I mentioned in a previous post the my wife recently completed a 360 degree appraisal on the managers in her childrens nursery.  She gave some valuable feedback on the process which I will share here.

First let me explain how our self service 360 system works.  With Peter Hyde,  we have developed www.myown360.com .  Peter produced a comprehensive competency framework across a range of competencies and their associated behaviours.   The client selects the competencies that best suits them (if they just want feedback on themselves) or their team.  A selection of respondents is chosen and everyone completes the feedback.

Here is my wife's feedback

• The managers were nervous coming into the process
• The managers did though want to get the feedback and felt valued to be part of the process
• The respondents took great care over their behavioural rankings and over the narrative elements of the feedback
• They struggled a little with the language (a learning point for us as we had reduced the jargonese but not far enough)
• The feedback sessions were extremely powerful
• To do it properly (preparation, discussion, completion, review, create development plan) takes a significant investment of time
• You had to follow itup with a development plan

When I read this list I realise that the size of the organisation has not in any way affected the feedback.  I am also reminded of the power of a well run 360 degree feedback process.

Brendan