Too Many 360’s?
November 21, 2005
The Leadership Now blog talks about what can only be deemed a terrifically bad 360 process at a fortune 500 company. Don Blohowiak recounts the sad tale of a manager with so many 360’s to do, he and his team basically submit a boilerplate response to everyone. To boot, HR uses the 360’s to help determine bonuses - and doesn’t make that known to people who only find out after the fact.
There are a lot of disturbing things here, but one on which I have a comment. The number of 360 reviews is an issue at many companies. It is without question difficult to provide valuable feedback in each and every one when there are so many to get through (and work to do besides). But the only value in the process is in the customized, specific feedback the 360’s are supposed to facilitate. When the process degrades to boilerplate responses, it’s really not worth doing.
Recently, we at SuccessFactors went through our own 360. We, of course, used our own application to conduct them and, with 360’s, managers can have the ability to add or reject proposed reviewers to help keep the process manageable. Reviewers also have the chance to refuse to conduct a 360 if they feel they are not appropriate, or they simply have too many to do.
Once the process was complete, the manager, a "coach" from within the company and the employee sat down to review the results. This provided the opportunity to make sure that everything was clear agreed upon and also provided the foundation for an individual development plan. These few tactics helped to keep the process valuable for us. I’m sure there are other techniques as well.
What strategies have you used to keep 360’s manageable and valuable?
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360 degree is a tool that may not go far enough..you might want to read “why your boss is programmed to be a dictator” at http://www.changethis.com - excellent article that talks about leadership from a systems perspective.