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Best Practices In Starting a Continuous Performance Program - ok

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Best Practices In Starting a Continuous Performance Program - ok

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This article highlights the importance of timely and regular performance check-ins. It also includes the best practices for companies in making this a continuous program in order to reap the benefits of feedback.

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Ongoing performance check-ins are shaping the future of talent management. Held weekly between managers and their direct reports, these brief meetings - just 10 minutes or less - are used to track weekly goal progress, identify bottlenecks, and exchange feedback with the purpose of improving performance.

While the benefits of ongoing performance check-ins have led companies like GE, Microsoft, and Adobe to adopt the practice, many HR teams are still in the dark about precisely how to approach the process. By finding out how top HR leaders are using check-ins, we can learn from their examples and find ways to implement them in our own organizations. Here's how leading HR teams ace ongoing performance check-ins.

They're Training Managers

For performance check-ins to work, managers must become comfortable with delivering feedback to employees more frequently. Unfortunately, it turns out many are uncomfortable with the process to begin with. A study conducted by Interact confirms more than one-third of managers (37%) are uncomfortable with providing direct feedback, while 69% say they're uncomfortable communicating with employees in general.

There are a few things HR can do to change that. It starts with training managers on giving feedback their employees will actually value. Here's how:

1. Link feedback to clear, measurable goals

To provide their teams with valuable feedback, managers must have something against which they can measure employees' performance. This is where goals come in. The first step in establishing any sort of ongoing performance check-in routine is to ensure all employees have clear, measureable goals to work towards. These goals - whether individual or shared among a team - should be aligned with your business strategy, too.

Consider this: in a Zenger/Folkman poll, 72% of employees surveyed indicated their performance would improve with the right feedback. When HR trains managers to link employee goals with current business priorities and then provide targeted feedback to drive goal performance, the ability to accelerate results increases exponentially.

2. Ask the right questions

Giving managers a list of questions to ask during check-ins can eliminate guesswork and ensure the right information is being exchanged. To get the most out of these brief sessions with their employees, have managers ask: What progress has been made on your goals since we last checked in? Are there any obstacles you're facing, and how can I help?

3. Listen to employees

The Society for Human Resources Management ( SHRM) cites a survey in which 64% of employees saw leaders who failed to seek input from their teams as the biggest workplace problem. In order to feel valued in their roles, employees need to be heard.

The purpose of an ongoing performance check-ins should not be limited to giving feedback. Instead, managers should also invite input from their teams. In addition to gathering responses from the questions listed in the previous point, encourage managers to be more receptive to general input from employees. Check-ins should present a time and place in which direct reports feel welcome to voice their concerns, discuss weekly wins, and perhaps even share some new ideas.

4. Clarify expectations

According to a ComPsych study, 31% of employees consider unclear expectations from supervisors to be the greatest source of stress in the workplace. Without clear expectations to guide them, employees simply can't be expected to achieve the outcomes managers want from them.

While employees should have a clear idea of their quarterly goals, they still need regular input from managers to stay focused on short-term priorities. For this reason, ensure managers are clarifying their expectations for the following week at the end of every check-in.

5. Balance praise & criticism

In addition to touching base on the status of goals and clarifying expectations, managers should also use check-ins to deliver feedback. Given in a timely manner, feedback is much more effective for driving improvement than when given long after the event occurs. This, in fact, is one of the primary reasons ongoing performance check-ins were created.

Yet, learning they'll have to give feedback more often can be stress-inducing for managers. Constructive criticism can be particularly difficult to deliver. Nonetheless, it's absolutely essential to achieving your overall objective, which is to improve employee performance. In fact, the Zenger/Folkman survey cited above found that a whopping majority of employees - 92% - think negative feedback helps to improve their performance, if it's delivered in appropriate manner.

To make the process of delivering constructive feedback simpler and more effective for everyone, encourage managers to use the CORE Feedback model established by Dr. Ross Blankenship:

Understand the context: Note the circumstances under which the behavior occurred. It will help the manager stay focused on performance itself, and not the employee as an individual.

State what was observed: Being as objective as possible, encourage managers to describe the specific behavior they witnessed.

Describe the results: Explain the effects of the employee's actions, including any tolls it might take on others. If it's arriving late to a meeting, for instance, the employee's behavior could have caused an interruption.

Clarify expectations: Wrap up the feedback by explaining what's expected of the employee moving forward.

They're Using Technology

Even with thorough training, busy managers can still benefit from some extra support in carrying out ongoing performance check-ins. Thus, many HR professionals are exploring ongoing feedback tools to give managers the ability to deliver timely feedback via real-time solutions such as pulse apps.

While the weekly check-in is still an essential component of an ongoing performance management framework, feedback apps give managers to address issues with employees as soon as they happen. Josh Bersin calls feedback apps the solution to disengaged employees, stating that today's employees are "more empowered, mobile, and demanding than ever."

By providing a way to access the feedback they're seeking from any device or location and at any time, employers can better accommodate the needs and expectations of today's workforce. It also gives managers a way to document feedback exchanges, which brings us to our next point.

They're Using Collected Insights to Their Advantage

Certainly, giving and receiving feedback can strengthen the manager/employee relationship, which has its own unique benefits. Yet, the real purpose of performance check-ins - which is, of course, to improve performance - is only achieved when that feedback is acted upon.

For starters, this means that employees should be taking the coaching managers deliver and actually using it. When managers provide clear, direct feedback during their check-ins, employee performance should improve as a result. Keeping track of the exchanges shared both during one-on-one meetings and through feedback apps will help managers determine whether an employee is meeting, exceeding, or falling below expectations. These insights can help HR make more informed decisions about compensation and other aspects of the organization's talent management strategy.

However, keep in mind that feedback must be approached as a two-way exchange. It's also therefore essential that managers are keeping notes of the insights they collect from employees during check-ins as well. If an employee is expressing interest in development opportunities, this should be addressed between HR and management when it comes time to consider developmental and/or succession planning.

Ultimately, the information exchanged between managers and employees during ongoing performance check-ins is only beneficial when it's put to use. Otherwise, they're simply conversations. When the conversations are used to align employees with company goals, clarify expectations, and create a two-way dialogue in which employees feel like valuable contributors, that's when performance check-ins are most powerful.

Zorian Rotenberg is founder and CEO of Atiim Software, a SaaS-based provider of corporate goals and performance management tools.

He previously was VP of sales and marketing at InsightSquared and earlier served as CMO of AppAssure Software, Inc. until it was acquired b Dell in 2012.

Rotenberg graduated with high honors from Lehigh University in 1997 with a BS in Finance and with engineering and science minors in Applied Mathematics and Computer Science. He earned his MBA from Harvard Business School.

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Best Practices In Starting a Continuous Performance Program

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Ongoing performance check-ins are shaping the future of talent management. Held weekly between managers and their direct reports, these brief meetings - just 10 minutes or less - are used to track weekly goal progress, identify bottlenecks, and exchange feedback

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Are You Ready For Feedback That’s Radically Transparent? - ok

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Are You Ready For Feedback That’s Radically Transparent? - ok

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Radical Candor is a feedback trend that believes it's better to provide blunt feedback than none at all. However, not everyone is ready for this kind of feedback either because they don't want to sound mean or they don't think the receiver is mature enough to receive such feedback. Studies show that this radical blunt feedback can be beneficial to organizations.

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Here's an actual email sent to Ray Dalio, the founder of Bridgewater Associates, by an employee named Jim Haskel:
You deserve a "D-" for your performance today in the meeting. You did not prepare at all, because there is no way you could have and (sic) been that disorganized. In the future, I/we would ask you to take some time and prepare, and maybe even I should come up and start talking to you to get you warmed up or something, but we can't let this happen again.
Now, if you're the billionaire CIO of one of the world's most successful hedge funds, what are the odds that you'd fire Jim Haskel? But not only didn't Dalio fire Haskel, he sent him an apology. Not just that, he copied the management committee of Bridgewater and asked them to investigate his history to see if this behavior was part of an ongoing pattern.

Dalio believes in "radical candor," a trend that says it is better to give blunt and candid feedback than to give none at all. But not everyone agrees. Read "When It Comes to Feedback, Are Your Employees Ready for "Radical Candor?"

∼∼∼∼

That's radical transparency. And it's one reason why Bridgewater consistently outperforms other firms - they relentlessly probe for feedback that shows where the consensus is wrong.

Even though there's surprising research that highlights several benefits of giving negative feedback, most people are reluctant to share it with others. This happens because:

1. We don't think they're smart enough to handle it.

2. We don't think they're mature enough to handle it.

3. We don't want others to think we're jerks.

4. We don't want to be mean.

The problem with resisting transparency is that it creates a weak signal. Critical information keeps getting filtered out of conversations or muted entirely. We disguise negative feedback with pleasantries, serve up praise sandwiches, or simply avoid giving it altogether. By the time we come around to breaking the bad news, it's usually too late for a course correction.

Our desire to be "nice" and avoid "rocking the boat" perpetuates behavior or actions that could have otherwise been resolved had we only mustered the courage to speak up with candor, clarity and confidence.

It turns out there are measurable performance benefits to being more honest. A 2010 study by CEB showed that companies with a culture of open communication had a 270% higher 10-year shareholder return (7.9% as compared to 2.1%) than those who operated in silence. And research from management firm Zenger/Folkman showed that employee engagement rose when managers provided honest feedback - what employees needed to know, not simply wanted to hear.

How can you break down barriers to honest feedback?

Begin with those you trust - If the prospect of becoming a transparent organization seems too risky, consider a slow rollout, starting with the people you trust most. Approach close colleagues and offer to give honest feedback about their performance in exchange for transparency about your own. The two-way nature of the arrangement divides the stakes equally and reduces the potential for judgement and acrimony. From there, broaden the effort to include others in the organization, demonstrating how your team's transparency practices can be duplicated and shared. Transparency should be radical in its design but not in its delivery.

Keep others in the loop - Not all employees are well informed about their company's goals, strategies, and tactics. This uncertainty about the company's direction leads to chronic stress, which inhibits trust and undermines teamwork. If you want to create a transparent environment, everyone in the organization has to work on a "need to know" basis. People can't be transparent when they're kept in the dark.

Build a circle of critics - Change starts at the top, and leaders have to model transparency if they want it to spread throughout the culture. In my book The Feedback Fix, I describe how some of the most successful organizations have transformed their feedback processes starting with the way information reaches the CEO. These leaders appoint a circle of "loving critics" - the people who are empowered to give their bosses the honest feedback they need, even when they don't think they need it at all.

When leadership takes an active role in modeling and reinforcing the behavior - like Ray Dalio did at Bridgewater - then radical transparency can become a radical reality.

Joe Hirsch is the managing director of Semaca Partners and the bestselling author of The Feedback Fix: Dump the Past, Embrace the Future, and Lead the Way to Change.

He specializes in helping organizations break the silos that create friction in the workplace. Drawing from his award-winning experiences as an educational leader, Joe inspires diverse audiences to apply his strategies for success at work and in life. He has earned accolades from top-ranked business leaders to NFL consultants for his forward-thinking approach to improving the way teams communicate and form positive relationships.

A frequent presenter at national conventions and conferences, Joe is an honors graduate of Yeshiva University, where he holds a masters degree in education and is completing a doctorate concentrating on instructional leadership and innovation. His work has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Educational Leadership, LeadX, and other leading publications.

Joe lives in Dallas with his wife and four sons, where they like doing anything outdoors. Connect with at him at www.joehirsch.me or @joemhirsch

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Are You Ready For Feedback That's Radically Transparent?

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Here's an actual email sent to Ray Dalio, the founder of Bridgewater Associates, by an employee named Jim Haskel: Ray - You deserve a 'D-' for your performance today in the meeting. You did not prepare at all, because there

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Recruiting News and Views @ RecruitingDaily

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So you've put your best efforts into finding the perfect hires, after the endless screening, endless interview processes, reference checks and finally decisions are made! Managers are happy, new employees are appointed and excited about joining a new organization. How do you ensure your hard work doesn't go to waste? There is nothing more disappointing for a recruiter than finding out their great hire left within 6 months of joining.

During the hiring process, we are focused on the attraction experience, giving the candidate a taste of the organization that entices and attracts. Throughout that hiring process, we ask for feedback and managers openly offer feedback on candidates; feedback flows naturally throughout the process. However, all too often, that natural flow of feedback stops when the candidate moves from the attraction experience of recruitment to the engagement experience of being an employee and here's where the problems start.

Chances are your candidate has joined your organization because they saw an opportunity to develop, to grow and progress their career. If these are the key drivers for joining, they continue to be the key drivers for staying, yet we often lose sight of that in organizations. We stop giving feedback, we let the candidate sink or swim in their new environment. A new culture can be daunting for a new hire and this is the time that they really need feedback and lots of it. We tend to automatically worry about giving and receiving feedback as we assume nobody wants to hear how they are getting on. Well, the good news is that fear is unfounded! According to a recent survey of 1,000 employees & managers about their feelings on feedback, it turns out they are open to wanting more feedback, they think it improves their performance and they value it highly.

People want more feedback:

60% of employees and managers surveyed would like to receive feedback on a weekly or daily basis. Waiting for a probation review or a monthly 1:1 is not enough. It's easier to understand how we need to improve when we are told in the moment and ideally as early into our career as feasible.

Feedback from every direction:

4 out of 5 employees and managers believe feedback from a colleague is just as valuable as feedback from their manager. In the modern workplace of cross-functional agile teams & remote working, a manager is only one stakeholder in an employee's performance and development. Employees recognize the value in getting more feedback, from multiple sources helps build a real picture of their strengths & weaknesses.

In-time feedback changes real-time performance:

7 out of 10 employees believe that good feedback can be more effective for their development than a training or learning course. And they aren't just looking for praise and re-enforcement. They want constructive feedback, so they can improve areas of weakness. In fact, 74% of employees believe feedback that gives direction to improve is more valuable than praise.

Aligning your attraction and engagement experience:

So having created an incredible attraction experience, its time to ensure our onboarding experiences match. While our candidates may have been wowed by the great start, we need to focus on ensuring the employee experience continues to deliver. Getting a strong feedback culture in place from the outset can make the difference between your great hire staying or leaving. Let's keep our best hires in-house with great feedback practices.

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The numbers on feedback to understand > Recruiting News and Views @ RecruitingDaily

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So you've put your best efforts into finding the perfect hires, after the endless screening, endless interview processes, reference checks and finally decisions are made! Managers are happy, new employees are appointed and excited about joining a new organization. How do you ensure your hard work doesn't go to waste?

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The numbers on feedback to understand - ok

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The numbers on feedback to understand - ok

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This article gives interesting statistics on feedback. One notable result of the research noted here was that employees think that good feedback is more helpful for their development than training courses. Getting more feedback, not just from managers, but also from colleagues, can be valuable.

