tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5630868552763441178.post2698880313830674288..comments2008-02-20T17:54:11.434-05:00Dan McCarthyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12634914124037453298noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5630868552763441178.post-57104051318306700042008-02-20T11:17:00.000-05:002008-02-20T11:17:00.000-05:00Dan, hey again. I hope it's evident from my final two paragraphs that we, too, see FeedForward (or, as we call it in our Firm, Behavioral Experiments) as complimentary to the 360/multirater process. It's a wonderful one-two combo that's worked great for us since we began using multirater tools in 1987.Mark Brennerwww.tgcpinc.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5630868552763441178.post-41529018187032348202008-02-15T16:58:35.030-05:002008-02-15T16:58:35.030-05:00Mark - <BR/><BR/>Thanks for your comments. Sure, I'm a big advocate of using 360s for development too. I've also recently started using the feedforward exercise as a follow-up to 360s, along with other techniques, to help managers get moving on taking action on their feedback. It’s helped - for all the reasons Marshall points to, they find it energizing and valuable. So I don’t see it as a replacement, but rather as complimentary.<BR/><BR/>DanDan McCarthyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12634914124037453298noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5630868552763441178.post-19214655677692431632008-02-13T18:48:00.000-05:002008-02-13T18:48:00.000-05:00Marshall uses a misleading device here to make his point and promote his branded tool (FeedForward). He, in effect, takes on a long-established developmental tool (360/multirater instruments) and debunks it, trying to make the case for how inferior it is to his own developmental device. <BR/><BR/>He pretty much throws everything but the kitchen sink at multiraters so, in the service of brevity, let's just take a look at a couple of the spears he hurls. For one, he wants us to buy that "a focus on the past...is limited and static...while a focus on the future is expansive and dynamic." Yet, one of the cornerstones of personality functioning is that the best predictor of future behavior is past behavior--plain and simple. <BR/><BR/>Consequently, being able to survey our coaching candidate's "audience" with a 360 tool is invaluable in creating a comprehensive and textured understanding of our candidate's performance strengths, blindspots, and overall EQ profile. As a coach, you're simply driving blind without it. How else can we know what the highest impact targets are for refining our candidate's performance strategies?<BR/><BR/>Further, Marshall's assertion that people (and especially "highly successful people") can't handle this kind of pointed, candid feedback simply does not square with our own experience working intensively with hundreds of executives and managers. These are very hale and hardy folks who are eager to do whatever is required of them to become even more successful and even bigger contributors to their respective organizations' success than in the past.<BR/><BR/>Marshall says he finds high performers "resisting, rejecting, and denying feedback." We do not have this experience with our coaching candidates. But, keep in mind that the 360 data, in and of itself, is no solution--it's merely a tool. The practitioner using the tool must be highly skilled at harnessing the data as the medium for facilitating a genuinely developmental process with the coaching candidate.<BR/><BR/>One final clarifying comment. The kind of 360 data we collect is primarily qualitative in nature (not numeric ratings). Consequently, what we're collecting are many dozens of behavioral vignettes from the candidate's 360 respondents that, when aggregated, create a vivid picture of how s/he functions in the work environment.<BR/><BR/>Then, the real developmental work begins. Marshall calls the process "FeedForward." We call them Behavioral Experiments (BE). The BE's target the highest impact developmental opportunities that emerge from the 360 data and which then serve to get our candidate out of their comfort zone, by refining their behavioral strategies for leading their organization.<BR/><BR/>Multirater feedback and BE's are the one-two punch required to deliver the kind of development gains that our clients are looking for from the coaching process. We don't go anywhere without our 360 tools!Mark Brennerwww.tgcpinc.comnoreply@blogger.com