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The 60-Second Consultant
A minute of wisdom
Current Edition
#10: 22 July 2008
The Importance Of Looking Backwards
By Timothy Bentley
I went sail-boarding on the weekend for the first time in years. It was a blast!
Sail-boarding (or wind-surfing) means balancing on a narrow board while rocking on the waves, and using a hand-held sail to propel yourself - preferably without being blown overboard.
I love this sport. It's clean, mobile, silent (except for the bubbling wake at the stern), and puts me in touch with the wind and the water.
Always Look Back
But this time there was a problem. I was visiting a lake I'd never seen before. And I was very excited, putting all my effort into not falling off.
I forgot to look back.
I didn't check how the dock I'd just left, looked. I didn't identify its location on the bay. That's important because everything seems different from the water.
After an hour, the wind began to die, I needed to use the remaining puffs of breeze to navigate back. But every cottage looked the same.
I was utterly lost, touring from dock to dock to dock.
After I visited many cottages that turned out not to belong to my friends, someone pointed me in the right direction. I arrived at my friends' cottage just before the wind died for good.
The point is, I never know where I'm going unless I know where I've been.
360 That Looks Backward
Next time you plan a 360-degree feedback project, consider providing your employees with a comparison of their results against the results from last year.
If you're running training courses, provide participants with before-and-after 360s.
Comparative reporting takes only a little extra effort. But there's a huge benefit.
It provides the recipients with a graphic view of the dock they left behind. It helps them see where they have improved their performance since then, and areas where they may have slipped.
It updates them, in other words, on where they need to focus, in order to achieve their goals.
Think of it as sail-boarding for the corporate environment.
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