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Recruiting News and Views @ RecruitingDaily

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So you've put your best efforts into finding the perfect hires, after the endless screening, endless interview processes, reference checks and finally decisions are made! Managers are happy, new employees are appointed and excited about joining a new organization. How do you ensure your hard work doesn't go to waste? There is nothing more disappointing for a recruiter than finding out their great hire left within 6 months of joining.

During the hiring process, we are focused on the attraction experience, giving the candidate a taste of the organization that entices and attracts. Throughout that hiring process, we ask for feedback and managers openly offer feedback on candidates; feedback flows naturally throughout the process. However, all too often, that natural flow of feedback stops when the candidate moves from the attraction experience of recruitment to the engagement experience of being an employee and here's where the problems start.

Chances are your candidate has joined your organization because they saw an opportunity to develop, to grow and progress their career. If these are the key drivers for joining, they continue to be the key drivers for staying, yet we often lose sight of that in organizations. We stop giving feedback, we let the candidate sink or swim in their new environment. A new culture can be daunting for a new hire and this is the time that they really need feedback and lots of it. We tend to automatically worry about giving and receiving feedback as we assume nobody wants to hear how they are getting on. Well, the good news is that fear is unfounded! According to a recent survey of 1,000 employees & managers about their feelings on feedback, it turns out they are open to wanting more feedback, they think it improves their performance and they value it highly.

People want more feedback:

60% of employees and managers surveyed would like to receive feedback on a weekly or daily basis. Waiting for a probation review or a monthly 1:1 is not enough. It's easier to understand how we need to improve when we are told in the moment and ideally as early into our career as feasible.

Feedback from every direction:

4 out of 5 employees and managers believe feedback from a colleague is just as valuable as feedback from their manager. In the modern workplace of cross-functional agile teams & remote working, a manager is only one stakeholder in an employee's performance and development. Employees recognize the value in getting more feedback, from multiple sources helps build a real picture of their strengths & weaknesses.

In-time feedback changes real-time performance:

7 out of 10 employees believe that good feedback can be more effective for their development than a training or learning course. And they aren't just looking for praise and re-enforcement. They want constructive feedback, so they can improve areas of weakness. In fact, 74% of employees believe feedback that gives direction to improve is more valuable than praise.

Aligning your attraction and engagement experience:

So having created an incredible attraction experience, its time to ensure our onboarding experiences match. While our candidates may have been wowed by the great start, we need to focus on ensuring the employee experience continues to deliver. Getting a strong feedback culture in place from the outset can make the difference between your great hire staying or leaving. Let's keep our best hires in-house with great feedback practices.

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The numbers on feedback to understand > Recruiting News and Views @ RecruitingDaily

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So you've put your best efforts into finding the perfect hires, after the endless screening, endless interview processes, reference checks and finally decisions are made! Managers are happy, new employees are appointed and excited about joining a new organization. How do you ensure your hard work doesn't go to waste?

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With Practice and the Right Approach, Feedback Can Be a Gift - ok

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With Practice and the Right Approach, Feedback Can Be a Gift - ok

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Though there are people who resist feedback, it can be a gift when done properly. This article lists the different ways that organizations can do in order to practice feedback properly such as doing it regularly and making it more constructive.

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Annual performance reviews are controversial. Some people praise them in public, but most hate them in private.

For starters, they are a waste of time  -  that's why many companies are ditching annual reviews. Also, research shows that they make employees feel anxious and depressed. The worst part? Formal reviews don't necessarily improve people's performance.

However, my point is not "ditch your performance reviews." Let me explain.
Feedback is supposed to be a gift; it's meant to help people grow, not to be a torturous experience. Click To Tweet
Let's review why performance reviews are not working. And, most importantly, what you can do about it  -  regardless if you end up ditching performance reviews or not.

Why people resist feedback

A study showed that most people hate performance reviews. The problem is that the need to provide input gets in the way - because people don't value the process, they stop listening to your feedback.

Here's why people resist performance reviews.

Not frequent enough - Bringing up issues that were long time forgotten is one of the biggest flaws of annual reviews. People look at their managers with an expression that says, "What are you talking about?" Or they ask, "Why are you bringing this up now?" It feels like there's a hidden agenda. Addressing an issue that happened recently is more effective than one that happened six months ago. It makes the conversation more casual and less threatening.

Too much emphasis on the individual - Performance reviews are focused on one person, rather than on the system. However, individual performances are shaped by a team. Research shows that top performers decrease their productivity when moved to another team. Similarly, Google has demonstrated that most low performers dramatically improve when moved to another team. If performance is the result of the group, why address it individually?

A waste of time - Adobe managers were spending 80,000 hours on performance reviews. At Deloitte, people were burning close to 2 million hours a year on their performance process. For a process that people resist; rather than an investment in talent development, it's a waste of time for everyone involved. If you can't get rid of them, annual reviews need to be simplified.

Managers are chickens - Regardless of how much training they receive, some managers don't like telling people the truth. Sugarcoating feedback or blaming a bad review to someone else can harm the employee. Instead of trying to help people grow, some managers prefer to look good. The worst part? Employees notice when they are lied to.

Reviews feel judgmental, not constructive - Accenture realized that 75% of the review process was focused on talking about theemployee, rather than talking to them. Most review practices focus on telling employees how they need to change. People don't want to be changed by others. Good feedback helps uncover one's blind spots, not to be told what to do about them.

The most important factor is lack of trust between manager and employees. Nobody opens up with the person who is "torturing" them. Building trust requires empathy. Managers should stop telling people what they need to do - help them find the answer instead.

It's better to be a good listener than to give advice no one will follow.

Making feedback a habit

The speed of change requires live feedback. To adjust to a changing scenario, people need input now, not in six months.

As Susan Peters, GE's head of human resources, told Quartz: "We think over many years performance reviews have become more of a ritual than moving the company upwards and forwards. Also, the world isn't really on an annual cycle anymore for anything."

On-going feedback doesn't require daily or weekly meetings - The idea is to ease the pain, not to torture people more frequently. Providing spaces for reflection or asking people how things are doing and what they can improve gives employees ownership. Adobe implemented "Check In" - a system where employees and managers set annual goals and then regroup at least every eight weeks. They "check-in" for a real-time discussion on how things are going.

Turn feedback into a dialogue - Feedback should come from anyone and to anyone. Remove the stigma of being judged. Build a mindset of accountability, focus the team's energy on improving the game over and over. Feedback is about adjusting how they play, not to find someone to blame. Gap has replaced annual reviews by "Grow, Perform, Succeed"  - a less formal and more conversational approach between managers and direct reports. These monthly discussions usually occur outside of the office.

Embrace spontaneous feedback - Friendly and straightforward conversation lower people's defenses compared to formal review meetings. Go for a walk, invite someone for a coffee; make it casual. One word of caution, questions are always more welcomed than unsolicited advice. "What can we improve as a team?" is more inviting than telling someone what they need to change. Warby Parker co-CEO Neil Blumenthal said: " I joke that feedback is a gift; it's the opposite of revenge  -  it's best served hot."

Cadence builds a culture of feedback - Asking or providing feedback on the go is more effective than structured performance reviews. Everyone can connect to the issue that needs to be addressed because it's still fresh in their minds. When people get used to ongoing feedback, it feels more human and less threatening - dialogue becomes part of the culture.

Netflix believes that honest and simple conversations on a regular basis get better results than rating everyone on a five-point scale.

Practice team retrospectives

Promote collective feedback. Organizations glorify teamwork but rarely encourage collective behaviors, as I explained here. Team retrospectives are a powerful way of providing feedback as a whole.

Agile teams made retrospectives popular, but they fit most teams. Here are some initial considerations:

A team retrospective is a pause - It's a great way for the group to assess, reflect, understand, and adapt their behaviors. Usually, a facilitator leads the team through a series of prompts (questions, scenarios, visuals, etc.). Each person shares their answers with the rest, but the analysis is focused on a collective assessment, not on the individuals. The purpose is to identify what's working, what can be improved, and how.

Retrospectives improve your team's game - Most of the times, the reflection is done around a particular project - teams meet to review how they managed it and what they can do better on the next sprint or phase.

I also recommend having annual or bi-annual timeout gatherings to reflect on how the team can improve its game. Rather than reviewing a particular project, focus on the overall team dynamics. This is a more in-depth retrospective that deals with more emotional aspects - external coaching is highly recommended.

Team retrospectives don't need to be boring - Many people believe that this type of reflective practice is too serious and, sometimes, dull. The setup, space, food, etc. can help establish the right tone. Also, there are many exercises that we use to "persuade" people to share and speak up without feeling intimidated or being too logical either. Great feedback requires people to be human. The LEGO retrospective is a fun and stimulating activity to encourage group conversations. Participants are asked to create LEGO figures to express their feelings and ideas symbolically.

Creating a safe space takes time - Like any new process, don't expect magic results overnight. People prefer collective feedback to individual but, when offered the chance, they panic. Most people are not used to sharing feedback in front of others. It requires embracing one's vulnerability and understanding that everyone is abiding by the same rules.

You want your team to talk openly, not because they need a scapegoat, but because everyone is committed to turning the team into the best possible.

One last word

Feedback is an amazing gift; especially when it's unexpected. However, it requires the proper mindset to embrace frequent feedback.

Feedback helps liberate the leadership gene within your team. Those who operate under a command and control approach find this hard to implement. However, to continually improve their game, organizations must promote the cross-pollination of feedback: let it come from anyone, anytime, and anywhere.

Feedback is a two-way street. Let's turn it into a gift, not torture.

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With Practice and the Right Approach, Feedback Can Be a Gift

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Annual performance reviews are controversial. Some people praise them in public, but most hate them in private. For starters, they are a waste of time  -  that's why many companies are ditching annual reviews. Also, research shows that they make

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4 PRACTICES TO BRING YOUR CULTURE OF FEEDBACK TO LIFE - posted

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4 PRACTICES TO BRING YOUR CULTURE OF FEEDBACK TO LIFE - posted

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Feedback culture can have a direct impact on productivity, retention, business metrics, and others. This article highlights the different practices that you can implement in your organization in order to spark the feedback culture such as doing personal check-ins, having a yoda, shifting from report-outs, and using the open 360 feedback methods.

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By Keith Ferrazzi
This is part of our CHRO Community Series, which highlights big ideas from CHROs working to push the boundaries of HR and transform their organization for the better. Our first mini-series focuses on improving feedback operations within organizations.
We all know the importance of honest and actionable feedback. The head coach of University of Louisville basketball Rick Pitino perfectly summed it up when he said, "Excellence is the unlimited ability to improve the quality of what you have to offer." The second you feel satisfied with where you are is the moment you get passed.

So while the efficacy of a successful feedback system isn't in dispute-it can have a direct impact on HR and business metrics, including retention, new employee ramp time as well as overall business performance, profitability and share price-designing and implementing one can get tricky.

After establishing clear expectations around feedback through the "three awakenings" (outlined in part one of this two-part series here), it's time to start putting your feedback system into practice. It's important to always remember that no one is entitled to give others feedback; it's a right that has to be earned, and can easily be taken away. Once you have laid the groundwork for the trust necessary to build a culture of feedback, here are four practices you can implement to bring it to life.

1) Start with Personal/Professional Check-Ins

People need to feel psychologically safe in order to open themselves up to speaking and hearing the truth. Without the security of knowing everyone is aligned and working toward a collective success, feedback will sound more like criticism. For example, Gallup showed that there were fewer accidents in hospitals where the culture encouraged staff to provide feedback to leadership and be transparent.

So, what does this mean when it comes to feedback and the workplace? When people feel safe and supported they will proactively give you critical information sooner, priming you to correct course and avoid mistakes quicker.

One practice that helps create that trust and "team spirit" is starting staff meetings with a personal/professional check-in. Each person is given a set time, a minute or two, to share where they are in both their personal and professional lives at that moment. This helps the whole team get a clear picture of what resources are needed where and accelerates intimacy between individuals, encouraging candor and greater feedback fluidity.

2) Have a "Yoda" in the Room

After you have established space for candor, it's time to designate a "Yoda in the Room." Like the Jedi Master, your "Yoda" should be wise, daring and comfortable with telling the truth, even if it's uncomfortable. In meetings, the chosen "Yoda," keeps an eye on the room and takes control when they believe something is not being said or certain voices aren't being heard. This practice helps exercise what I call our "courage-of-candor" and "generosity of truth" muscles.

3) Use Open 360 Feedback Methods

The Open 360 gives team members an opportunity to give input on things they appreciate about their colleagues and things they feel could be changed to increase chances of success. Take care to establish both a space for candor and a "Yoda in the Room." Without the proper groundwork, the feedback will be less valuable, and in some cases could be counterproductive.

When handled properly, though, the open 360 helps build an honest feedback environment that will continue beyond the meetings. However, if you don't have psychological safety, one of two things will happen: Either teammates will withhold feedback that they do not feel comfortable giving, saying only what is allowable in the current environment of safety, or alternatively, they can express themselves, without full permission, in a manner that damages the relationship.

4) Shift Away From "Report-Outs"

Using staff meetings to have your team give reports on what they are doing only reinforces the dividing lines between people and their functions. If you are only thinking about "your" task and objectives, there's no room for teamwork or shared accountability. Plus, in the spirit of honest feedback, they're really boring. That's why we have email.

Instead, share everyone's updates before the meeting, using the scheduled time to focus on a challenge someone is facing that the collective wisdom of the room can solve. Moving away from report-outs not only enables executives to get input from every part of the organization, but also collaborate more effectively; addressing difficulties with diverse but germane perspectives to drive innovation.

Together, these four practices and the three awakenings are the building blocks for creating an effective feedback system from the ground up. It takes time and the willingness of others to commit to it, but once it's embedded in your culture, it's there to stay. Done successfully, the business impact of a company-wide culture of feedback is proven and undeniable.

Photo: Creative Commons

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4 Ways to Ignite a Culture of Feedback | ReWork

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By Keith Ferrazzi This is part of our CHRO Community Series , which highlights big ideas from CHROs working to push the boundaries of HR and transform their organization for the better. Our first mini-series focuses on improving feedback operations within organizations. We all know the importance of honest and actionable feedback.

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An environment with mentors enables success and performance. This article discusses that feedback culture is not just one-way, but everywhere in the organization and even outside of the four walls. Feedback culture can be taken everywhere even at home. Feedback should be made enjoyable in order for it to work and should be used as a support.

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A feedback culture offers a formidable advantage. Here's how to make it happen.

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8 Golden Principles for Creating a Feedback Culture - posted

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8 Golden Principles for Creating a Feedback Culture - posted

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Feedback can be powerful in molding employees and helping them in their careers. Creating a feedback culture in an organization can be done by following these eight principles highlighted in the article. Among the principles are hiring employees that are open to feedback and training them to provide feedback correctly.

