Chapter Five
Creating Champions
Selling the Idea to Others in Your Organization
—Herb Cohen
We have described the use of 360 processes in organizations in which the most senior leaders have been highly visible in their support. In Lehman Brothers, where the Executive and Management Committee members participated in the pilot round of feedback implementation, in MetLife where the chairman, president, and CEO met with executives participating in development initiatives, and in Erie Insurance where the Executive Committee participated in the development of the competency model upon which their 360 was built, those accountable for implementing their feedback processes would agree that having that kind of involvement and level of support was invaluable to their success. If visible and credible members of the organization serve as role models, articulate the value to the organization, and participate in follow-up activities to ensure lasting change your ability to sell the idea of 360 in your organization is high. This, unfortunately, is not always the case.
While you may feel convinced of the importance of providing people in your organization with multi-source feedback, there are probably other decision-makers whose commitment you need to get the process moving. Creating champions of these decision makers and other stakeholders (people who need not actually sign off on the decision but whose commitment is required to implement the process successfully) ensures that the effort will get off to a good start and receive the continued support necessary to sustain it.
In organizations where open and honest multi-source feedback has not been the norm, people’s attitudes may be tinged with a fear of the unknown. But if your reasons for wanting to implement a 360-degree feedback program are the right ones, it should not matter that this is new territory. Although it was once seen as risky, 360-degree feedback is now widely accepted as an effective method of solving business problems. There is now considerable documentation available that will support your position.
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