The 3sixty Blog

From the makers of www.get3sixty.com.

[get3sixty]

New style welcome screen with better analytics

A couple of weeks ago, we launched a new style dashboard which allows you to really easily understand your strengths and development areas, as well as allowing you to drill down and see all of your feedback in one place.

Once you’ve created a role, sent a feedback request, and started receive feedback, you’ll see your goals listed in order from highest average rating to lowest, as well as information about minimum and maximum ratings for each goal. Clicking a goal will drill down into the detailed feedback against that goal, again sorted highest to lowest rating. This same view is available in the Feedback, Role and Feedback Request tabs - just choose ‘summary’ view.

Sign in, give it a whirl and let us know what you think!

[get3sixty]

Quicker and easier feedback with auto chase

3sixty can now automatically chase up your requests for feedback from your colleagues. With your permission, we'll automatically send a maximum of two reminder e-mails to each person you've asked for feedback.

If you've got an appraisal coming up, or you're on a deadline, this feature is a life saver - just request the feedback and let us do the chasing.

Just tick 'automatically chase this feedback request' when you create your next feedback request.

[get3sixty]

Marelisa @ lifehack.org:

Although it sounds a bit macabre, writing your own obituary—or asking a friend or a family member to do it for you—can be an excellent wake-up call that can help you make important changes in your life.

When we're planning the 50,000ft, long term, existential view of our lives, taking a quick look back at the life stretching out before you is an effective way of getting things in perspective.

As both my mum and wife have pointed out: "Worked hard" is not something that looks good on a grave stone.

[get3sixty]

Asking yourself: Why?

When was the last time you stopped what you're doing and asked yourself why you're doing it?

It's often tempting to JFDI, and crack on with a project. Get it delivered, we're told. Just get it done.

But stopping to ask "why?" is probably the single most important thing you can do to make that project a success. Far from being a waste of time or a procrastination, stopping to ask yourself why you're doing the project can save time, money and heartache later.

By asking "why?", we make sure that the project is actually worthwhile in the first place.

By asking "why?", we understand the real, underlying agenda, not just the headline.

By asking "why?", we can make sure we answer the right question.

Examples of not doing this are easy to come by. The middle manager who delivers a strategy paper that misses the mark. The team who just follows the process and ticks the boxes. Or, dare I say it, the procurement specialist who wastes 6 months and a hundred grand trying to select a product because they didn't understand it was foregone conclusion...

[get3sixty]

Your annual review just got a whole lot easier

A couple of days ago, 3sixty launched a new feature that we hope is going to make your life easier: Feedback Requests.

If like me and millions of others around the world you have regular annual, 6 month or quarterly reviews, you're probably familiar with the process of gathering feedback from your colleagues.

Here's how that process often works:

Send an e-mail to your colleagues. Attach a template for them to fill in.

Wait for the feedback to trickle in, usually not in the format you asked for it.

Collate it all, and chase the stragglers.

Collate it all again, and send it off to your boss.

At the end of it all, despite all the chasing around, the feedback probably isn't as honest as it could be. Human nature is that we shy away from being completely honest when we see/work with someone on a day to day basis. So people compromise, and deliver a watered down version of what they want to say. While that makes for easier conversations in the office, it doesn't really help you develop: Being told 'everything's fine' doesn't really help you work out what you need to focus on improving.

Introducing Feedback Requests

Feedback requests allow you to quickly and easily gather great, anonymous feedback from your colleagues whenever you need to. Although you could do this manually before by sending an e-mail containing your 3sixty feedback link, we wanted to make that process a whole lot easier.

As you'd expect with 3sixty, the whole thing is dead simple once you've signed up:

Click the 'new feedback request' link on your dashboard.

Tell us who to send the feedback request to, and tell them what kind of feedback you're looking for.

Hit 'Send'.

We receive the feedback, send you a copy, and store the feedback for you to come back to. When your annual review comes around, you just print a copy of your feedback page, and you're good to go.