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Feedback's power is impressive. It can aid in molding employees and guiding them toward a fulfilling career path. It can improve motivation and engagement. However, for many offices around the U.S., feedback can be a scary word associated with stressful annual meetings. While likely no one relishes the pressure associated with an annual meeting, there are other ways to offer feedback. If you've ever wondered how to create a feedback culture with your organization, it is important to know that it starts with the people.

How to create a feedback culture? Stick to these eight golden principles:

1.Recruit employees open to feedback.

Culture is people, so it's important to begin screening new employees to be open to a feedback-rich culture. Look for potential hires that are life-long learners. These people have what's called a ' growth mindset'. Employees that respond more positively to a feedback culture will search out knowledge and improvement on their own.

2. Train your employees to give feedback correctly.

You can't just throw your employees into the fray. That's not how to create a feedback culture. Feedback is not a natural talent but a skill that needs to be cultivated. No one is born knowing the right way to offer feedback. Improper feedback can come across as demotivating, discouraging, and all around frustrating for employees. Investing in training to give your employees the tools to give critical, helpful feedback is a crucial step. Set your employees up for success. It is important to remember that while your employees may be open to feedback during the training; it needs to be implemented in the day-to-day office culture as well.

3. Create safe spaces to receive feedback.

To do this, you need to offer your employees opportunities to get to know one another. Learning about their co-workers on an individual level can help them understand the right way to deliver feedback. It also creates a sense of trust and understanding among your employees which will help foster positive encounters.

4. Let your employees say, "Not right now".

Feedback shouldn't be forced upon employees that are not responsive to it. Sometimes, it's just the wrong time to hear something critical, even if it needs to be said. Give your employees the option to say, "Later please," and stick to it. They'll be more receptive when you do speak with them, and you'll keep reinforcing that you respect their boundaries. It's important for your employees to learn how to create a feedback culture as much as you and part of that is setting boundaries.

5. Give more positive feedback than negative critiques.

Often when people hear the word 'feedback', they think of negative feedback. While this is a necessary element of a feedback culture, you should be offering far more positive praise. Not only does it motivate your employees, but it keeps them open-minded about hearing criticisms because they'll know that you see all of the good work they do too.

Research shows that the most positive long-term relationships have a balance of five positive interactions to one negative one. This is a good rule of thumb to keep in mind when you're interacting with and offering feedback.

6. Do not tie feedback to compensation.

This might be one of the most important principles for how to create a feedback culture. For many offices, employees dread feedback because it is tied to compensation in the form of an annual review. Feedback needs to be divorced from compensation otherwise you will likely find your employees resistant to the idea. No one wants to hear critiques of their work if they think that will impact how much their raise will be. Feedback should only be delivered in a constructive and supportive environment that's aimed toward improving your employees' skills and achieving their career goals.

7. Live what you teach.

To have a true feedback culture, you cannot be exempt. As a manager, you will have to ask for feedback. The key; however, is afterwards to show that you're taking steps to enact changes in response to the feedback. You want to show that your employees' opinions matter to you so that they will respect your feedback as well.

8. Vary the feedback types.

Not all feedback is appropriate for all situations. To create a feedback culture, encourage and use different forms and delivery methods for feedback. Annual reviews is a classic example of feedback but there is also 360-degree feedback (or another permutation), face-to-face, in a meeting, or through a performance management tool like emplo.

Learning how to create a feedback culture is a process.

It might not all be smooth sailing if you're trying to change the inherent culture of your office, so here are a few tips to help ease some of the speed bumps along the way.

Feedback isn't scary. And it shouldn't be. Often feedback is built up into this big thing that is held behind closed doors, but it can be casual. It can be an offhand comment made in the break room if you've sufficiently developed a feedback culture.

Feedback can happen anywhere. Along the same lines, make a habit to give feedback anywhere. Feedback doesn't require a scheduled meeting.

Notice and reward effort and not just results. You should be paying attention to your employees' activities as a whole and not just the results. Sometimes the results are out of the hands of your employee. If you can see that they're trying hard to meet goals, note that and praise them for it.
Notice and reward effort and not just results. Click To Tweet
Stay attuned to your employees' emotional states. Sometimes it's not the right time to give feedback. That doesn't mean if your employee is having a bad day, you should never talk to them about something, but giving them some space to come to a calm mental state will help.

Learning how to create a feedback culture can seem daunting, but approaching it with the right attitude and training will help guide the way. Once you have established a strong feedback culture, you'll likely be surprised to see an entire shift in your employees' demeanor. They will be more engaged, happy, and ready to tackle new challenges because they'll be in a supported environment.

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8 Golden Principles for Creating a Feedback Culture | Emplo

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Feedback's power is impressive. It can aid in molding employees and guiding them toward a fulfilling career path. It can improve motivation and engagement. However, for many offices around the U.S., feedback can be a scary word associated with stressful annual meetings.

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3 Easy Steps to Creating a Culture of Feedback - posted

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3 Easy Steps to Creating a Culture of Feedback - posted

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Different companies have different problems with feedback. Others have too critical feedback going on, while some may have too much kindness which can prevent better success. The article highlights that to create feedback and change, it must start with the people. It gives three actionable steps to create this culture and integrate it to the organization.

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Your company has a feedback problem.

Maybe the problem is "too much" feedback - too much critical feedback, that is.
SEE ALSO: Why your company needs organizational agility
At other companies, a culture of kindness can cause employees to hold their feedback in, rather than sharing ways to drive better success.

Changing even one aspect of company culture is a marathon, not sprint Click To Tweet

A good start is to create a sense of trust by encouraging a growth mindset. That is, your organization should be one in which people are encouraged to believe that they can learn, improve, and grow, that their abilities aren't fixed. An essential component of fostering this mindset is meaningful positive feedback.

Unfortunately, it isn't as common as it ought to be. Indeed, 37 percent of managers in the Zenger/Folkman survey admitted they never offered positive feedback at all.

To be effective, positive feedback needs to be an end in itself. It shouldn't be a prelude to, or balm after, negative feedback. This arrangement can make genuine praise sound hollow, or dull the effect of the critical feedback you need someone to hear.

To ensure that people hear and appreciate positive feedback, Batista recommends:

Starting small. We miss opportunities to provide positive feedback every day because we have this idea that only big wins merit discussion. When we see any behavior we want to encourage, we should acknowledge it and express some appreciation

Praising effort, not ability. Growth mindset research suggests that praising persistent efforts, even in failed attempts, helps build resilience and determination, while praising talent and ability results in risk-aversion and heightened sensitivity to setbacks.

Change Is About People

Whatever combination of feedback is right for your company - annual reviews, quarterly check-ins, a combination - it's unlikely to be effective if your employees don't feel that the organization is a safe place for offering and getting feedback.
Watch the webinar: Training managers to lead effective 1x1s
If you're making a big change in how feedback is given, it's important to pay attention to " people's readiness for a challenge and their emotional state in a given interaction," according to Ed Batista, executive coach and an instructor at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

"When you sense someone starting to bristle, set aside the feedback for a moment, and show them that you have their best interest at heart."

It will make a big difference if you and your team know each other as individuals. You don't have to be bosom buddies, but you need to trust that feedback is coming from a good place.

Employees giving and receiving feedback need to be able to talk about their emotions. It is, Batista notes, "a critical feature in any group that aspires to share effective feedback, not only because feelings are at the heart of most difficult feedback, but also because feedback inevitably generates difficult feelings."

If you're doing it right, people will be able to talk about "ugly" feelings like embarrassment, disappointment, and frustration, even anger.

The First Three Steps

1. Think of feedback as a retention funnel. Consider all the stages of the employee journey, and how you want your team to feel about their job and the organization at each stage. Where and when does feedback need to happen in order to facilitate those goals?

2. Once you know the goals, create a framework for your new feedback-rich culture. Everyone needs to know who is giving and who is receiving feedback. How often should it occur? Under what circumstances? What is the goal?

3. Commit to a culture of feedback by giving everyone a common language for both providing and responding to feedback. Train folks how to give and receive feedback. If your team isn't in the habit of providing feedback to each other, starting with a regular schedule can help. Normalize the process.

That commitment includes ensuring leaders set the example. If leaders aren't on board or appear exempt from the new initiative, their behavior gives the lie to the whole enterprise.

"Employees are more sensitive than leaders to gaps between espoused values and actual practices," according to research from Harvard Business School. There are few things more likely to induce resentment than being asked for feedback you know won't matter.

Integrating Feedback

Once you've hit the third step, there are two major ways to integrate feedback into the culture: building your own programs and incorporating outside tools.

Programs might include weekly one-to-ones between managers and employees or scheduling regular feedback sessions at specific project milestones that allow teams to align on group objectives, create agreements, and share individual objectives.

An active, ongoing approach to feedback makes an organization more agile and adaptable, with each employee on a clear growth path.

Simply incorporating a framework for feedback into a regular meeting can work. The " Stop/Keep/Start " framework has people offer feedback on three questions:

What should I stop doing?

What should I keep doing?

What should I start doing?

HR tools are another way of normalizing feedback. For example, 1×1 Agendas and the ability to request feedback from team members are key features of the Reflektive performance management platform.

Quick team- or company-wide polls can be used to gather feedback, including whether or not employees feel they are getting enough or the right kind of feedback. They can also measure workers' sense of status, certainty, autonomy, relatedness, and fairness, i.e. the SCARF model, five qualities that help shield us from a threat response.

One study even found a perception of fairness produces reward responses in the brain similar to the brain's reaction when eating chocolate.

Share the results of feedback with employees. Was a decision made as the result of feedback? Have there been improvements in performance? Public recognition of feedback reinforces its value and helps sustain the habit.

It's okay to get it wrong sometimes when you're working to create a culture of feedback, but remember, changing even one aspect of company culture is a marathon, not sprint. Listen to how employees are responding to feedback and adjust accordingly.

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3 Easy Steps to Creating a Culture of Feedback | Reflektive

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This is part two of a series. Find the first post here. Your company has a feedback problem. Maybe the problem is "too much" feedback - too much critical feedback, that is. SEE ALSO: Why your company needs organizational agility At other companies, a culture of kindness can cause employees to hold their feedback in, ...

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Steps You Need to Take Now to Build a Feedback Culture - posted

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Steps You Need to Take Now to Build a Feedback Culture - posted

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The changes in the job market today has led companies to use feedback culture in retaining employees. This post highlights how important feedback is for a manager and how to change your mindset when it comes to feedback. It also lists the steps in creating feedback culture, such as promoting peer-to-peer feedback and coaching employees with fixed mindsets.

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A dramatic shift in the job market has led many companies to turn to feedback to improve employee retention rates. Unlike in the past, employees are feeling less tied to company loyalty and freer to take on new opportunities. Millennials in particular are notorious for their job-hopping tendencies, with most being expected to stick with each job for less than three years. Employee turnover can result in major costs for your company, and significantly affect company morale. Think about how much time you're already spending recruiting new people to replace those who have left.

Attracting top talent will also become more challenging as potential hires are looking at not only salaries, but also the quality of the work environment. Ratings-based reviews on websites like Glassdoor are helping hires become more selective and raising concern among companies over the potential for disgruntled employees to scare off new talent. As companies focus more on trying to reverse this trend, feedback has emerged as a way to better engage employees.

To some, giving candid feedback more often may seem counterproductive, but a 2009 Gallup study shows that 98 percent of employees fail to be engaged when managers give little or no feedback. As a result, companies are investing more in new feedback technology to encourage the exchange of feedback between managers and employees. Faced with the challenge of satisfying a more demanding employee population, managers will be responsible for using this technology to infuse the workplace with a greater feedback culture.

Why Is Feedback Important for Me as a Manager?

While the entrance of Millennials into the workplace will present new opportunities, it will also require adjustments to your management style. The top two most commonly cited reasons for employee turnover are problems with management and a lack of opportunities for professional development. In fact, a 2014 study by Deloitte University revealed that two-thirds of Millennials believe managers are responsible for providing them with further development opportunities. In other words, managers must become more open and engaged in their employees' career growth to meet their expectations.

When given effectively, providing your employees with more feedback is one of the best ways to demonstrate your involvement in their professional development. Giving your employees' advice on how to enhance their skills and helping them develop career goals is a powerful way to motivate your team. Even if you don't have any constructive feedback to give, giving positive feedback is a great way to acknowledge employees' work and make them feel valued within the team. In the long term, feedback can significantly boost team spirit and productivity.

Feedback not only is helpful for improving your employees' performance, but also allows you to pinpoint adjustments that need to be made to your management style. Employees might be reluctant to voice concerns about your performance as a manager until it's too late. Creating an open environment in which employees are encouraged to give you feedback in return will foster greater trust between you and your team, and alert you to potential conflicts before they heat up.

Changing Your Mindset

To realize the benefits of a feedback culture, you and your employees will need to overcome common misconceptions about feedback. As a manager, you may be hesitant to give constructive feedback to your employees and risk hurting or offending them. When it comes to your top performers, you may stick to showering them exclusively with praise as a way to demonstrate how satisfied you are with their work. When it comes to receiving feedback from your reports, you may feel uncomfortable or even defensive when given constructive criticism. You may question whether opening yourself up to feedback will undermine your position as a manager.

If this sounds familiar, you may have what Stanford psychologist Carol Dweck terms a "fixed mindset" toward feedback. People with a fixed mindset see their intelligence and personality as static features. Constructive feedback is therefore taken personally and can elicit a more emotional response. People with a "growth mindset," on the other hand, see their abilities as learned traits that must be exercised and enhanced to develop over time. People with growth-centered mindsets will view feedback as a way to reassess and hone their skills.

Remember that employees with fixed and growth mindsets may react differently to your feedback. If some employees become defensive or emotional when you review their performance, this may be a sign that they have a fixed mindset. To create a positive feedback culture, it's essential that you coach your employees on how to open themselves up to and benefit from feedback.

How to Create a Feedback Culture in the Workplace

Become a role model for open communication by asking for more feedback. Creating an open environment in which employees feel comfortable reviewing your performance will help you to improve your management skills and encourage them to see feedback from a different perspective. It is likely that some of your reports will be hesitant at first to give you honest feedback. Here are some ways you can break down these barriers.

Encourage Employees to Come to You for Feedback

Be sure to make yourself available when employees seek feedback and follow up with them after giving it. Giving your employees feedback more often will motivate them to come back to you for advice when they need it. The most important part is to learn how to give a mix of positive and constructive feedback and work on delivery. Communicating feedback in a clear and constructive way will ensure that it's received well and taken into consideration.

Promote Peer-to-Peer Feedback

Getting used to giving and receiving feedback from one another will help employees improve their interpersonal communication skills and build a greater sense of team spirit. There may be some employees who continually take on an informal mentorship role. Help them develop their potential leadership skills by providing extra training on how to give effective positive and constructive feedback. See our series of feedback guides for employees to get some inspiration.

Identify and Coach Employees With Fixed Mindsets

Employees with fixed mindsets will need extra coaching to overcome their defensive tendencies. Consider holding one-on-one sessions where you can discuss their reactions to feedback, and come up with a plan to overcome their inhibitions.

