Consulting Tools: 360 Assessment

I work with organizations to design and develop the instrument, coordinate the process, deliver the 360 reports, and facilitate the feedback sessions. Facilitating 360 feedback workshops for groups has proven to be effective as managers engage in structured conversation to integrate the information and make plans for going forward.

20/20 Insight created by Performance Support Systems is my preferred tool. It is the most flexible, usable, customizable, and affordable survey I’ve found.

Clients can use a standard set of leadership, management, team, consultant, or individual competency sets. You can also select only those relevant to your needs, change items that use your vocabulary, or design entirely new competencies.

Most instruments list a leadership competency followed by several behaviors that fall in that category. When raters give a number from 1-5 (best to worst) on the resulting paragraph, you can’t tell which specific behavior is being assessed. Did the rater give a 3 meaning that some of the behaviors were good, some bad? Or did it mean that all the behaviors listed were average?

The survey is available via the web, paper, or email.

Reports can be customized in many ways. Multiple scales for rating are available (satisfaction, performance, importance, etc.). Raters can add comments after each item in addition to the numerical rating. Open-ended questions can be added at the end of the survey to gather general comments from raters.

360s work when:

  • There is a climate of trust in the organization

  • The results are used for development not for ranking, pay, or promotion

  • The competencies are approved by representatives of the group being rated

  • The raters are introduced to effective ways to give feedback

  • Those rated (subjects) are given one or more ways to improve such as tools, processes, mentoring, and coaching.

  • Those rated are provided guidance in how to let their raters know what they learned and what they will do with that information.

    • Studies show that if the person rated says nothing after getting her results, the raters estimation of them diminishes. If she says she is working on improving and, in fact, she is working on it, she goes up in their estimation even if nothing has changed.

    Please contact me to discuss if 360 is an viable option for you.

    Meg Ellis Uncategorized