Making 360s Better and Easier to Use

Mar 6

Leaders frequently report that comments are the best part of a 360 because comments focus their efforts and provide valuable advice to enable change. To succeed, a 360 should encourage these comments and should:

Be easily adapted and customized
Motivate and develop individuals
Track progress and improvement

I recently tested Produgie’s new 360 features, including AI augmented feed forward. The new 360 is easy to use, makes it easier for colleagues to provide comments, and motivates individual action and improvement.

Use AI to Augment Feed Forward

Produgie asks colleagues to provide Feed Forward (advice, suggestions, and actions to take) to individuals to help them improve in targeted areas. To test this, I created a custom 360 for a fictional ‘School of Witchcraft and Wizardry’ and asked for input.

The Produgie AI tool helped my colleagues give suggestions and advice, even in the unusual competency area of ‘Spell Casting’. The AI uses the competency definitions, your typed in comments and its training to make suggestions you can use. You can edit the comments and the AI uses this to suggest further advice.

Create a Custom 360

I created my custom 360 by uploading an image of my competency model and by using Produgie’s 100% Definition methodology. This methodology is different from other 360s in that it focuses on defining ideal outcomes for a competency area and having colleagues rate against those ideal outcomes. This results in fewer ratings and an increased focus helping the individual develop in future.

My custom 360 included 100% definitions for Courage, Resourceful, Honorable, and Spell Casting and took about 25 minutes to create.

Enhance Reporting

The new standard Growth Leader 360 report has been enhanced and now includes new features to help leaders focus their efforts and develop new skills.

The remapping feature allows companies to map the standard report to their company’s competency framework and definitions. In less than 10 minutes, I was able to map Produgie’s definitions to Organisation Solutions’ values and definitions.

Empower Leaders, Track Progress

Produgie allows individuals to administer full or partial 360s on a quarterly basis. For example, a leader could complete a full 360 in January and identify 1-2 competencies to develop. In April, the leader could readminister the 360 but only include the 1-2 targeted competencies to measure progress. They could then readminister the partial or full 360 in August to track progress.

To have impact, 360s should provide insight, develop new capabilities, and motivate leaders. These new features go a long way to close the 360 gaps. Colleagues can more easily provide advice, companies can customize their 360s, and leaders can get regular, constructive input to accelerate their development.

Dr. James Eyring is the Chief Executive Officer of Organisation Solutions and leads the global consulting practice. In addition, he specialises in leadership and talent management and works with companies and executives to build capabilities they need to fuel future growth. As part of his role, he provides coaching to global and top regional leaders.