When given and received effectively, feedback can be a powerful tool to not only improve professional skills, but also motivate, increase productivity, and raise the profile of your company's work culture. However, as a manager you will need to adjust not only your mindset toward giving and receiving feedback, but also your employees'.

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Steps You Need to Take Now to Build a Feedback Culture

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A dramatic shift in the job market has led many companies to turn to feedback to improve employee retention rates. Unlike in the past, employees are feeling less tied to company loyalty and freer to take on new opportunities.

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CONVERGENCE DAY TWO: LEARNING TO BE RADICALLY CANDID - ok

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CONVERGENCE DAY TWO: LEARNING TO BE RADICALLY CANDID - ok

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Radical candor is a framework in giving feedback that makes every feedback challenging yet caring. It can be a helpful process to implement in a team that wants to do their best work while nurturing their relationships. This article breaks down the implementation into four processes like getting it, giving it, gauging it, and encouraging it.

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Day two of Cornerstone's 16th annual Convergence conference kicked off with a simple but profound concept called Radical Candor, presented by Kim Scott, co-founder of Candor Inc. Radical Candor, is a framework for giving effective feedback which requires challenging directly while showing you care personally at the same time.

Scott and Russ Laraway founded Candor Inc. based on this idea, after their experiences at Google, Apple, Twitter and other organizations exposed them to some of the best and worst practices of managers. By teaching Radical Candor to your team, you can help them do their best work, and form mutually beneficial relationships with their colleagues.

How can organizational leaders actually implement Radical Candor?

Scott breaks it down into four components:

1) Get It

One of the best times to solicit Radical Candor is during one-on-one meetings with managers, says Scott. Asking, "What feedback do you have for me?" is not enough. Think of a specific question such as: "What can I do or stop doing that will make it easier to work with me?" Then, embrace the discomfort by silently waiting at least six seconds for a response. Listen with the intention of understanding, not responding, and repeat back what you heard, Scott recommends.

If you agree with the feedback, internalize and apply it. If you disagree, fight the urge to get defensive. Instead, identify the 5 to 10 percent of the candor (feedback) that you agree with and focus on those elements.

2) Give It (Both Praise and Criticism)

Praise is just as important as criticism, so make it detailed and sincere, says Scott. And, unlike criticism, praise should be given in public. When thinking about giving feedback, it should be more like brushing and flossing your teeth, rather than a root canal, says Scott. In other words, don't let feedback build up by waiting to share it at your annual review or even your next one-on-one-just deliver it in the moment.

Two-minute, impromptu talks are incredibly effective, says Scott. But, make sure to only provide feedback on something that is fixable. Discussing someone's personality, for example, is probably not going to be very helpful since they can't change it, says Scott.

3) Gauge It (Radical Candor Looks Different in Different Places)

Everyone receives and processes feedback in different ways, and managers must be respectful of that and tailor the delivery of any feedback to the individual receiving it.

"Radical candor is measured not by your mouth, but the other person's ears. Your job is to find the words that will make them understand," says Scott.

4) Encourage It

We all have office politics, Scott warns. Don't let that get in the way of Radical Candor. If someone comes up to you to speak badly about another employee, encourage them to speak directly to the person who is bothering them face-to-face. If they can't work it out, tell them to come back to you together. It's important to require "clean escalation" for radical candor to remain positive.

Scott ended her keynote by asking everyone in the audience to think about moments in their career during which someone provided feedback that stung in the moment but served them well for the rest of their career. It's not about being mean, it's being clear, says Scott, and clear, specific feedback goes a long way.
Check out what went down during Convergence day one here.

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Convergence Day Two: Learning to Be Radically Candid

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Day two of Cornerstone's 16th annual Convergence conference kicked off with a simple but profound concept called Radical Candor, presented by Kim Scott, co-founder of Candor Inc. Radical Candor, is a framework for giving effective feedback which requires challenging directly while showing you care personally at the same time.

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Enabling a Culture of Feedback: A Conversation with Talin Wadsworth, Lead Designer for Adobe XD - posted

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Enabling a Culture of Feedback: A Conversation with Talin Wadsworth, Lead Designer for Adobe XD - posted

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This article has a different take on feedback, with a creative lens on the creative industry. It identifies how feedback is necessary for the creative process. As a creative team grows, so does the need in fostering feedback.

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Gone are the days of the lone, creative genius designer. Today's creative professionals work on complex projects, often in multi-disciplinary teams. Feedback - seeking input and guidance from our peers - is central to the creative process. It supports people to grow and improve, builds trust among team members, and ultimately results in better work.

Talin Wadsworth, Lead Designer for Adobe XD, is part of a centralized team at Adobe, and leads 7 designers directly. As the team has grown, one focus for him has been evolving a process that can continue to foster a culture of open feedback. We had a conversation about what he has learned along the way.

Creating the Right Environment and Team Psychology

The groundwork for a healthy and productive approach to feedback within a design team starts with the culture of the team. "If people don't feel comfortable sharing, then we have a cultural problem. People coming from an honest place, and having familiarity with one another allows feedback to flourish," said Wadsworth.

This psychological safety is foundational to successful teams, as studied by many academic researchers, including Harvard Business School Professor Amy Edmondson. In one research paper, Edmondson defines psychological safety as "a team climate characterized by interpersonal trust and mutual respect in which people are comfortable being themselves." This aligns exactly with the team culture Wadsworth is promoting.

For Wadsworth, one way to foster a sense of safety is to be supportive as a leader. "It's really important to me that people see me as their advocate. My role is to set everyone up for success, and part of that means being tough with feedback and critique in order to help them feel really confident in the work that they are sharing," said Wadsworth. "When the time comes for group feedback, I want people to feel I am in their corner promoting their work, because I know they put the work in."

Supporting people to foster a sense of safety during feedback also aligns with Kim Scott's idea of Radical Candour which notes that as a leader you need to care personally, as well as challenge directly. When people know that your feedback comes from a place of caring, they are more likely to be receptive and feel safe sharing. As Brene Brown wrote in her book Daring Greatly, "vulnerability is at the heart of the feedback process," and so finding ways to support people in their vulnerability is crucial to fostering a culture of feedback.

Five Ways to Enable Feedback on a Team

Beyond the psychological and cultural conditions for productive feedback on a design team,

Wadsworth also shared some practical tips:

Make feedback part of the process: "We've set ourselves a goal this year of a shared vision - being able to have enough context and exposure to pick up each other's work if we needed to," said Wadsworth. For the team this means sharing work early and often, throughout the daily process. "We share regularly via Slack, we share XD prototype links. We also provide feedback asynchronously through comments in XD prototypes." This means the team has ongoing visibility into the work that is happening.

Create dedicated space for feedback: While sharing on an ongoing basis is useful, it is also helpful to create space where the sole focus and intention is on feedback. On Wadsworth's team, they have a weekly Friday critique session - a guaranteed day where the team is together for feedback purposes. Protecting this space, especially for busy design teams who can get pulled in many directions, is a great tactic to grow a culture of feedback. "For our team, these sessions have become one of the most important things we do," said Wadsworth.

Set it up right: Of course, it's not enough to just get in a room once a week. For the feedback sessions to be successful they need to be set up carefully. Wadsworth elaborated, "These sessions go over better when people have context and familiarity - you don't want people coming in cold to the work's objectives and history. The beauty of being properly set up is that it clears the deck to get right into the weeds of the design challenge we are trying to solve." This setup can include making sure people have seen the work before they get in the room, as well as giving context to the design show and tell.

It's always about the work: Some of the reasons that designers may dread feedback is experiences of feedback that have felt personally hurtful, or based on the giver's personal opinion and preferences. Wadsworth's technique for mitigating this is to keep the conversation really focused on the work, and also keeping it user centred. "We avoid critique of a one-off design, and instead look at a design within the context of a user flow. When we keep it focused on the problem we are solving for our users the feedback is always much more actionable."

Lead by example: Creating a culture of feedback as a design leader means walking the walk. In practice, this means modelling for the team by sharing your own work and being receptive to feedback. "I've had to be the example in a lot of ways, it's had to start with me. Once I'm putting myself out there it's a catalyst for the team to do the same. You can't just put down rules or force a process, as a leader you have to follow through and be diligent about sharing your work too."

Of course, none of this matters if the feedback happens in a vacuum. There needs to be demonstrated accountability to iterating on the work. For Wadsworth, this is about "showing we're all part of each other's process of making the work better." One of the goals for Adobe XD has been to integrate the feedback loop into the creative workflow itself, so this has been a fun process. "We give feedback on evolving the design of XD in XD, using the built-in feedback features - it's all very meta!"

It's also important to note that feedback is something you can practice and coach a team to improve. As Wadsworth says, "In design school, the instructor was always pushing you to show your work and put it up on the wall, it felt very stressful but you do it and the next time it's easier! In a team context, we are constantly training each other to be able to use that feedback muscle - in both providing it and receiving it."

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Enabling a Culture of Feedback: A Conversation with Talin Wadsworth, Lead Designer for Adobe XD | Adobe Blog

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Gone are the days of the lone, creative genius designer. Today's creative professionals work on complex projects, often in multi-disciplinary teams. Feedback - seeking input and guidance from our peers - is central to the creative process. It supports people to grow and improve, builds trust among team members, and ultimately results in better work.

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Encouraging a Feedback Culture: You're Doing It Wrong - posted

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Encouraging a Feedback Culture: You're Doing It Wrong - posted

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Feedback is valuable. However, it can be challenging to implement. One scenario noted here was that how most organization start implementing the feedback culture by training managers thinking that once managers are trained, they can provide feedback effectively. Unfortunately, this doesn't work. You also need to train employees to receive feedback.

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In a world where it seems everyone has an opinion and a willingness to share it, once people get to work they often become weirdly close mouthed, hesitating to tell the boss that the new initiative is doomed, the founder asking for money just how hopeless his business plan is, or the less-than-stellar colleague the several ways he is making your life more difficult.

Hence all the advice out there on how to elicit more feedback, give better criticism, and even, in a recent favorite phraseology, build a "feedback culture." But the very fact that these types of posts and articles are so numerous tells you something--despite a tsunami of tips, people are still looking for answers. So why is getting people to say what they really think so very hard?

Putting the Cart Before the Horse

Because most people go about it backward, answered recruiting blog Fistful of Talent recently. "Most organizations start by teaching managers how to give feedback effectively. The logic follows that if they have the skill, then they'll go around giving all sorts of helpful feedback to readily receptive employees who will use it to improve and pay it forward in a never-ending positive spiral of development and enrichment. Sounds lovely, doesn't it?" writes Ben Olds. "Problem is: I've tried it. It doesn't work."

Is there a better way to encourage feedback? Yes, insists Olds, but only if you start by acknowledging that just tutoring bosses in how and why to give more feedback is not enough; employees also need to learn how to receive that advice.

"The most skilled provider in the world will have a miserable conversation with someone who doesn't want feedback, and/or doesn't know how to receive it," Olds says. It's hard to argue with him. So instead of just focusing on giving feedback, you need to simultaneously ensure you're helping your employees get better at accepting it as well. This requires a four-point strategy, according to Olds:

Encourage a culture of learning. "This requires creating the psychological safety among colleagues to be vulnerable, to admit imperfections, and to embrace learning and improving," he writes. "Educate employees on the value of constructive feedback, and seek out and destroy habits that erode psychological safety. Amy Edmonson's book has some great advice on how to do this."

Teach leaders to give feedback. We're relatively good at this part. Advice abounds.

Encourage leaders to give more feedback. Make sure you have a feedback-friendly company culture and "create incentives for it (recognize those who give it, have leaders go out and ask for it, etc.)," suggests Olds.
Are your attempts to encourage more feedback missing crucial pieces of the puzzle?

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Encouraging a Feedback Culture: You're Doing It Wrong

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In a world where it seems everyone has an opinion and a willingness to share it, once people get to work they often become weirdly close mouthed, hesitating to tell the boss that the new initiative is doomed, the founder asking for money just how hopeless his business plan is, or the less-than-stellar colleague the several ways he is making your life more difficult.

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10 ways Typeform is creating a culture of employee feedback - posted

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10 ways Typeform is creating a culture of employee feedback - posted

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When Typeform started as a small team, feedback came natural. However, as the team grew feedback was hard to come by. Creating a culture of continuous feedback was essential in order to make it feel natural to employees. This helps in improving engagement and retention. Typeform lists the different ways they're creating feedback culture, like encouraging two-way feedback, listening to new hires, and asking co-founders anything among others.

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When I joined Typeform, we were a small group of people in a much smaller office. Back then, everything worked organically and feedback came naturally. We had company meetings every couple of weeks, and spontaneous get-togethers when needed.

Then everything changed.

In 2016, our team nearly tripled in size. So we moved to a much larger office, scattering people from the barception to the "swimming pool."

More people meant more meetings and tighter deadlines. And this meant we could easily go a few days without interacting with people sitting in different spots. It happens when your headcount grows like this:

So we had a challenge: continue to grow while maintaining the culture of trust we'd worked so hard to nurture.

Our answer? Create a culture of continuous feedback.

We wanted to create a place where employee feedback is natural and ongoing-not just another box to tick.

We also knew that 40% of employees are actively disengaged at work because of inadequate feedback.

What about workers who receive feedback? They're more motivated, more engaged, and less likely to quit. Plus, we wanted our people to grow as individuals, and the cornerstone of continuous learning is feedback.

So how did we get started? Here are the ten initiatives that helped us launch our employee feedback culture and boost employee retention.

1. Encourage two-way feedback

They say that "people don't leave companies, they leave managers." So when our horizontal teams started gaining structure, we knew we needed a place for managers and team members to talk.

Our approach? Encourage managers to coordinate recurring 1:1 meetings with every person in their team. We didn't set strict guidelines, we let things unfold naturally.

Because the idea wasn't to turn out status reports. The goal was to create a space where people could talk openly and honestly. Instead of focusing on projects and tasks, the emphasis was on each person's challenges, goals, engagement, and career plan.

How often should people meet? We let the teams decide that too-whatever worked best for them. Usually, when things are going great, fewer meetings are needed. But if someone is underperforming, we encourage managers to commit to more regular meetings, ideally once a week.

These meetings are also designed to promote better ways of mentoring. A huge part of this was encouraging managers to listen.

This focus on reciprocal feedback has improved our team engagement. We're now better able to detect issues of motivation, performance, and a lack of vision or higher purpose.

2. Show appreciation with Bonus.ly

How do you recognize people who go above and beyond? And the less-commonly asked: how can you encourage people to recognize coworkers who go out of their way?

Simple: you empower employees to hand out bonuses.

No, you don't give out the keys to the cash box. You get started with Bonus.ly -a tool that lets employees give micro-bonuses using their very own currency. We call ours "typecoins."

Every month, employees are given a set number of typecoins to distribute however they want. A coworker put in extra time to help someone finish a project? A team member delivered an amazing presentation? Toss them some typecoins.

