360 - it's not about comparing people

    Posted on August 19, 2014 at 10:25 AM

    Making comparisons between people by using a 360 is one of the four deadly mistakes we see that some organisations make. It's simply just not what 360 is about.

    But we have seen some 360 degree feedback tools on the market which, when the rater needs to provide feedback on, say, five people, puts all five of them on the screen at the same time. The idea is that this makes the process quicker and easier for the rater, as he or she doesn't have to then complete five separate reviews.

    The problem with this is that you’re not really providing an objective measure of each person, you end up rating each of them in relation to the others who were listed on the screen. The rater thinks: if I’m giving Jane a four for that, I should only give John a three. It's hard to not do this when the people are all listed on the screen together.

    Quick and easy shortcuts such as this may seem seductive, especially in our ‘immediate gratification society’, but they’re an illusion that undermines success.

    If you really want to provide 360 degree feedback that is objective, considered and constructive, then ranking everyone together on the same page isn’t going to help.

    The answer is to treat everyone individually and to use a 360 degree tool (such as Talent 360) that lets you provide considered feedback for one person at a time.

    Make it easier for your raters to give objective feedback by letting them focus on one person at a time.

    You can read about all four of the deadly mistakes that we believe kill a 360 programme in our article as part of our We think... series of articles.

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