpose

An oft-missed step. For many organisations, performance appraisals are a given – often written into the company's procedures manual. Because we rarely decide whether to do
performance appraisals we sometimes forgot to ask “why are we doing this?”.

First, we recommend that you explicitly separate the organisational objectives from the personal development objectives. While they overlap and of course it could be argued that they are the same, this split allows you to meet the two stakeholders needs openly.

Organisational objectives for performance appraisals

• Clarifying and defining performance expectations
• Facilitating communication and involvement
• Allocating financial rewards
• Determining promotion
• Motivating employees
• Controlling employees actions
• Succession planning
• Cultural change initiatives
• Training needs analysis

Individual objectives for performance appraisals

• Identify training needs
• Identify development requirements
• Gain feedback on performance
• Promote own capabilities to organisation
• Understand expectations

It may be that you do not agree with these lists and almost certainly you would have other objectives to add. Our point is that the building of this list is crucial for it is the yardstick against which you can evaluate your current processes, any changes you design and the final implementation.



Brendan

To download this performance appraisal white paper please click on this link.

I've just completed a 360 degree feedback analysis report for a client.  The analysis covers themes that have come out from the 360 feedback reports and the debrief sessions that we held of the recipients.  Most of the report is high level recommendations of the next steps that should be taken.  Effectively, the client is looking to maximise the benefits from the exercise.

As part of the analysis, I've looked at the questionnaire to ensure it has performed well as a method of gathering feedback.  One part of that analysis is to look at where we have a large number of "not applicable"s selected by respondents.

In general, if one respondent group (often peers) answers not applicable more than 20-25% of the time then I suggest you consider taking that question out of the pool of behaviours next time for that respondent group.  This tightens the questionnaire, improves the report, and reduces the burden on the respondents.

However, sometimes "not applicable" is more useful.  If the question you are asking really should be a behaviour that his group can respond on then "not applicable" can mean "not evidenced".  And that can be interesting.  Why are the direct reports unable to comment on delegation?  Why are the peers saying "not applicable" to sharing of knowledge?

Analysing the general output of 360 degree feedback iss always worthwhile - it gives you the opportunity to improve your next 360 and it offers you the opportunity to draw out the big lessons at a group level.


Brendan

We have been running some client seminars recently and the feedback has been so positive that we have decided to put a new seminar together and make it available to all.

Title: “How to succesfully implement a 360 degree feedback process within your organisation”
Date:  December 2009
Venue: Central London
 

• Understand the critical factors that will ensure success when introducing 360 into your business
• Take away a checklist to help you work logically through the implementation process
• Appreciate the key principles that will help you design a great questionnire, communicate    effectively to get company wide 'buy-in' and facilitate face-to-face debriefs.

This seminar will be very interactive and allow plenty of opportunity to network with other delegates, discuss best practice and offer ample time for Q & A if you have specific issues to be addressed. Places will be free but limited, so f you would be interested in attending please forward an email to john@bowlandsolutions.com and we will send you specific details in due course.