Gathering Pace's Blog

Are The Villagers Carrying Torches? Getting The Most From Your 360 Survey

gatheringpace — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 13:22:46 +0000

“Are the villagers carrying torches?” This email heading from an anxious client awaiting her 360 survey results reminded me of the power of the 360 survey tool.

Helping people interpret the results they get on 360-Degree surveys is one of the high points of my professional practice. Having worked with thousands of people with their surveys, I know that the survey results provide unique and often powerful insight. I know they can help people dramatically improve their leadership and communications effectiveness.

I also know that the survey results can be hard to take. Most people say they welcome feedback and constructive criticism, but many find it difficult to live up to this intention. I’ve seen many apparently easy-going people go rigid when confronted with less-than-perfect survey results. I’ve witnessed the blood drain from many confident people’s faces as they’ve read the open-ended comments their survey respondents made.

360-Degree surveys have become a staple of leadership and team training, and for good reasons. Communications is an increasingly important part of many peoples’ jobs, yet assessing communications effectiveness can be difficult. When people don’t communicate well, they seldom receive feedback in ways that are clear, rational and easily translatable into action steps.

360-Degree surveys provide “data” that is more useful than informal feedback. Survey data reflects input from a carefully selected number of people, not just a random person or two. Respondents usually complete surveys in an unemotional way, so the feedback they provide tends to be much more thoughtful than the spontaneous comments they might make in a hallway or at a water cooler.

Of course 360 surveys are not perfect. They may reflect respondents’ larger concerns about the organization or their own job security. Some respondents use surveys as an opportunity to “zing” recipients. Others use surveys to grease their own career advancement, providing gratuitous praise. Yet even with these concerns, we’ve seen most survey respondents and recipients use the tool to exchange needed information.

I like the surveys because, in the end, for most people, they really do convey the information people need to hear to improve their leadership effectiveness. If recipients are not treating people with respect, not listening or working with others’ input, the survey results tend to bear that out. Similarly, if recipients are performing well, results also reflect positives.

Survey results touch me because in the vast majority of cases, it’s obvious that respondents have taken the time to respond thoughtfully. Respondents usually seem genuinely interested in helping recipients do well. They often write encouraging open-ended comments, e.g., “Keep up the good work!” and “You’re making a great effort!” When respondents do provide more critical comments, they frequently apologize, or frame the comments to express their concern and caring more than any anger or frustration.

I respect the survey respondents who take the time to complete the surveys, but I respect the survey recipients even more. For many recipients, getting survey feedback is not something they sought out but rather something their company requires of them. For people who do seek out the surveys, most are less than fully prepared for the wealth and complexity of the feedback the surveys provide.

To get the most from the data, it’s important (difficult, but important) for recipients not to focus on a few negative numbers or an open-ended comment that’s worded in an especially clever way. It’s important not to wonder “who made that comment” and to focus instead on the aggregate, the overall, the trends and patterns in the data. It’s important to work towards getting excellent feedback on the most important questions.

Trying to make sense of their data, many survey recipients wonder what specific behaviors they are doing that may be causing respondents to assess them in a particular way: “What is it that I do that causes people to think I don’t respect their input?” Recipients also often wonder about apparent contradictions in their results. “How can people think I am too critical yet also want me to provide more feedback to them?”

We strongly recommend that recipients get back to respondents to discuss these questions, as well as to test their action plans. Some recipients express surprise at this recommendation, and we clarify that they are not in any way supposed to ask respondents about their own responses or to defend or explain their results in any way, just to listen to the additional input and thank the respondents for their time and effort.

Recipients who get back to respondents tell us the conversations they have are valuable in providing additional information and insight. We also know that getting back to respondents ensures that they will provide even more thoughtful feedback when recipients do the surveys again in the future.

And it’s the future when the surveys become even more valuable. We’ve had the privilege of working with many people who’ve used their 360 Survey results annually over 5 – 10 years. Several have made dramatic turnarounds in their leadership effectiveness and satisfaction with their own performance. Others, who did well even initially, have used the survey results to challenge themselves, keep their minds open and continue to strengthen their working relationships.

Increasing Outsourcing Success

gatheringpace — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 19:24:34 +0000

blog1-08i-increasing-outsourcing-success.pdfIncreasing Outsourcing Success

By William Ronco, Ph.D.

January, 2008

It’s time to move on. Outsourcing service providers and customer organizations alike continue to

focus on the question, “Can we do it?” but this question is outdated. Scott Adams’ Dilbert’s

prediction has come true: “In the future, all the work on the planet will be outsourced.”

Outsourcing has grown exponentially not only in sheer dollar volume but also in its range of

applications. Companies now routinely outsource not only basic services like custodial and

bookkeeping but also far more complex functions such as IT, human resources, even strategic

planning.

Now that outsourcing service providers and customers alike have clearly demonstrated that they

can indeed outsource any function, the current question should not be “Can we do it?” but rather

“Can we do it well?” In too many outsourcing situations, a company has successfully handed

over a function to a service provider, but the outsourcing arrangement is performing below par.

As the practice of outsourcing matures, we observe four recurring problems that were not

immediately evident when companies focused on getting outsourcing started.

• Basic Underperformance. When outsourcing misses initial target goals, customer

organizations are often reluctant to alter the arrangement because they have already

invested time and effort in it.

• Relative Underperformance. Some outsourcing meets its original goals but falls short

because the original goals were set too low. There is little in many outsourcing

arrangements to encourage performance beyond expectations.

• Stagnation. In many cases, outsourcing has led to reduced innovation. After all,

innovating often involves efforts that don’t fit service providers’ existing billing