Recent blog posts made on the Pyxis blog clearly show that there is a lack of trust towards the true usefulness of 360 degree evaluations. A couple of months ago, I was about to prepare my first 360 evaluation that was geared towards evaluating my own work at Pyxis over the last 6 months. As I prepared to do so, I asked my caddy to guide me through this process. To make things easier to grasp, we simply wrote down the goals I was trying to accomplish with the evaluation and grouped the by theme to see how we should deal with them.
Once simplified, the goal of my evaluations came down to two main themes :
1- Get an evaluation of my performance in order for me to be able to deal my salary for the next year.
2- Get proper feedback in order to get better within the next year.
So far so so good right? A regular 360 should help me meet those goals right ? Right ? Wrong. Totally wrong. The two goals are exactly that, two different goals and should be tackled differently. The first goal is there to evaluate whether or not I have performed to the levels that were expected by my employer and whether or not I should be rewarded accordingly. How is a subjective evaluation based on generic questions gonna help me do so ? Let’s say my job for the past year had been to be a product owner of a software developed at Pyxis. Let’s say my goals were to bring it to market within the first 6 months, to break even with the development costs within the next 3 months and to make a profit for the last 3 months of the year.
What does me having 3/5 or 5/5 on being a team player, having verbal skills, technical skills or management in a questionnaire have to do with me meeting my objectives? How about nil, zero, nada, zilch ? What might actually matters for this point is whether or not I have met those goals. Unfortunately, for most employees,those goals are seldom set in advance and/or are very seldom very clear. Too often, we learn the expectations once we get to our evaluation. Much like we set the condition of success for the user stories we develop during the XP/Scrum planning game, we most definitely should set the expectations far in advance. Then and only then can somebody be evaluated fairly.
As far as number 2 goes, in order for me to get better I need proper feedback. That’s when a properly used 360 can be useful. But feedback on what actually? In my limited experience with 360 evaluations, more often than not, when someone is asked to rate a colleague on a question along the lines of “Shows commitment to the project” they will come up with an example on when the person showed or lacked commitment to the project. Actually, they might of forgotten all about the project and might rate you on whether or not they like you as a person or not. Why not reverse the situation and come up with the examples and then ask the questions based on a particular event ?
Let’s say I worked with Marc on a project for 3 months. Within that time a lot has come and gone. Asking him a random question will render a random answer. But if I want specific feedback in order to get better on a particular subject, I can plan accordingly. If instead I’d ask him : “On that project, we didn’t meet our deadline for 3 consecutive sprints. Do you think I showed the proper commitment ? If not, how did you feel about it what what would you suggest I should change ?” This should trigger memories based on those event and more specific feedback on a more precise theme.
Like some suggested, the 360 feedback should be done face to face. You might not want to go all the way and do it in groups, but for the audacious it’s an interesting avenue.
Also, not having the two conflicting goals might help both goals being reached. Let’s say my annual raise is based on my 360. Why should I be inclined to ask the “questions that hurt” to somebody ? If I get negative feedback I might get scared of not getting my pay raise. Who would want that? On the other hand, if I use it only for a genuine goal of getting better, I have at least one reason less not to ask the real questions.
Also, by setting your goals far in advance, you will have less excuse not the meet them. Actually, you might ask for more frequent feedback from your peers, since you have a clear goal and getting better will help you meet your goal. You will get better, and both you as an individual and the enterprise you work for will flourish from that. How about that. A frequent inspect and adapt cycle. Wonder where I heard that one before.
I hope this small recollection of a conversation I had with my caddy can help you guys or keep this interesting conversation alive.
-Nicholas Lemay
love it !