SUCCESS STORIES
Open feedback is transformative for employees & managers
Industry: Industrial supplies (chemicals)
Use cases: Conversations of Shared Purpose
Turning a potential negative into a positive opportunity
This large organisation was going through a de-merger, which was very worrying for its staff. The leadership team wanted to turn a potential negative into a positive opportunity – by focusing on defining what employees thought would make a great place to work, and then delivering on that.
Attributed, not anonymous feedback
In a conscious move, they used an attributed approach (i.e. participant responses were not anonymous) to use the feedback as an opportunity for sparking positive conversations about their workplace. All the team leaders got to see their people’s feedback, which they used to initiate individual conversations over this period of significant change. It turned out no-one was particularly worried about putting their names against their feedback and they got a huge response rate from their staff of 200.
Making feedback a positive process
Now, twice a year they had the opportunity to talk to their staff about their feedback, reminding staff they were being listened to. It also gave managers the chance to seek further clarification and to share their own views.
An absolute highlight was that one manager said it was the most transformative process he’d been through on a personal level. By talking to people directly, bringing any issues out into the open, and providing the opportunity to get his ideas across. He found it to be a positive bonding process with his team and where he learnt a whole lot more than they did.