As you'd expect with 3sixty, the whole process is anonymous. You can't see who said what, and the people providing the feedback can't see who else feedback was requested from, so they won't be tempted to let that affect what they say. To make sure everything is truly anonymous, you have to send each feedback request to at least five people.

We've got loads more features planned that'll make this even better, so watch this space by following us on Twitter.

[get3sixty]

From Chris Smith @ Lifehack:

Keeping a detailed log helps you produce intended results in projects by tracking what you have done, the time that it took to do it, and anything that came up in the process. Being able to look at these logs when you approach a project gives you the data you need to make decisions on next actions as well as how long something will take.

Interesting idea. I'm a GTDer, so I can see some of the advantages of this approach. Although the article talks about this in the context of a programmer, I don't see a reason for this to be unique to that career. Any role where there are lessons to be learnt and patterns to spot ought to fit the bill.

My only worry would be whether this would become a 'write only' exercise, where I'd make notes all day, but really never read them... However, I think that probably says more about my personality than the post, though.

[get3sixty]

Communication: About the Dancing

From Dragos Roua's "5 Simple And Obvious Tips For Better Communication" on Lifehack: 

The very core of interpersonal communication is not in words, it’s in interaction. It’s true that sometimes words may greatly enhance this interaction, but the core is always about dancing, not about posing. Being right or wrong is a mental construct. [...] Hijacking an entire conversation just to prove yourself right is an incredible waste of time.

A gloriously eloquent way of saying "It's not what you say, it's how you say it". Dragos then follows up by pointing out that in any conversation, you should be spending at least 50% of your time listening, not talking. Amen.

[get3sixty]

Eating our own dogfood

A good friend who gave 3sixty a good once over for me when it launched pointed out that it was somewhat ironic that he had to give me his feedback on 3sixty by e-mail. He's right, it's stupid.

So, you can now give us feedback about what you think about 3sixty through 3sixty, by clicking the feedback link at the bottom of each page. You can also provide feedback:

Via email: [email protected]

Via twitter: @get3sixty

[get3sixty]

Is anonymity a pre-requisite for honesty?

Craig Harper, on Lifehack:

As a professional speaker, I usually receive a written ‘report’ from the organisation I have spoken for. This feedback is honest, direct, objective, anonymous (usually) and sometimes brutal. Sometimes glowing. What this kind of impartial, calculated feedback gives me is a clear picture of how I am perceived and received by my audiences – crucial (if not always comfortable) information for a speaker.

I wonder if anonymity is a pre-requisite for honesty?

I think probably, it is.

Certainly when I've given feedback in the past, I've been a lot more blunt and honest when either:

I don't know the person (Dorothy Perkins Customer Service, I'm looking at you), or;

the feedback has been genuinely anonymous (e.g. surveys and the like)

When you're giving feedback on someone you know, and particularly when it's someone you work with closely, it's tough to be totally honest.

[get3sixty]

What is 3sixty?

Quite simply, 3sixty is designed to help you fulfil your potential.

3sixty is simple. In fact right now, it's embarrassingly simple. 3sixty provides an easy way to gather anonymous (and therefore hopefully honest) feedback from your colleagues, business partners and friends.

3sixty was born out of my own experiences working as an IT consultant for (the quite brilliant) Smart421. Every time annual review time came around, I found myself scrabbling to pull together feedback from my peers. More importantly, when I got that feedback, I often felt people were holding back. In 3sixty, at least for the time being, all feedback is anonymous.

Sign up for free, and we'll give you a 'magic link' that you can use to solicit feedback from your peers. E-mail this link to your colleagues or add it to your e-mail signature, and when they click the link, they can leave you feedback and an overall rating completely anonymously. There is no need for them to sign up - although we do offer them the option should they wish.

This is absolutely just the beginning for 3sixty. It's more of a pet project than a going concern right now. If demand is good, I'll start adding more features. I've already got quite a long list of ideas, but I'd be delighted to hear yours. Just drop me a line at [email protected] or [email protected].