Bonus.ly in action at Typeform:

People also use hashtags to promote company values: #seek_to_innovate, #practice_empathy, and #leave_space_for_fun. But of course, givers can add any hashtag they like: #vision, #creativity, #yourock, #I_owe_you_a_beer.

And what can people do with ther typecoins? Trade them in for credits on Amazon, PayPal, and lots of other things. Employees can even donate typecoins to charities or other causes of their choice.

In the end, it's all about publicly recognizing our peers' work and reinforcing the right values. This is even more important as we scale. It's less about the typecoins given, and more about enabling people to applaud someone else's valuable contribution.

3. Listen to the new hires

When you're growing fast, it's normal to look for ways to streamline things. But you should never cut corners with the care you give new hires.

Feedback started as a natural part of onboarding. We informally checked in with newbies as they transitioned to their teams. But after a while, we started embracing more standard feedback checkpoints.

→ Ever heard of a full month of employee onboarding? Here's how we do it.

Now we have two meetings: one at six weeks, and one at the three-month point. Here, they'll meet with their manager and their People Partner-the recruiter who was first in touch with them during the hiring process-who also becomes their main point of contact in the People Operations Team.

What do we talk about? Things like goals, expectations, and gaps we could help fill. And just like the manager meetings, we strive to make sure that feedback goes both ways. This way, our onboarding keeps improving too.

It's also the perfect way to educate new people on our feedback culture, and to stimulate their hunger for feedback themselves. It's part of our journey to democratize the concept of feedback, and it starts by making employee feedback a natural thing from day one.

4. Check in with employee engagement surveys

Remember what we said: 40% of employees feel underappreciated at work. This takes a huge swing at productivity.

So a couple times of year, we check in to see how happy and engaged our typeformers feel at work.

Of course we get the general vibe by asking questions like "How do you feel about coming to work every morning?" But we also dive into more touchy topics:

Does your manager inspire you?

Do you feel the company is going in the right direction?

Do you see a clear link between your work and the company's goals?

But why does our employee engagement survey work so well? Because it's honest, it's conversational, and it lets people know how we're using the results.

Here's what it looks like, go ahead and give it a try:

We share all feedback with teams and managers, then work together to create employee engagement ideas for improvement, bottom-up.

And now for the key: real improvements.

Overall satisfaction and engagement in more targeted areas have improved with every survey. All in all, people really appreciate that we take the time to find out what people think and feel.

→ Not sure what to ask? Here's our top 10 employee engagement survey questions.

5. Ask our cofounders anything

One big thing we learned through a previous engagement survey: we could improve how people perceived company leadership and how they communicated with the company. Our cofounder, Robert, put it this way:

Our approach? An "Ask Us Anything," kind of like what you find on inbound.org. First, we presented the initiative, then Robert sent out a shared doc where people could add their questions.

And we got over six pages full of questions! So we had some serious answering to do.

Each question was replied to by the person with the most info on the topic. This way, all answers were as thorough and honest as possible. Then the doc was shared with the entire company. In the intro, our cofounders made it clear what feedback is all about. Here's an excerpt:
A little while ago we asked everyone in the company to ask us any questions they'd like. There were some great questions, and it only strengthens our belief that communication is key in a fast-growing company like ours. Will we always get it right? No, of course not. But as long as we all keep communicating, we think Typeform has a very bright future. If you forgot to ask something, or weren't with us when we sent this out, please remember that you can always come and tap us on the shoulder, send us an email, etc., whenever you like.
Our feedback on the initiative told us that people really appreciated this openness and transparency.

6. Drop thoughts in the suggestion box

People always have something to say. Sometimes they can't wait to share thoughts and concerns in an engagement survey every three months, or until the next Ask Us Anything comes around.

We needed a fixed channel to address questions or suggestions on an ongoing basis.

Solution? We started off with a simple typeform where people could ask a question or leave a suggestion. But as much as we like digital, we thought "How cool it would be to have a physical thing gathering the suggestions, like an old-school suggestion box?"

And that's when we came up with this:

Yup, that's a typewriter hooked up to an iPad. When people pound the typewriter keys, it inputs comments rights into the iPad.

We've gathered hundreds of suggestions so far, and we're constantly putting them into action. One of the first requests? Make it easier to send feedback from anywhere. So we've kept digital suggestion box as well. Can't win 'em all. 😉

7. Get the whole picture with 360 feedback

Does a single manager really know all there is to know about every person in their team? We weren't sure. That's why we decided to try a more holistic 360 feedback approach.

→ Not sure if 360 feedback is right for your team? Read this.

The questions are simple:

What has this person has done exceptionally well?

What's at least one thing that they could improve?

Any other additional feedback that might be valuable?

We aim for a minimum of four people to complete the feedback for each person-including managers, peers, and a self-evaluation. People can leave their name or stay anonymous to allow truthful feedback to flow.

Once all the info is in, managers organize 1:1 meetings with every team member to discuss. The main goal: celebrate strengths, find places to improve, and outline steps to make it happen.

We do this every six months. But we don't want this to be just another task. We're aiming to make this even more frequent and relevant.

8. Collect feedback on feedback

What if we're doing it all wrong? It's definitely something we want to avoid. That's why we sent out our "feedback on feedback" typeform.

Our main objectives:

Improve 360 feedback

Understand what people need to grow professionally

Find out how people feel about giving open feedback and why

Compare with last year's results to see if we've made an impact

Adjust our training initiatives to provide better support

We're constantly planning employee feedback initiatives, and we want to make sure we're doing it for the right reasons. Besides, we figure we should be just as comfortable asking for and learning from feedback as everyone else.

9. Add a communication specialist

Without clear communication, feedback falls flat. Or worse, messages get crossed and meaning gets lost.

That's why we hired Katie, our Internal Communications Specialist. She works with the leadership team to make sure that info flows in ways that everyone can understand.

She's also cleaning up how we share information across the company. From helping to launch Notion as our intracompany wiki page, to taking and distributing minutes in assemblies and company meetings.

It's all part of fostering a culture of feedback, communication, and trust.

10. Learn how to give and receive feedback

We're not usually taught to give feedback, let alone receive it. That's why we've recently started hosting Feedback Workshops. The objective:

Make giving and receiving constructive feedback easier

Increase the frequency and quality of feedback conversations

Promote feedback as part of a culture of trust and ownership

For some half-day sessions, we bring in an outside facilitator with international experience. DiSC-Bridge profiles have helped people understand that everyone is different in how they communicate and need to be supported.

Brenda, our Learning and Development Specialist, also runs frequent workshops called "The F-Word," with different teams around the company. The big takeaway:

Are you ready to build a culture of employee feedback?

We all have things to learn and improve. That's why Typeform is building a feedback-friendly company culture that's meant to be transparent, rewarding, and constructive.

It helps team engagement, motivation, and development. Communication and collaboration improve too-and all this helps your business strategy and operations.

Thinking about creating an employee feedback culture at your company? You should! But remember that it's an ongoing process that takes trust and education to implement.

Be clear about why you're collecting feedback and what you plan to do with it. And once you've collected feedback, be honest and transparent with what you've learned.

It's the only way that you'll get people to trust the process and benefit from the results.

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10 ways Typeform is creating a culture of employee feedback

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When I joined Typeform, we were a small group of people in a much smaller office. Back then, everything worked organically and feedback came naturally. We had company meetings every couple of weeks, and spontaneous get-togethers when needed. Then everything changed. In 2016, our team nearly tripled in size.

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Radical Candor — The Surprising Secret to Being a Good Boss | First Round Review - posted

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Radical Candor — The Surprising Secret to Being a Good Boss | First Round Review - posted

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This talk goes into a different take on candor and how it can be used when giving feedback and in guiding employees as a manager.

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Radical Candor — The Surprising Secret to Being a Good Boss | First Round Review

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Uploaded by FreshBooks University on 2015-12-08.

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Day two of Cornerstone's 16th annual Convergence conference kicked off with a simple but profound concept called Radical Candor, presented by Kim Scott, co-founder of Candor Inc. Radical Candor, is a framework for giving effective feedback which requires challenging directly while showing you care personally at the same time.

Scott and Russ Laraway founded Candor Inc. based on this idea, after their experiences at Google, Apple, Twitter and other organizations exposed them to some of the best and worst practices of managers. By teaching Radical Candor to your team, you can help them do their best work, and form mutually beneficial relationships with their colleagues.

How can organizational leaders actually implement Radical Candor?

Scott breaks it down into four components:

1) Get It

One of the best times to solicit Radical Candor is during one-on-one meetings with managers, says Scott. Asking, "What feedback do you have for me?" is not enough. Think of a specific question such as: "What can I do or stop doing that will make it easier to work with me?" Then, embrace the discomfort by silently waiting at least six seconds for a response. Listen with the intention of understanding, not responding, and repeat back what you heard, Scott recommends.

If you agree with the feedback, internalize and apply it. If you disagree, fight the urge to get defensive. Instead, identify the 5 to 10 percent of the candor (feedback) that you agree with and focus on those elements.

2) Give It (Both Praise and Criticism)

Praise is just as important as criticism, so make it detailed and sincere, says Scott. And, unlike criticism, praise should be given in public. When thinking about giving feedback, it should be more like brushing and flossing your teeth, rather than a root canal, says Scott. In other words, don't let feedback build up by waiting to share it at your annual review or even your next one-on-one-just deliver it in the moment.

Two-minute, impromptu talks are incredibly effective, says Scott. But, make sure to only provide feedback on something that is fixable. Discussing someone's personality, for example, is probably not going to be very helpful since they can't change it, says Scott.

3) Gauge It (Radical Candor Looks Different in Different Places)

Everyone receives and processes feedback in different ways, and managers must be respectful of that and tailor the delivery of any feedback to the individual receiving it.

"Radical candor is measured not by your mouth, but the other person's ears. Your job is to find the words that will make them understand," says Scott.

4) Encourage It

We all have office politics, Scott warns. Don't let that get in the way of Radical Candor. If someone comes up to you to speak badly about another employee, encourage them to speak directly to the person who is bothering them face-to-face. If they can't work it out, tell them to come back to you together. It's important to require "clean escalation" for radical candor to remain positive.

Scott ended her keynote by asking everyone in the audience to think about moments in their career during which someone provided feedback that stung in the moment but served them well for the rest of their career. It's not about being mean, it's being clear, says Scott, and clear, specific feedback goes a long way.
Check out what went down during Convergence day one here.

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Convergence Day Two: Learning to Be Radically Candid

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Day two of Cornerstone's 16th annual Convergence conference kicked off with a simple but profound concept called Radical Candor, presented by Kim Scott, co-founder of Candor Inc. Radical Candor, is a framework for giving effective feedback which requires challenging directly while showing you care personally at the same time.

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CREATING A COMPANY CULTURE OF CONTINUOUS LISTENING - posted

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CREATING A COMPANY CULTURE OF CONTINUOUS LISTENING - posted

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In the video, Frances Roy talks about the importance of creating a company culture that's based on continuous learning. She discusses that in order to create a growth-minded company and nurturing value-based behavior is through leading by example. A key takeaway to her talk is that listening plays a valuable role in the feedback culture.

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Frances Roy led the charge to implement TINYpulse at Ascension Health, the largest non-profit health system in the United States. She came to TINYcon to share her learnings and guidance as a chief talent officer there, and to start the conversation about continuous listening.

Watch the video below, or keep reading for our biggest take-aways...

The importance of leading by example

Creating strong company values is quickly becoming a universally recognized step to building an agile, strong, and growth-minded company. But one of the major challenges many companies face is bringing those values down off the wall, and living by them in the workplace.

Roy suggests that the first step to getting value-driven behavior is to lead by example. "When people tell you one thing, and the realities are something different, who do we look to, to see what realities are? Leadership. And when you see that the two don't go together, what does it do to your own engagement? It goes down."

Employee engagement is an excellent indicator of successful leadership

For individual contributors, success is measured in business outcomes; that can mean product output or client happiness. But for leadership, the business outcome they should be measured on is engagement. And if you don't think employee engagement is a business outcome, the US chamber of commerce found that the 25% most engaged teams had:

25% lower turnover (in high-turnover organizations)

65% lower turnover (in low-turnover organizations)

37% lower absenteeism

20% higher customer metrics

21% higher productivity

22% higher profitability

Employee engagement is usually related to a myriad of factors. At TINYpulse, we break it down into the ten most common "culture drivers," determined from over 5 million data points. One of the biggest culture drivers to employee happiness is leadership and management. "So, how do you know what leadership behaviors impact business outcomes?" asks Roy, "When you use TINYpulse to listen to your team, [...] all the data is there." The next step is making sure that the right people are reading it, taking it, and doing something with it.

The importance of listening, and the tools to do it

Surveys are a great way to start engaging with employees and telling them that you're looking for feedback and that you're invested in their experience. But your frequency and your response are just as important as the questions that you ask. "If we're only asking questions every eighteen months, or once a year, what does that really say about how important it is for us to listen to associates?" Roy asks.

Similarly, if you 'listen' by collecting feedback, but then never follow-up or acknowledge the kind of feedback you received, the participation and investment in those survey responses will degrade over time.

Best practices for a listening leadership

Roy shows a video, during her talk at TINYcon. The premise; a woman with a nail in her forehead complains about seemingly related experiences, like snagging her sweater or experiencing pain. But she doesn't want help to remove the nail, she just wants to be listened to. The video is a reminder that there are many different reasons why we communicate with each other, and that often that communication is not to seek a solution, but to connect or to express ourselves.

When you think about the employee surveys that you send out, it's important to remember why employees are sharing their feedback with you, especially for opt-in surveys or anonymous suggestion boxes. And how you can respond to that feedback in a way that communicates that you have heard them and acknowledged the feedback that was received.

Roy gives an easy example: an employee survey reveals requests for better lighting in the parking lot, which the company promptly installs. The important opportunity here is to reassure and restate that the employee is valued, recognized, and supported. The perfect example is a statement like: "We heard your feedback, and your safety is very important to us, and it's something we care deeply about. So, in the next 60 days, we'll be installing that lighting, since we know that it's something that we've heard is important to you. And it's important to us as well."

Clear outcomes: Customer-facing employees will show improved listening as well

When your employees feel valued, recognized, and supported, there's a very clear increase in the quality of care that your clients receive. Roy found that as they surveyed clients over time, the increase in engaged employees also lead to better customer service. Employees with high engagement were more concerned for their clients, got more involved personally, and did more overall monitoring of their customer's status and behaviors, to understand their satisfaction and retention.

"The most basic and powerful way to connect with another person is to listen. Just listen. Perhaps the most important thing we ever give each other is our attention."

The big goal: shifting to a listening culture

As it becomes clearer that there is a direct return on investment in focusing on employee engagement, it's important to remember that one of the biggest factors controlling employee engagement is the relationship between employees and managers. Listening to employee feedback is a good way to start the conversation, and acknowledging that you've received the feedback is a must-do as you let employees know that you're investing in their experience.

