viaPeople Insight - Performance Management & Succession Planning Blog

"Anonymous" seems to be a dirty word these days.

The rise of social networking and media, along with fast and edgy companies who promote their open, share everything with everyone cultures means Social Performance Management is the new “hot”.  But does this leave good - dare we say old-fashioned - 360 degree feedback as the “not”?

Social technologies make everything easier….well, maybe not everything.  In fact, they also have made it easier for some folks to get into some serious trouble.

What if I told you that the way to heading off those nagging complaints you hear every time you conduct a performance review cycle is to ask people to provide more feedback? Would you call me crazy?

The dust seems finally to have settled regarding the recent firing of Yahoo’s reigning queen, Carol Bartz. Most of the reactions in the business press, blogosphere, and twitterverse examined how her brazen words and emotional reaction to an unceremonious termination (i.e. over the phone, with a lawyer’s script) will impact the company and her own career. There were few it seems, who sympathized with the termination decision itself, citing Yahoo’s declining marketshare, stagnant stock prices, and rampant turnover of top talent.

Ah August, the time of year we don’t feel quite as guilty about taking a short respite from our usual caffeinated daily dash. Like many of you, I set aside some of that downtime to catch up on the stack of magazines piling up on my kitchen counter.  Obviously, if I choose to recycle them before at least giving them a quick scan, I will miss something earth-shatteringly important! Something like the July issue of Wired where the cover story – The Mental Machine by Thomas Goetz – discusses how technology is rekindling the use of feedback loops to change behavior. I was quite intrigued to read further as my long buried dissertation research explored how this very theory could explain behavioral change following 360 degree feedback.

There are “What’s on your mind?”, “What’s happening?”, and “What are you working on?” questions and answers constantly floating around the web at a furious pace. All of a sudden micro is the new macro and HR tools are getting in the game. For good reason: employees are comfortable using these micro tools in their personal social internet usage, and want to translate the effectiveness of short, concise messages into their work settings.