What's wrong with anonymous 360 degree feedback?
On the web today there are literally hundreds of 360 degree feedback systems for sale, and nearly all of them use the carrot of anonymity as an incentive for individuals to give "honest" feedback. They claim that this is essential to the process working well, and 360 achieving its vision of increasing teamwork and raising business performance.
Yet the reality is that in many businesses anonymous 360 does the opposite: it undermines trust and reinforces the blame culture.
Experience shows that there are two "killer arguments" against 360 feedback:
- People who can lay the blame for something at someone else's door tend not to think that their own behaviour might be part of the problem
- People who are told that they've been criticised anonymously tend to treat everyone with suspicion.
It can do immense harm for mature adults to be told that other employees have “issues” with them, yet they can’t be trusted to know who these people are. This makes them feel as if they are being treated like children, which often leads to demoralisation and psychological stress.
It's no surprise that stress now accounts for the largest item on companies’ bills for sick leave.
360 systems tend to reduce complex interpersonal behaviours to a series of depersonalised scoring systems on a scale of one to five, surrounded by bar-graphs, pie-charts and abstract management “geeky speak”. Many feel as if they have been hijacked by technicians who have lost sight of the original principles that inspired 360 degree feedback in the first place.
If you want examples of this, just log on to the website of the Booth Company where you will find behaviours pigeon-holed into "Visible Strength, Unrealised Strength, Soft Spot, Blind", or look at the website of Acumen Assessment Instruments that actually attempts to measure "potential counterproductive tendencies".
- Do people really use this sort of language at work? No.
- Is it meaningful to try to classify others in this way? No.
- Does it help us understand each other better, and want to engage with each other more in leaving behind unhelpful behaviours? No.
2WayTrust Feedback should help us get back to the original good intentions behind 360 degree feedback. It is underpinned by a series of clear principles that help people to have the integrity and bravery to say difficult things to others to their face.