Frances Roy leaves us with one final quote; "Listening is about supporting, not carrying." As tempting as it may be to take all that feedback and do the heavy lifting to make your culture a better place, it's important to remember that 'fixing' isn't always what your employees are looking for, and often they simply need to be supported as they find solutions that work for them.
Frances Roy spoke at this year's TINYcon 2017. To reserve your tickets to next year's TINYcon, and make sure that you're keeping up to date with the latest in employee engagement and company culture,get your early bird tickets now! If you're looking for more tips or info on improving company culture, you can also read our culture reporthere.

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Creating a company culture of continuous listening

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Frances Roy led the charge to implement TINYpulse at Ascension Health, the largest non-profit health system in the United States. She came to TINYcon to share her learnings and guidance as a chief talent officer there, and to start the conversation about continuous listening. Watch the video below, or keep reading for our biggest take-aways...

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How to make the connection between employee feedback and business results - posted

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How to make the connection between employee feedback and business results - posted

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There's a strong link that connects employee engagement to happier customers. Using linkage models when it comes to creating a culture of feedback can be a good method to show the impact of programs that take care of employees. By creating such links and seeing the real benefits, it becomes easier to invest and prove to executives the results that feedback has to business.

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In the employee feedback space there's a lot of hype about linkage for good reason. Linking the data from your people surveys to broader business outcomes can be incredibly powerful. It's an effective way to demonstrate to leaders that looking after and caring about your people does deliver tangible business benefits, like making your customers happier.

Rather than just assuming that your work is having an impact on the organization, linkage models can give you the proof points that show the impact of your people initiatives. It can also help you validate and gain confidence in the questions you are asking people - as well as suggesting areas to go deeper. Here's some tips for how to get started:

Linkage connects business outcomes with employee feedback

Linkage is when the rubber hits the road with employee feedback. It makes real connections between your business objectives and employees' experience in your organization. This is what most leaders, executives, boards and shareholders care about. For example, by demonstrating a link between training perceptions and sales performance in one part of an organization, a case can readily be made to invest in training across the entire organization.

Previously it was incredibly expensive to apply statistical techniques on large datasets to make these linkages. Now we have tools that can enable people in almost every company to do this if they set their mind to it.

Some of the classic things that we're seeing clients link to employee feedback are churn and retention rates. This allows organizations to look at the type of experiences or structural things that lead people to leave their organization. We have consistently seen good linkages in this area.

We have also have seen strong connections between engagement levels and customer satisfaction, particularly in call centres or other parts of an organization where there is a direct relationship with customers. If people are engaged and motivated in a call centre that is typically reflected in a better customer experience.

Be realistic when you first make linkages

While linking employee feedback to outcomes can be powerful it can also be incredibly complex, particularly if an outcome has multiple inputs or causal factors. If there are lots of hidden variables that we're not able to accurately measure it can be difficult to show an association between the people side of things and the outcome. That's why it's important to be realistic and understand that some things are potentially outside the sphere of what you can measure or model.

In other situations you may be able to take some of the causal factors into account in your model. For example:

If you're looking at growth in a particular country, you can control for how long you've been in that market.

When you're looking at sales growth that is enabled by training you may need to take into account the size of people's territories.

This can make your model more robust and help you get a better return from your analysis.

Examine the usefulness of the information in your linkage

When choosing your variables it's also worth considering whether the linkages you're making will provide valuable information that your organization can use. One organization we worked with was looking for linkages between the wellbeing of their people and workplace performance / retention. They added a variable that considered the level of social support that someone had outside of the organization.

Interestingly, the analysis found that people with strong social support were more likely to leave the business. But this linkage didn't actually help the organization because they couldn't reduce the amount of social support a person had outside of the business (and wouldn't choose to do so even if they could).

My best tip when it comes to linkage analysis

The best tip I can give when it comes to linkage analysis is to start with something small. Start somewhere you have confidence that there's a connection and you have a reasonable level of control over the inputs going into the system. This will give you the best chance of demonstrating the connection. Great places to start are call centre engagement and customer satisfaction, engagement levels and employee retention, or training and sales performance as they often have clear linkages.

Once you've been able to demonstrate a successful link between a people practice and a business outcome you can then progress to adding new variables or making more complex linkages. The results will help you show your leadership the benefits of looking after your people, and can inform your people strategy into the future.

How to get started with simple linkage

Although we can very easily get quite sophisticated in our linkage analyses (we often use machine learning techniques such as Random Forests and Support Vector Machines for example) this isn't always necessary. We've often seen our customers identify key linkages by simply getting the right data together and uploaded into their feedback dashboards. This allows some straight-forward but powerfully simple linkages to be seen quite dramatically.

One of the most common examples of this is when an organization simply tracks which employees have exited the organization over time and then uploads this as a simple flag in previous feedback surveys. This can clearly show the areas in which exiting employees were having their most negative experiences prior to leaving - which is a quite powerful guide to where you might direct your attention to address future retention.
In the screenshot below you can see a simple heatmap. This shows how employees who have subsequently exited the organization were having negative experiences associated with Innovation. This linkage clearly shows that exited employees here had much lower scores particularly in regards to how they felt innovative ideas we acted on.

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How to make the connection between employee feedback and business results

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Linkage is powerful because it directly connects employee feedback to the broader performance of the business. It can also be difficult to implement, so it's important to start simple. Culture Amp's Chief Scientist provides tips on when to use linkage and how to get started.

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All companies possess a unique workplace culture. Some companies promote an informal team-based environment, while others are masters of a traditional and formal approach. Google, for example, frequently ranks as one of the best places to work in the world . Why? The tech giant prioritizes its employees by promoting a fun and relaxed work environment. This creates an enviable workplace culture enabling Google to attract and keep the brightest minds in the industry.

Culture shapes how things get done, how employees interact with one another and how people behave. It's a combination of the values, beliefs, vision, systems, and habits that an organization and its employees share.

However, building a positive company culture takes high levels of trust, transparency and a lot of listening. Instead of allowing your organization's culture to develop itself, take a proactive approach to create a positive culture where your employees thrive. By introducing feedback methods or tools, you can begin to collect the information that reinforces desired behaviors and beliefs, ultimately shaping a positive culture that reflects your business.

Let's take a look at how employee feedback can help define a positive company culture.

1. Create Office Dynamic

The experience your employee has in your office environment can play a major role in defining your culture, and significantly impact an employee's performance and productivity. Your office space should reflect the values and personality of your organization. For example, Apple values innovation, creativity, and collaboration. The new $5 billion office space, Apple Park , has been designed with culture in mind, to encourage collaboration between different departments, share ideas with co-workers and build an open working environment.

While many different factors can impact employee experience, creating a physical work environment that encompasses your organization's personality will help define your culture. And involving your employees in these decisions will help create a workspace your employees enjoy coming to.

To do this, consider your key values. And ask your employees what would assist them in living out these values in the workplace. If you're re-designing the office, create a survey to gather feedback on the new designs. For instance, if you value creativity, what elements of the office will help each team member thrive? Relaxation pods might be used to foster creativity, whereas standing desks or exercise balls can be used to promote health and employee well-being. Your employee's ideas are valuable, and they will appreciate being involved in the decision-making process.

2. Identify New Policies and Procedures

Company policies and procedures establish expectations of both an employee and employer. They are there to provide guidance and direction on different workplace situations, and closely reflect the values of an organization. While many policies and procedures are non-negotiable, there is always room for improvement and addition of new policies to further define your culture. And who could be better positioned to provide feedback than your employees?

A great routine to establish is to regularly ask your employees how a policy or procedure could be improved to enhance the company culture. You might be surprised by the fresh perspective your employees have. Pet-friendly offices are a terrific example of employee lead policy, with more businesses now recognizing the potential animals have in boosting morale and productivity. Pets are proven to promote a positive mood, relieve stress and can even improve physical health. Some of the world's most well-known companies, including Google have implemented policies that allow employees to bring their dog to work.

When implementing an innovative policy, you will want to gather feedback from each employee to ascertain whether the policy has been a success and whether any small changes need to be made. Is anyone allergic to dogs?

One of the best ways to determine the success of a new policy is through feedback surveys. If 'Slack' is the primary means of communication within your organization, you can easily use to create quick surveys, allowing your employees to provide regular feedback and ascertain what is and isn't working.

3. Build Transparency

Transparency within an organization can build trust and provide the foundation for excellent employee teamwork. It can enhance productivity, boost morale and show employees that you value them. In a transparent company, employees know what's happening around them, and they feel more involved. However, transparency shouldn't just be from top to bottom. It needs to work both ways, with employees able to voice their opinion to management, knowing it will be shared and valued.

So, how do you build a culture of transparency? A good way to do this is through a suggestion poll. Recurring polls can be easily implemented on a weekly schedule, and provide an opportunity for employees to speak up and share feedback on current projects, corporate decisions or anything else they wish to bring up.

4. Create an Environment of Continual Development

Ongoing learning helps employees continuously improve. This not only benefits workers as they develop new skills, but it creates opportunities for you to improve your bottom line. As employees find better ways to work, the company as a whole can develop systems/processes that refine the efficiency and effectiveness of your operations. It also increases employee satisfaction and lets them know you don't think of them as just another cog in the machine.

Workplace learning culture begins with the managers. Training initiatives should be reinforced and formalized with development plans and regular feedback. If your employees aren't benefiting from the training, there is no point in doing it. Set up regular polls to evaluate the effectiveness of the training. You may find that your employees know a particular topic very well, but struggle with another. Shift and adapt according to the feedback you receive and ensure everyone in your organization is continuously learning.

Develop a Positive Company Culture

A company's culture can't be formed overnight, but by harnessing employee feedback, you'll begin to define and shape your company's culture over the following weeks, months and years. Even the notion of encouraging employee feedback supports a positive culture, as it can show that your company values and respects the input and opinions of its employees.

Leave a comment and tell us how you use employee feedback to shape a positive company culture!

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4 ways employee feedback will help define a positive company culture | Polly

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All companies possess a unique workplace culture. Some companies promote an informal team-based environment, while others are masters of a traditional and formal approach. Google, for example, frequently ranks as one of the best places to work in the world . Why? The tech giant prioritizes its employees by promoting a fun and relaxed work environment.

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At Funding Circle, we champion this spirit in one of our five company values: "Be Open." One of the biggest benefits of this has been that it has helped us build a feedback-rich culture.

Feedback matters because it helps people improve their performance. It also gives leaders the information necessary to build the sort of companies they aspire to. Without feedback, it's very difficult for people to develop and for organizations to course-correct.

Developing an environment where feedback is welcome takes some work. Here are a few things to keep in mind:

A feedback-rich culture has to start from the top. It only takes one misstep as a leader to shut it down. If it ever comes out that someone bearing well-intentioned views was shut down or punished for speaking out, others in your organization will shy away from being open and honest.

As a leader, it's your job to show you are open to constructive feedback and want to do your role better. Demonstrating that you can receive feedback--even when uncomfortable to hear--from your team helps give them confidence to speak up, and also sets the norm that they will follow when it's your turn to provide developmental feedback.

2. Feedback should be a part of daily life.

Feedback needs to be distinct from the performance appraisal process done once or twice a year. In fact, if anyone shows up to a performance review and the evaluation is a surprise, then you know you have a serious breakdown in your feedback culture. The management skills of the person responsible for that employee's development probably need some work, too.

For most people, being directly and openly critical of others' behaviors and decisions is already very uncomfortable. As a result, they'll often hold back or, worse, channel such views into corrosive water-cooler chat that can really kill company morale.

To ensure that this doesn't happen, a key role for a leader is to set up clear forums and channels through which people can give each other feedback--in all directions--and do so within guardrails that are appropriate for your culture. One simple tactic we often use at our company is to encourage our people managers to solicit and give performance-related feedback to their team members at regular intervals between formal reviews.

3. It's a skill, not a talent.

A healthy feedback culture allows people to understand what they need to change, but does so without undermining the interpersonal trust that's crucial for constructive workplace relationships. Creating this type of environment takes continual work and practice by everyone involved; it probably won't happen naturally.

At our company, we offer workshops to give people a chance to learn and practice their feedback skills. One tip is to start with a simple, experience-based "When you did____, the impact on me/that other person/etc. was___." This allows you to be specific and provide clear guidance on what someone might have done differently, and it does so without challenging someone's interior motivations.

Whether speaking with someone junior, senior, or a peer, I've found that a direct, empathetic approach to feedback leads to lasting and positive behavior change. It also can create stronger relationships and, ultimately, improved business performance.

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Here's How to Create a Feedback-Friendly Culture (Hint: It Starts at the Top)

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At Funding Circle, we champion this spirit in one of our five company values: "Be Open." One of the biggest benefits of this has been that it has helped us build a feedback-rich culture. Feedback matters because it helps people improve their performance.

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Post your open positions to reach thousands of talented job seekers. Explore staffing models for associations, findings from ASAE Foundation workforce research, and resources to build a high-performing staff team.

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Post your open positions to reach thousands of talented job seekers. Explore staffing models for associations, findings from ASAE Foundation workforce research, and resources to build a high-performing staff team.

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If I had to choose only two concepts that will follow me after Hult, those will be growth mindset and feedback. I believe these two concepts really define how I view my journey during this year and my future as an ongoing personal development process. At the beginning of this year, we debated if growth mindset could be something we were born with and if a fixed mindset could be changed. I believe it can be learned and it can be developed by the adoption of a feedback culture in the right ecosystem.

"This all changed when I came to Hult and feedback became not only a daily used word but a way to help drive development."

That ecosystem has been created for us at Hult and magnified with our interactions during the year. But when we go out to the real world how are we going to help create this type of culture? Before coming to

, feedback wasn't something I looked for. I even dreaded the moment when I had to receive some. Depending on your culture and background feedback may mean different things to you. For me, it was always a criticism and a form to point at my weaknesses. This all changed when I came to Hult and feedback became not only a daily used word but a way to help drive development.

[Tweet "#Feedback, without proper use and purpose, can become a huge amount of unused information."]

The word feedback became popular in today's workplace. Now we can even set up a tool to facilitate it, make time for it, even make it mandatory. However, all of this will be useless unless we help create the right culture for feedback. The first thing we should do is to ask ourselves why do we need feedback? What do we want to achieve with it? A culture of feedback sounds like a great characteristic for a company. However, without proper use and purpose, it can become a huge amount of unused information. Constant feedback is one of the ways companies can facilitate learning and development for their talent. Giving feedback is about supporting a person in their journey to increase their performance and develop new skills. Both results help the company reach its main goals and support its employees' fulfillment.

[Tweet " Giving #feedback is supporting a person's journey to improve their performance and develop new skills."]

The three elements I believe companies should invest resources in to be able to create a culture of feedback are: Trust, Communication, and Empowerment. These elements may seem very related - and they certainly are - but there are different ways to build each of them.

