Wednesday, March 25, 2009

SKIP – A Powerful tool for Self Transformation

The performance and results achieved by an organization, whether it is product or service based, are a direct reflection of the thinking, creativity, and efforts of its members. Optimizing the capabilities of every member of the organization makes good management sense. In our emerging "knowledge society," information on one's 'ability to deliver' is invaluable for staying sharp and responsive. 360° feedback awakens the need and strengthens the drive for increased productivity.
When organizations are growing at a rapid pace and there is a need to build good Managerial Traits among leaders. Many leading organizations have developed thier own leadership development programs, models at company level. I feel implementing some simple & effective Self Development tools like 360 degree feedback will really help in developing overall personality of every leader.

SKIP Program is intended to provide overall feedback by the team members/supervisors. SKIP feedback provides performance data from multiple points of reference, not just one. It can help to fill the gaps that invariably exist between how you see yourself and how others see you. Its purpose is, First, to gain deeper insight into how we, and others, see our performance and, Second, to reinforce and accelerate the need for continuous development.
Compared to traditional, single source feedback processes, 360° feedback is significantly more powerful, reliable, and accurate. The added dimension of 360° is its ability to compile multiple assessments from team members and contrast that data with your own self perceptions. Because it comes from a broader base of perception and interaction, it is less likely to be biased or skewed by one person's opinion.
SKIP feedback levels the playing field by soliciting input from a different sources: The Supervisors, peers and team members. The feedback tends to not only be more balanced, but harder to dismiss due to its' broader range of input and perspectives.

SKIP feedback strengthens accountability and self-management. When a person receives high quality, reliable feedback from team members/supervisor it highlights and reinforces the connection between individual performance and team results. Through a process of self assessment, teams can identify their developmental needs and provide their own direction for improving the level and quality of their performance.
SKIP Program methodology is very simple.

SKIP sessions need to be conducted by a well trained facilitator who is a neutral person and will not influence either on the feedback given by the team members/supervisor and captures the right messages. The person who is receiving the feedback will invite the team members, supervisors. All the members including the person who is receiving SKIP feedback will be called to a room and they will be briefed on the intent, format, Do’s & Don’t’s of the program. After the initial briefing the person receiving feedback leaves the room to enable the SKIP session. Its extremely essential to create a open minded & stress free environment to facilitate open discussions without any bias, prejudice, animity & hatredness towards the person receiving feedback. In these sessions confidentiality is of great importance and facilitator needs to take all people into confidence and ensure any views expressed during SKIP sessions will not become a topic of discussions in the organization.
Facilitator will initiate the discussion on the following points
What the Person should CONTINUE doing
What the Person must STOP doing
What the Person should START doing
All the discussions needs to be captured in on all the parameters, without reference to source such as person, instance, situation, story etc.
Once the feedback discussions are completed, the person will be called into the room and the data is shared with him/her in presence of the whole team. The person is free to respond and seek clarification only from facilitator and not with anyone.
The person will take action points based on the inputs given by the team and committs himself/herself to work in improvement areas.

This simple process can actually transform the overall organizational culture and can really bring in fairness, transperency and openness. SKIP can truly become an exploration journey of human transformation. This also reinforces the fact that one need to comapre only with yourself and not with others, because no two people are equal and their priorities, goals & aspirations can be completely different.

SKIP can be the first step towards igniting change from within to become a true professional.

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