Feedback : Individual Performance Improvement

PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENT : What’s the purpose of 360-degree feedback? What are probably the most powerful ways to utilize it? The technology for collecting and reporting multi-source feedback was developed in the 1980s. Its original purpose was to diagnose leadership performance improvement. By assessing an extensive set of skill areas, leaders obtained quantitative and qualitative details about strengths and areas that want improvement. Other innovative uses for multi-source feedback have evolved on the decades. However, when many people hear about 360-degree feedback, they still think of its traditional use: a worldwide diagnostic of competence and skill.

Performance Improvement Process

A more powerful application of 360-degree feedback goes beyond the diagnosis to guide changes in behavior. A doctor’s diagnosis can reveal the disease, but these records can’t cure it. Likewise, 360-degree feedback can identify priority areas for improvement, but these records isn’t enough to enhance work habits. Changing a behavior pattern may require instruction, followed closely by months of reinforcement. Try changing how you eat or how you swing a golf club. Tiger Woods made changes in his swing early in 2004, and he didn’t start to win again until almost annually later, after persisting through hours of practice every day.

The issue is that despite the most effective of intentions, when people try to complete things differently, initial attempts tend to feel awkward. When these efforts don’t achieve the desired result, frustration and discouragement follow. With no formal program of follow-through reinforcement and without support from the direct manager and others in the workplace, people tend to fall back about what feels familiar and comfortable. They eventually return for their old method of doing things. To achieve the desired changes in behavior, 360-degree feedback needs to be followed closely by almost a year of reinforcement, involving ongoing learning, ongoing feedback, coaching and accountability.

It requires that long for the brain cells to develop and reconnect into new pathways that are the physical basis for new behavior patterns. After people are ASSESSED in underdeveloped skill areas, they may need TRAINING. Either or these two interventions should be followed closely by a long period of REINFORCEMENT. This commonsense developmental sequence is the inspiration of what’s perhaps the most effective 360-degree application ever devised: VALIDATING INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENT. Used in this manner, 360-degree feedback works both as a diagnostic assessment and as an effective way to check whether weak areas have improved.

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Performance Improvement Plan

The concept is simple. First, integrate behavior-based assessment with behavior-based training. Then almost a year after training, follow through with a far more focused behavior-based assessment linked to the priority areas for improvement. Compare the pre-course scores with the post-course scores. Improved scores will indicate simply how much skills have improved. This method has significant benefits. First, the outcome in the pre-course diagnostic allow participants to get quantified, behavior-based performance improvement goals. Also, with the knowledge that follow-up assessments might be administered causes learners to be a little more focused and motivated since they help trainers—the optimal mindset for learning.

In addition, the post-course assessments give learners quantified and qualitative feedback regarding how they do since they seek to better their skills. Finally, doing it with post-course assessments creates accountability. The assessment results will document whether the individual has improved on-the-job performance improvement. Repeat post-course assessments is usually administered as desired to produce ongoing measures of performance improvement. To implement it, you may need a fully customizable 360-degree assessment system, considering that the assessment items should be tailored to exactly mirror the required behaviors taught in training.

To paraphrase, assessment and training has to be integrated. Also, the assessment is required to be affordable. Inexpensive unlimited assessment licenses for each person be able to provide learners each of the feedback they’ll need after training—without additional expense. For leadership development, many organizations makes use of the 20/20 Insight GOLD feedback software to manage the diagnostic assessment, identifying strong and weak areas. Then the exercise program is conducted to spotlight high-priority weak areas. Along with assessment and training, this process involves ongoing support with the structured amount reinforcement.

Performance Improvement in Healthcare

There’s no need to repeat the full diagnostic assessment to measure the amount performance has improved. Instead, post-course assessments only need concentrate on priority developmental areas. Since pre-course and post-course items are indifferent, scores is usually compared. This capability to measure improvements in performance improvement fulfills the need for ongoing feedback and accountability. The data brought to life by performance improvement assessment could also be used as an operating return-on-investment (ROI) calculation. For instance, believe that leadership skills account for half on the supervisor’s effectiveness.

Assessment scores showing the normal improvement from 6.4 (before assessment and training) to 7.7 (several months after) would indicate a 20% percent improvement. Since one half of a salary of $60,000 is $30,000, this company could be getting 20% more effectiveness with this cost, worth roughly $7,500—an effect often times greater (in dollars) than the buying price of people training. Simple ROI calculations like this can be locally. They may be made possible by pre-course/post-course performance improvement measurements powered by customizable 360-degree feedback.

The net income: global diagnostic assessments serve a great purpose any time you stick to learning and reinforcement. Combine an inexpensive, customizable 360-degree feedback technology by using a behavior-based leadership development curriculum, and you receive a fully integrated assessment, training and reinforcement system:

Focused, motivated learners
Ongoing feedback during reinforcement
Performance improvement accountability (Level 3 evaluation of training)
A quick opportinity for calculating ROI (Level 4 evaluation of training)

More essential, leaders are empowered to boost and ingrain their new skills after some time to produce PERMANENT, MEASURABLE CHANGES IN BEHAVIOR – the Holy Grail of leadership development. At the conclusion, how well your managers lead affects the gospel truth – and every aspect from your organization. Along with the huge amounts of dollars invested annually in leadership development, organizations need a method to demonstrate whether these programs have been changing behavior. Using multi-source feedback to measure performance improvement is the simplest way to quantify the return with regards to your investment.