"A feedback culture can never be created in a company or a team where there is no trust."

Trust
Trust is the foundation where all social interactions will be defined. A feedback culture can never be created in a company or a team where there is no trust. The whole process of giving feedback is about listening to the advice someone is giving us to become better or wanting to help someone be better at what they're doing. None of these will happen if there is no trust between a manager and his employee or within a team. Managers and companies should be aware of the trust level they are working in and invest time in building it. Feedback given in an untrustworthy environment will only be useless information that won't initiate any action.

Communication
When there is trust, the communication within a company or a team can have an impact and reach the desired outcome. With trust, people are open to speaking truthfully and others are open to receiving that truth. Trust must be built to have effective communication. Ways to communicate vary between cultures and personalities. It is extremely important to learn how to give feedback, as the desired outcome will depend on how it was communicated. Teaching employees how to communicate with different people will help them approach the process of giving feedback in a different and more effective way.

[Tweet "Empowerment is the catalyst for #feedback to have an impact. #PersonalDevelopment #Leadership"]

Empowerment
I believe this is the catalyst for feedback to have an impact. Giving feedback is not the end of the development process, it's empowering the person to make a change. By supporting, checking on and motivating employees, feedback can become a powerful tool for talent development. Therefore, we talk about coaching when we talk about feedback. Coaching is the complete word to describe the whole process of giving feedback and initiating action.

Some of you may think that creating a culture of feedback is the job of HR or business leaders and don't want to engage with it. However, no matter where you are, where you work, which technologies you may have, you will always have to interact with people. As human beings and more importantly as leaders, we must learn how to develop ourselves and others. The differentiation between long-term and short-term success is how companies can leverage their talent as their most important asset.
If you would like to find out more about our business programs, download a brochure here.
Lisa Paredes is a Hult MBA student from Guatemala. She was the CEO of a wine distribution company before she left to pursue her postgraduate degree in San Francisco. Her experience as a businesswoman and yoga teacher led her to her biggest passion-working with people.

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How do we create a Culture of Feedback? Hult Blog

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If I had to choose only two concepts that will follow me after Hult, those will be growth mindset and feedback. I believe these two concepts really define how I view my journey during this year and my future as an ongoing personal development process.

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There are limitless possibilities for HR professionals when it comes to incorporating serious games

In today's knowledge economy the opinions and ideas of a company's employees are an important business asset, so sharing feedback across teams is of the utmost importance. Feedback is essential to learning, collaboration and engagement and is key to unlocking the brainpower HR professionals work so hard to recruit into their organisations.

I'm chief human resources officer at Amadeus, a global travel technology company, and I'm tasked with developing a workforce of almost 15,000 people in more than 100 countries. One of my priorities is building a culture in which employees share feedback and ideas both within and across teams, to help our knowledge-based business stay apace of rapid evolution in our industry.

However, sharing feedback is not always easy, especially for a global company like ours. Although we pride ourselves on our diverse workforce, in recent years we noticed that a number of our teams with members from all over the world were finding it difficult giving and receiving feedback, due in part to cultural differences between the members. This was causing frustration and misunderstandings. Think of the vast disparities in conveying ideas, exhibiting authority, or the directness of language between (for example) Scandinavian, Asian and French cultures.

In a multinational company like ours a more direct feedback approach is important to overcome the complexities between different cultural communication styles. We wanted to build a 'feedback culture' within the organisation, and to do so we turned to an exciting new tool for HR professionals - gamification.

It seems counter-intuitive to advocate play at work, but gamification opens up a world of possibilities for HR professionals. Games allow us to try out and practise new behaviours in a fun safe environment. Through play we are capable of absorbing very complex concepts and we learn faster, without even realising we are learning. Once the behaviours featured in the game have been practised over and over again the players develop the confidence and security to apply these concepts in real life. And with a game HR professionals can train thousands of employees around the globe at once.

To help us build the feedback culture we want we developed Amadeus Crew, a game that covers a range of issues including positive feedback and recognition, admitting to mistakes and speaking up about your own behaviour, and critical feedback, which is the hardest skill to learn.

The game focuses on desired or unwanted behaviours, and starts from a departure gate scene before moving to the cockpit with two pilots as the key characters. The principle is simple: the player takes the role of a crew member - it might be the pilot or the head of cabin - during a flight. Each flight presents different situations that will have to be solved by using feedback effectively, and so each situation helps the player learn to either give or receive feedback.

The response to the game has been fantastic. During a proof of concept phase more than 6,000 people played Amadeus Crew, and their feedback has confirmed my belief that gamification should be taken seriously as a tool for employers.

Given the high employee engagement gamification secures, there are limitless possibilities for HR professionals when it comes to incorporating serious games into employee training, culture change and company processes - but there are some best practices to bear in mind.

For example, it's essential to understand how the end user will interpret and interact with the game you have created. 'Why am I using this game?' should therefore be one of the first questions you ask when developing your strategy.

It's also vital that the user experience is easy and intuitive. When creating a game designed for employees it's important to consider how those employees are going to be playing - most likely on their mobile device, so is the experience easy to follow on a smartphone screen? They will also want to be able to easily understand the dialogue and content, so don't make this too complex.

For our organisation this is only the beginning. I'm already preparing more gamification-based training to extend its benefits to other aspects of our company culture, and I'm really excited to explore how else we can use it.

Sabine Hansen Peck is chief human resources officer at Amadeus IT Group

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HR Magazine - The key to building a feedback culture? Gamification

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There are limitless possibilities for HR professionals when it comes to incorporating serious games

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Every manager wants to make their company more effective, and encourage employees to give each other, positive feedback. But it can be hard to create this culture, especially at larger corporations. Too often, feedback of any kind is dreaded and seen as negative. At worst, some employees may even consider feedback to be useless and irrelevant. To solve this problem, you must establish a positive feedback culture at work. A feedback culture helps your employees understand how they are performing, rewards them for great work, and promotes a healthier and more constructive work environment. Read on, and find out our top 10 tips on how to establish a positive feedback culture at work!
1. Provide Regular, Constructive Feedback

The process must begin by providing regular, constructive feedback that is based on honesty and trust. If you can provide feedback that is honest, and do so in a way that does not make another person feel negative - even if there are areas that need improvement - you're well on your way to developing a positive feedback culture.

You should also try to provide feedback to coworkers and colleagues more regularly. For example, consider ditching the traditional "annual performance review" in favor of project-based feedback sessions - regular, focused feedback helps nurture a positive feedback culture.

2. Nurture A Mindset Focused On Growth

If an employee has a growth mindset, they are much more likely to receive feedback well - whether it's positive, or focuses on areas where an employee could improve.

This is because a growth mindset helps employees recognize where they have succeeded as a person and an employee, and where they can still grow.

A growth mindset helps an employee realize that there will always be areas where they can improve - and as long as they are trying to do so, they're on the right track!

3. Train Employees On How To Give - And Receive - Feedback

One problem with feedback is that employees often give feedback in staggeringly different ways. One project manager, for example, may focus on giving only positive feedback, and avoid negative comments altogether. But another project manager might almost exclusively focus on areas where employees can improve.

This disconnect fosters a sense of fear and dread about feedback - because employees don't know what to expect from each other, or their managers.

Because of this, it's important to train employees on how to give and receive feedback. If everyone gets on the same page, it's much easier to communicate.

4. Start From The Top-Down

Change always starts from the top. If you really want a positive feedback culture, your C-suite execs, VPs, and other important managers must be serious about encouraging change. They should ask for feedback from each other, and give feedback - all up and down your organizational hierarchy.

As employees begin to notice this, they will feel more comfortable giving feedback to each other and their managers - encouraging a more open, honest work environment.

5. Encourage Honesty In Employees - And Make Them Feel Safe

A feedback culture only works if employees feel they can be honest. And if employees think they will be punished for sharing their honest opinions, your feedback culture is broken.

Encourage employees to be honest about their feelings, and encourage a "feedback-safe" environment. Emphasize that they will not face any kind of negative repercussions for sharing honest feedback with you, or their colleagues.

You should also understand that different people have different levels of Emotional Intelligence - and some are going to be more (or less) comfortable giving feedback. Be respectful - don't force feedback from these people.

6. Create Clear, Reasonable Feedback Guidelines - And Follow Them

Setting feedback guidelines helps standardize the process, and makeS employees feel more comfortable. You should outline things like:

● Who gives feedback to who?
● How often should feedback be given?
● How do we give feedback? Is there an official process?
● What is the goal of each feedback session?

7. Practice What You Preach

The only way to create a feedback culture is to put in the work - every day. Practice always makes you perfect - and unless you "practice what you preach" and work to make a positive feedback culture a reality, your efforts will fail.

Integrate feedback into your daily operations, meetings, and more. Ask your employees how you can make the process of giving and receiving feedback more efficient, and how they feel about its integration into their day-to-day work.

Yep, that's right - the best way to build a feedback culture is to ask for employee feedback! It's ironic, but it's true!

8. Utilize Multiple Feedback Channels

You shouldn't have just one formal system for employees to give each other feedback. Different people prefer different modes of communication - one employee may be fine with giving feedback face-to-face, for example, while another may prefer to send their feedback online.

It's best to use a mix of online and face-to-face feedback,- as well as both group and individual feedback. If you give your feedback online the receiver has time to think about the context, afterwards you'll be able to go deeper into the feedback face-to-face. Keeping things varied and diverse helps each employee find their "groove" and see what form of feedback they prefer to use.

9. Balance Both Positive And Corrective Feedback - But Don't Be Negative

Feedback is not all "sunshine and rainbows." At some point, you're going to have to give some corrective feedback and constructive criticism. No employee is perfect - and unless they understand mistakes or errors they have made, they won't be able to improve.

But this doesn't mean you have to be harsh or cruel about delivering corrective feedback. When delivering corrective feedback, focus first on what an employee or colleague is doing well. Emphasize their achievements and accomplishments - then discuss what could use improvement.

Avoiding negativity is so important. When employees begin to feel negatively about giving - and receiving - feedback, your entire feedback culture breaks down. Make sure you address areas of improvement, but deliver criticism with a light touch.

10. Highlight Decisions Made Based On Feedback

Feedback that does not influence business decisions seems useless and pointless - that's just a fact. So when you do make a decision based on someone's feedback, you should let them know.

Don't just focus on communicating the change itself - tell them why you made the changes based on their feedback. This makes them feel like what they say truly matters - encouraging future feedback, in turn!

If you don't bother communicating why you make business changes - or worse, you don't make changes based on feedback at all - you will never be able to build a positive feedback culture. People hate feeling like they're being ignored, or their efforts are being wasted, so they'll just give up on providing feedback to you.

Follow These Top 10 Tips - Start Nurturing A Positive Feedback Culture At Work Today!

Creating a positive workplace culture focused on feedback is a wonderful thing. And, like most wonderful things, it's not easy! But with these 10 handy tips, you're sure to be on the right track.

Next to these tips to create a positive feedback culture, an online feedback tool might help to nurture feedback into the workplace. TruQu offers an online tool that makes it easy for your employees to ask and receive feedback from colleagues, managers and clients. If you want to know how TruQu can help your organization you can request a free guided demonstration!

Get a guided demonstration

Think about how you can incorporate these simple pieces of advice and a feedback tool into your day-to-day work, and you'll be astonished at how your work environment improves!

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10 Tips On How To Establish A Positive Feedback Culture At Work - TruQu

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Every manager wants to make their company more effective, and encourage employees to give each other, positive feedback. But it can be hard to create this culture, especially at larger corporations. Too often, feedback of any kind is dreaded and seen as negative. At worst, some employees may even consider feedback to be useless and irrelevant.

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Unfortunately, feedback-driven cultures at organizations across various industries are a rarity. And I hate to say it, but the ever-present 360 feedback programs are often a major waste of time, money, and unfulfilled expectations.

The truth is, most goal-oriented people want to experience an impactful and actionable feedback program, but find that six to 12 months later little or nothing from it has changed or improved them. So it loses interest and staying power.

Why? Two reasons. First, most feedback exercises aren't specific enough to focus on skills and behaviors and improve upon them. They are often interesting personality-based exercises that tell you a little about yourself, your style, and your traits. Beyond that, they lack in specific, actionable ways to seriously impact personal and professional development.

The second more significant reason is that the company has not established a true feedback culture. Specifically, a non-threatening, inspiring and motivational culture based on candor, openness, and ongoing developmental feedback that goes from top to bottom.

In short, without a truly "blessed from the top" feedback culture in an organization, professional growth suffers. As a result, a company's biggest asset, its human capital, doesn't feel like they're maximally growing and developing. The byproduct of this cycle is often decreased productivity and lower morale, which doesn't serve either party.

FACT: Approximately 40 percent of employees, based on surveys, feel they're not appreciated at work, and without ongoing feedback, aren't engaged and committed as much as they could be.

So why is it so difficult to establish a feedback culture? To start, an effective feedback program should not be a vehicle to criticize, evaluate or demoralize its people. It should be geared to develop, grow, motivate and energize talent.

In order to bypass stagnant professional development, organizations must engage and inspire employees and staff.

Looking to win big with an effective feedback culture? Here are 12 musts that will set the foundation for feedback that promotes professional development, while galvanizing the strength of any organization.

Start at the very top. The CEO must formally announce that the organization is now establishing a total feedback culture. This means that constructive feedback, openness, candor, and communication empathy will drive the culture of the organization moving forward.

Be Explicit. Organizations and top-level management need to be specific with overall feedback culture objectives, including norms, scope, style of interfacing among people, and timeframes. Define what a feedback culture means at your organization and don't be subtle. This may include conducting ongoing praise sessions, motivational criticism, and goal-setting geared to develop people to the fullest. Try getting employees to buy in and help sell the value and benefits of this culture to their colleagues, too.

Include Goal Setting. Apply goals, time parameters, and annual re-assessing to the feedback program. A sound feedback culture is not just motivational and energizing, it actually sets specific, attainable goals and timeframes for achieving these goals. Customized training and follow-up coaching should be set to further develop employees as well as annually reassessing staff to measure improvement and identify future development needs.

Make Everyone Accountable. As part of the annual performance appraisal meeting, request that each person present to their bosses a specific summary of how they have incorporated feedback and motivational tools to develop their people. Reward the people who demonstrate excellence in enhancing the feedback culture, and attaining results.

Make Feedback a Two-Way Street. A truly effective feedback culture shouldn't just be bosses giving feedback to subordinates, but subordinates giving feedback to bosses and other relevant colleagues as well. Once you establish this culture, feedback and coaching will be the
norm, not the exception.

Make Active Listening Your Feedback Foundation. Remember and implement the two essential listening techniques in your feedback culture. First, the 20/80 Rule - speak 20 percent of the time and listen 80 percent of the time. Second, SOTT - Stay On Their Track. When somebody speaks, ask questions and comment on what they said, don't drift to your track or take over the conversation. It is important to note active listening isn't just for work, it is for when you are at home, in the community - with everybody.

