FAQ: 360 Degree Feedback
What is 360 degree
Feedback?
In short, the participant is surrounded by feedback. 360 degree
feedback allows the participant to receive feedback from people above,
below, and at the same functional or hierarchical level. Participants
assess themselves as well.
What are some
effective ways to introduce 360 degree feedback?
Depending on your organization's experience with something new, it
makes sense to evaluate 360 degree feedback with several people first. You
may first want to evaluate 360 degree feedback with a receptive group of
10-50 people.
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What are some ineffective
ways
to introduce 360 degree feedback?
One of the most ineffective ways people introduce a 360 degree feedback
process is to select a single person to evaluate it (versus say a group of
10 to 50 participants). A second ineffective method is to select people
who are on disciplinary action, are about to be fired, or are among the
least productive performers in the organization.
Who provides the
Feedback?
Select people (raters) who know the participant well. Raters should be
people who interact with the participant on a frequent basis and whose
feedback is wanted and valued by the participant.
Can the data predict anything?
While we prefer not to get involved in the prediction business, the
short answer is Yes. However, many participants feel that their feedback
is a reflection not of their behavior, but of those with whom they have to
report to or work with. Possibly. Our research suggests that when the
survey is written in observable, behavioral language the feedback clearly
reflects the behaviors of that participant. Further, when a participant
moves to another location or inherits an entirely new boss, staff, and/or
peer group and chooses not to modify his or her behavior based on the
feedback results, then there is a high probability that those same areas
that were previously seen as developmental needs will continue to be seen
as weaknesses by this new population.
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What are some major concerns about
using 360?
One of the concerns is the same as with any assessment or evaluation
system. There are people who do not want to evaluate others, nor be
evaluated. There are people who really prefer their own interpretation of
their own effectiveness. There is a certain personal comfort with not
knowing (or caring) what one's personal weaknesses are.
Been there, done that is cited as another concern. Part of the problem
stems from the fact that those responsible for implementation want to get
it over with quickly and assess the entire population at one time. Rather
than see the process as ongoing, it is positioned as basically a one-time
event that everyone will participate in, kicking and screaming or not.
Then there is utter surprise and dismay when the rate of return is not as
high as it could be, that the data are not as revealing as it could have
been, that people are criticizing the instrument, the process, the lack of
time to respond, the lack of positioning, and on and on.
A third concern is that participants are not always told, upfront, what
the feedback will be used for and who else will see their data, when. This
can cause mistrust in the process.
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Olympic Scoring. Why?
This concept eliminates the highest and lowest scores for each item on
the survey. As a result, Olympic scoring provides a "better score" for the
participant when these high-low scores are dropped. Is this your goal?
Like its Olympic judging namesake, proponents of this type of scoring
often assume that people will provide high scores to those they like, low
scores to those they don't. When applied to 360 degree feedback, it denies
people from seeing all of the responses.
We prefer to treat the participant as an adult. We show all the data.
We also display the response distributions for each item and let the
participant understand that not everyone thinks the same. Not everyone has
the same expectations of everyone else in that group. We focus on
descriptive behavior, not scores.
Rather than focus on a score, focus on what behaviors are in need of
improvement, according to the majority of the respondents, or according to
a particular rater group. When you focus on the score, there is a tendency
to lose sight of what issues need to be built upon, which to change and
improve upon.
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Why so some people resist changing
when they receive their feedback?
There are a lot of different reasons. For some people, if they learn
that something has to change about how they do things, they tend to see
such change as a criticism of what they have been doing all these years.
They become defensive and protective of their past and existing behavior
and processes. As a result, change is seen as not needed. Things continue
as before.
How long should a survey be?
Contrary to popular belief, there is no magical length for a feedback
survey. Yes, the shorter the better, especially if people are in a hurry
or do not want to be bothered by an overly long set of questions.
A more professional approach is to first identify the themes or
competencies you want to measure. Next, we suggest you include at least
five questions (behaviors and practices) for each theme or skill
competency you want to measure. So, for example, if one of your skill
competencies is Delegation, we recommend at least five items for measuring
it, and so on for the other competencies in your survey. If you use this
as a guideline, then you can easily dictate the length of the survey that
is right for your target population.
Final Report
Click here to see a few sample
pages from the completed 360 report
Request Info
Informational Brochure
FAQ
click here for a list of
our most frequently asked questions.
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