I'm not actually certain that it is essential to draw out an action plan from 360 feedback.  I believe that the key benefit from 360 feedback is the increase in self-awareness that it brings.

However, in many cases, drawing a personal development plan from the feedback is both desirable and required.

We recommend that a development plan contains the following.

• An identification of your areas of strength and weakness
• Against development areas
• • What you are going to do on a day-to-day to improve them
  • What one-off actions you may take
  • 3 goals (good old SMART goals!) and the steps you are going to take to achieve them
• Against strengths
• • What you are going to do on a day-to-day basis to build on them
  • What one-off actions you are going to take

This structure brings a balance to the 360 degree feedback which can be lacking - it asks you to consider how you are going to build on your strengths as well as your development areas.

If there is going to be a development plan then it goes without saying that a structure should be in place to review it, check progress, and update it.  And can we suggest that repeating the 360 after a 6-12 month period is the best way of assessing whether behaviours have changed.

Brendan