“He who fails to plan, plans to fail.”
-Winston Churchill
 When implementing a 360-degree feedback system, it is best to strategize the the most effective way to get the most benefit out of the system. Ideally, it would be best to start at the most senior level that is sponsoring the leadership or talent development intervention to model the process and help facilitate leaders becoming better performance coaches. Without senior leadership support, most 360-degree feedback initiatives are doomed to fail, because participants are not held accountable for translating this feedback into development plans that can be reinforced by leaders in the organization (Nowack, 2009) ((Nowack, K. (2009). Leveraging Multirater Feedback to Facilitate Successful Behavioral Change. Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research, 61, 280-297.)).
In large organizations, it is also important to consider the burden of completing large numbers of 360-degree feedback assessments at one time that might create rater fatigue, lack of candor, or diminished motivation to provide specific feedback. In these cases, organizations should consider “cascading†their 360-degree feedback project, so that small groups within departments or the organization begin the process at different times.
Coach’s Critique:
In my coaching experience, I have seen 360 degree feedback systems fail because of a lack of strategy involved in the process. For one example, when senior leader sponsorship was not supported, participants that took the 360 degree system were left with an incomplete process that did NOT result in a sound accountability system or behavioral change initiation. Participants were left “empty-handed†upon completion of the assessment because they did not have their leader’s support in the process. At the same time, leaders had expectations of behavioral change for their teams without collaborating with them to identify improvement areas, or holding them accountable to make development changes.
As another example, 360-degree feedback systems that were implemented on the “masses†in an entire organization simultaneously, resulted in a unstructured approach that led to an overwhelming number assessments to take on the part of the participants. This resulted in a lack of motivation to complete the tests, thus leading to inaccurate results. A 360-degree feedback test needs to be thought through and taken with diligence and reflection. However, when participants are asked to rate a large number of people at the same time, they are bound to get tired and are likely to “breeze through†the rating processes without careful thought and reflection. For this reason, it is absolutely essential to implement the 360 program one level at a time in order to get the most benefit and accurate results from raters.
What has been your experience with implementing 360-degree feedback systems without strategizing the issues mentioned above? Have you implemented or participated in a 360-degree feedback system without senior leadership sponsorship? What has been the risks associated with this? Also, what has been your experience with implementing a 360 program on an entire organization simultaneously?
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Sandra Mashihi
Dr. Sandra Mashihi is a senior consultant with Envisia Learning, Inc. She has extensive experience in sales training, behavioral assessments and executive coaching. Prior to working at Envisia Learning, Inc., She was an internal Organizational Development Consultant at Marcus & Millichap where she was responsible for initiatives within training & development and recruiting.. Sandra received her Bachelor’s of Science in Psychology from University of California, Los Angeles and received her Master of Science and Doctorate in Organizational Psychology from the California School of Professional Psychology.
