360 reviews- good or bad tool?

Submitted by Dwaine Omyer
in
Manager Tools Conferences
During the conference there was some brief mentions of 360's. I have been asked by my mangement to perform 360 reviews on my management team. I am wondering if some of you may of have had success using a particular format/approach. I am approaching this opportunity by potentially creating my own survey questions which I will facilitate to key customers, peers and management groups. Thoughts?
Submitted by Kathie Kinde on Wednesday April 25th, 2007 4:10 pm

IIRC, Terrence chimed in and said he believed they were done quite well as his company.

Submitted by Terrence Randell on Wednesday April 25th, 2007 9:00 pm

They are effective *IF* they are done well. There is a lot of evidence that they are *not* done well, so be aware of the pitfalls. My company does an excellent job at 360s because they process is truly anonymized and HR stays out of the entire process.

The pitfalls are not having the technical systems or rigorous processes in place to keep the information anonymous; HR being involved with the review; an external party involved with the review in the case of outsourcing, to name a few.

Does your company have a formal process and system or was this just casually asked of you? You may not have a choice in participating, but you should set your expectations appropriately for the amount of value derived related to how well the process is constructed and administered.

Submitted by Brian Flynn on Thursday April 26th, 2007 3:55 pm

I'm not sure what you're asking. Are you being asked to start a process to review managers or to take part in an existing process and write a review of your manager?

Brian

Submitted by Dwaine Omyer on Friday April 27th, 2007 10:07 am

HR is not involved. This is was asked of me by my manager. I not adverse to doing it however like you I am cauious of the correct approach. Is there a company whihc provides the service which you recommend?

Submitted by Mark Horstman on Sunday April 29th, 2007 7:20 pm

DO NOT DO THIS BY YOURSELF.

Doing 360's without external, unbiased support is like putting a gun to your head. It will be ASSUMED that you are NOT guaranteeing anonymity, and I guarantee that you will ruin that by trying to guess who said what... to say nothing of discounting the good and focusing on a few negative comments that may have been added only for balance.

Without a budget for external help...DON'T.

And, my guess is that someone is suggesting some of your folks don't like you.

For now, try our cast on how to get feedback.

Mark

Submitted by Terrence Randell on Sunday April 29th, 2007 10:26 pm

I wholeheartedly agree with Mark. Doing this by yourself will be at best a waste of time and at worst a disaster. You need the support of a professional team trained to do this. No other way to do it and be successful.

Submitted by Dwaine Omyer on Wednesday May 2nd, 2007 2:09 pm

This is a survey I am going to have performed on my direct reports not on me at this time.

In other words my managers will have 360's performed on them. I personnally have a 360 performed annually at my level however it is not established for my directs. We have used online tools to perform this activity in the past. Are there tools which anyone recommends? Otherwise a simply goggle search returns a large number of products which may server my needs. Thoughts?

Submitted by Mark Horstman on Thursday May 3rd, 2007 8:42 am

I am more confused now. Who is getting what?

You cannot do this without experienced outside help...unless you want to run the risk of total disaster.

Mark