A feedback culture is the way of the future for progressive organizations. But it doesn't automatically evolve just because it is announced. It's a constant work in progress, but this work is well worth it. When people feel that feedback is the norm and welcomed, and a way of life in the organization, everybody gains - your organization, its reputation, productivity and your bottom line. Good luck!

Roger E. Flax, Ph.D. is the President and Founder of Horizon Talent Developer™, an internet-based feedback and mentoring program his firm licenses to organizations to support Learning Development Directors, Executives, Human Resources Professionals, Talent Management and Development Directors and more. As an executive coach, speaker, and corporate consultant, he has impacted millions of business professionals through leadership training. He founded one of America's most successful leadership development consulting firms in 1970 which has conducted thousands of programs in five continents for more than 400 companies. He has been featured on TV, radio and in print media outlets including ABC, CBS, Entrepreneur, FORTUNE, NBC, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and many others regarding talent development, motivational feedback, and effective presentations training.

To learn more about Horizon Talent Developer™ and how to successfully integrate a feedback development tool and feedback culture into your organization, view the HTD information piece and video here.

, Horizon Productions Enterprise, LLC.

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How to Develop a Feedback Culture: 12 Must‑Read Tips | Horizon Talent Developer™

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Unfortunately, feedback-driven cultures at organizations across various industries are a rarity. And I hate to say it, but the ever-present 360 feedback programs are often a major waste of time, money, and unfulfilled expectations.

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Performance feedback is essential for the growth and improvement of all organizations. In order to be effective, however, the feedback must be constructive and fair. Many leaders are reluctant to provide feedback because they feel inadequate for the task, are concerned about harming feelings, have a skewed view of the situation, or just have poor leadership skills.

However, it has been proven that good feedback enhances employee performance. The first step to creating a feedback culture is to equip leaders to provide constant feedback. Over time, this will cultivate an environment within their organizations where feedback is the norm. Providing leaders with a simple framework to structure their feedback provides a strong start. We propose a simple, three step model.

One of the most effective ways to ensure that feedback is fair and accurate is to incorporate calibration into the evaluation process.

Three-Step Feedback Model
The first consideration for improving employee performance and ultimately achieving a real, tangible change is to establish a clear expectation for this change and a detailed plan to carry it out. The most important aspects that must be measured in terms of observable performance include capability, attitude, and context. These can be translated into a three-step feedback formula:

1. The first step of the process is "tell me why it matters," in which the leader should make it clear why the topic is worthy of attention and effort. People will be more likely to work toward positive change if they understand the purpose and value of their task.

2. The second step is the actual delivery of the relevant information on the observable performance, or "tell me how I did it." Performance must be evaluated so that employees know what they did right and what they did wrong.

3. Finally, the leader must create the expectations for future performance, or "tell me what to do." This involves reinforcing the good behaviors, or explaining changes that need to be made in the future. It is important for the leader to only choose one or two things for the employee to improve on. It is better to focus on improving in a few important areas than to overwhelm employees with too many changes at once.

Calibration in Evaluation
The three-step employee feedback formula assumes that the leader has an accurate perspective on what needs to change. One of the most effective ways to ensure that feedback is fair and accurate is to incorporate calibration into the evaluation process. Calibration is the process of reviewing and comparing performance of several individuals. Companies should apply it to increase the accuracy of assessment and feedback.

One form of calibration is to ask for input from other sources in addition to the customers. Although customer input is valuable, it usually focuses more on service levels than actual performance. Data will be more diverse and accurate if the company also collects information from its stakeholders and other sources.

The second source of calibration the company should apply is comparing employees with peers who are at similar roles and levels, as well as those in different ones. This will give leaders a more overarching idea of how people are performing within the company as a whole, rather than just their own department.

Another form of calibration is to ask leaders at the highest level to offer their evaluations because it is beneficial to have the input from a qualified, knowledgeable person in the organization. It is also rewarding to compare employees' performance with their performance from the prior year to ensure that they are making personal improvements.

Finally, leaders can calibrate against the standards and norms of the industry by attending external conferences and events, as well as keeping in touch with prospective company candidates and others outside the organization. It is important to make comparisons with the outside world in order to make sure the organization is advancing along with others its industry.

The first step people can take to prevent the influence of bias in their lives is to admit that it exists within them.

The Role of Human Resources
It is the role of HR to design and implement the processes that are most impactful for individual and organizational performance. Feedback is one of them. HR must create a detailed evaluation process to make sure the managers' feedback is fair and accurate. This is a difficult task because, in general, human performance is a messy business. It is even more difficult because everyone has personal biases. The human brain is wired to make quick, efficient survival decisions. As a result, people must be aware that it is their first instinct to take mental shortcuts to prevent cognitive overload. These shortcuts often take the form of stereotypes, rules of thumb, and biases.

The first step people can take to prevent the influence of bias in their lives is to admit that it exists within them. Three of the most common types of bias within organizations are social bias, cognitive bias, and organizational bias. Using a structured, consistent method of evaluation leaders can reduce these biases, which will result in more accurate and fair feedback to their employees. Thus, instead of letting the leaders invent their own methods and standards for feedback, HR should put in place clear guidelines and create correct expectations for collecting, calibrating, and delivering accurate, fair, and focused feedback.

By formally training leaders in structuring feedback, by requiring calibration and by driving awareness of cognitive biases, Human Resources will hardwire a culture of feedback overtime.

People experience the culture of a company through the behaviors of their managers. Those behaviors are fomented by the organizational hard-wiring (processes, structures, metrics, etc.) and the company's leadership. HR is responsible for both. By dialing up the culture of feedback, we are strengthening the culture of performance.

Sergey Gorbatov, Adjunct Professor of Human Resources & Organizational Behavior at IE Business School, and Angela M. Lane, Vice President of Talent at AbbVie.

© IE Insights.

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Making a Feedback Culture a Reality - Corporate Relations

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Performance feedback is essential for the growth and improvement of all organizations. In order to be effective, however, the feedback must be constructive and fair. Many leaders are reluctant to provide feedback because they feel inadequate for the task, are concerned about harming feelings, have a skewed view of the situation, or just have poor leadership skills.

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Simplest and straightforward principles

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Feedback's power is impressive. It can aid in molding employees and guiding them toward a fulfilling career path. It can improve motivation and engagement. However, for many offices around the U.S., feedback can be a scary word associated with stressful annual meetings. While likely no one relishes the pressure associated with an annual meeting, there are other ways to offer feedback. If you've ever wondered how to create a feedback culture with your organization, it is important to know that it starts with the people.

How to create a feedback culture? Stick to these eight golden principles:

1.Recruit employees open to feedback.

Culture is people, so it's important to begin screening new employees to be open to a feedback-rich culture. Look for potential hires that are life-long learners. These people have what's called a ' growth mindset'. Employees that respond more positively to a feedback culture will search out knowledge and improvement on their own.

2. Train your employees to give feedback correctly.

You can't just throw your employees into the fray. That's not how to create a feedback culture. Feedback is not a natural talent but a skill that needs to be cultivated. No one is born knowing the right way to offer feedback. Improper feedback can come across as demotivating, discouraging, and all around frustrating for employees. Investing in training to give your employees the tools to give critical, helpful feedback is a crucial step. Set your employees up for success. It is important to remember that while your employees may be open to feedback during the training; it needs to be implemented in the day-to-day office culture as well.

3. Create safe spaces to receive feedback.

To do this, you need to offer your employees opportunities to get to know one another. Learning about their co-workers on an individual level can help them understand the right way to deliver feedback. It also creates a sense of trust and understanding among your employees which will help foster positive encounters.

4. Let your employees say, "Not right now".

Feedback shouldn't be forced upon employees that are not responsive to it. Sometimes, it's just the wrong time to hear something critical, even if it needs to be said. Give your employees the option to say, "Later please," and stick to it. They'll be more receptive when you do speak with them, and you'll keep reinforcing that you respect their boundaries. It's important for your employees to learn how to create a feedback culture as much as you and part of that is setting boundaries.

5. Give more positive feedback than negative critiques.

Often when people hear the word 'feedback', they think of negative feedback. While this is a necessary element of a feedback culture, you should be offering far more positive praise. Not only does it motivate your employees, but it keeps them open-minded about hearing criticisms because they'll know that you see all of the good work they do too.

Research shows that the most positive long-term relationships have a balance of five positive interactions to one negative one. This is a good rule of thumb to keep in mind when you're interacting with and offering feedback.

6. Do not tie feedback to compensation.

This might be one of the most important principles for how to create a feedback culture. For many offices, employees dread feedback because it is tied to compensation in the form of an annual review. Feedback needs to be divorced from compensation otherwise you will likely find your employees resistant to the idea. No one wants to hear critiques of their work if they think that will impact how much their raise will be. Feedback should only be delivered in a constructive and supportive environment that's aimed toward improving your employees' skills and achieving their career goals.

7. Live what you teach.

To have a true feedback culture, you cannot be exempt. As a manager, you will have to ask for feedback. The key; however, is afterwards to show that you're taking steps to enact changes in response to the feedback. You want to show that your employees' opinions matter to you so that they will respect your feedback as well.

8. Vary the feedback types.

Not all feedback is appropriate for all situations. To create a feedback culture, encourage and use different forms and delivery methods for feedback. Annual reviews is a classic example of feedback but there is also 360-degree feedback (or another permutation), face-to-face, in a meeting, or through a performance management tool like emplo.

Learning how to create a feedback culture is a process.

It might not all be smooth sailing if you're trying to change the inherent culture of your office, so here are a few tips to help ease some of the speed bumps along the way.

Feedback isn't scary. And it shouldn't be. Often feedback is built up into this big thing that is held behind closed doors, but it can be casual. It can be an offhand comment made in the break room if you've sufficiently developed a feedback culture.

Feedback can happen anywhere. Along the same lines, make a habit to give feedback anywhere. Feedback doesn't require a scheduled meeting.

Notice and reward effort and not just results. You should be paying attention to your employees' activities as a whole and not just the results. Sometimes the results are out of the hands of your employee. If you can see that they're trying hard to meet goals, note that and praise them for it.
Notice and reward effort and not just results. Click To Tweet
Stay attuned to your employees' emotional states. Sometimes it's not the right time to give feedback. That doesn't mean if your employee is having a bad day, you should never talk to them about something, but giving them some space to come to a calm mental state will help.

Learning how to create a feedback culture can seem daunting, but approaching it with the right attitude and training will help guide the way. Once you have established a strong feedback culture, you'll likely be surprised to see an entire shift in your employees' demeanor. They will be more engaged, happy, and ready to tackle new challenges because they'll be in a supported environment.

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8 Golden Principles for Creating a Feedback Culture | Emplo

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Feedback's power is impressive. It can aid in molding employees and guiding them toward a fulfilling career path. It can improve motivation and engagement. However, for many offices around the U.S., feedback can be a scary word associated with stressful annual meetings.

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When it comes to getting the most out of your employee feedback data, benchmarks for comparison are an important tool. External industry benchmarks provide valuable, relevant and timely context that empower People and HR teams to make more informed decisions.

We're delighted to share that Culture Amp's 2018 Employee Engagement benchmarks are now available. These datasets are powered by our entire community's collective intelligence, allowing you to tap into the experience of employees working at 1200+ companies across more than 120 industries.

What's new for our 2018 employee engagement benchmarks

With a significant increase in the number of customers using our platform to measure employee engagement, we've doubled the number of benchmarks available to our customers this year.

Benchmarks range from our traditional speciality benchmarks like New Tech through to Retail, Healthcare, Finance and geographic locations around the world. If you're interested in seeing a full list of 2018 benchmarks available within our platform, you can see them on our Customer Academy here.

A few insights for People Geeks

It's our goal to share the collective workplace experience of Culture Amp customers with our broader people geek community.

What follows are initial insights from this year's benchmark data - covering what's impacting engagement, to where employees are most engaged, what employees are talking about, and how to choose the right benchmark for you.

What's impacting employee engagement across all companies?

When we look across all companies, learning and development, leadership, and service quality are the most common factors impacting employee engagement. Perceptions of learning and development opportunities and leadership have been top drivers of employee engagement since we started creating these benchmarks for our customers in 2011.

Where are employees most engaged?
Regional insight
Employees in Asia are notably more engaged than employees in other regions.

This is mostly driven by their intention to stay with their company for the longer-term.

Industry insight
There is relatively low variation in employee engagement scores across industries. While the gap in employee engagement between the lowest scoring industries and those with the highest levels of engagement is less than 10% points it is still valuable to understand the workplace norms in your industry.

Finance, New Tech and Professional Services industries are among those industries with slightly higher engagement scores. Take a look at engagement levels within your industry here.

What are employees talking about?

Using Culture Amp's advanced text analytics features available to customers, we're able to look across all employee comments over the past year. We organized the comments into themes/topics and differentiated by sentiment (see below).

Just as we see in most individual company datasets, there are slightly more negative comments on the whole. People tend to use comments more for talking about things they are unhappy with. The most commented topics overall were collaboration, work life balance/imbalance and recognition.

Comments around systems and resources and pay tend to be most negative, and leadership and learning and development most favorable. The small green bubble over to the right are the small percentage of people who just report feeling good about things.

How to choose the right benchmark

When choosing a benchmark for comparison, look for one with references to your talent pool (where your people are coming from and going to). For organizations looking to compete against the companies who attract the best talent and create the most successful work environments, our Engaging Growth benchmark is a great fit.

The Engaging Growth benchmark consists of companies from a range of industries that are growing quickly but are also maintaining high levels of engagement and retention. They're showing they can attract and retain talent and they are often the main competition for your best people.

Not surprisingly, these companies enjoy more positive employee feedback across most workplace factors. They get most of the basics right, and differentiate within factors such as Leadership, teamwork and learning and development.

So, if you want to step up to compete against these companies, teamwork, leadership capabilities and contributing to employee learning and development are great places to start.

Where to go to learn more

If you're a Culture Amp customer who'd like to get access to the latest Culture Amp benchmarks for your employee surveys, reach out to support@cultureamp.com.

Hear more from our Chief Scientist, Dr. Jason McPherson on how to use benchmarks

You can also connect with us to learn how we make it easy for culture-focused companies to collect, understand and act on employee feedback.

We'll be sharing more articles over the next few months, drawing on the wealth of employee experience captured on the Culture Amp platform.
Subscribe to our newsletter, the People Geekly, to get updates.

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Insights from Culture Amp's 2018 employee benchmarks

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When it comes to getting the most out of your employee feedback data, benchmarks for comparison are an important tool. External industry benchmarks provide valuable, relevant and timely context that empower People and HR teams to make more informed decisions. We're delighted to share that Culture Amp's 2018 Employee Engagement benchmarks are now available.

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"Confidence in leadership is the top driver of engagement for these fast-growing and highly engaged companies." Summary: The Engaging Growth benchmark is made up of companies from a range...