So, you think your organisation isn’t ready for open feedback?
July 21, 2020
f you think your organization isn’t ready for open feedback yet, here’s five reasons you should rethink:
Reason 1: You believe people will only give honest commentary if they can do it anonymously.
Perhaps true for some, but feedback given in secret is rarely actionable. In terms of making improvements for people at work anonymous feedback is less effective - even if it is honest.
Reason 2: You believe people will score rated questions higher if their name goes with it because they don’t want to be perceived negatively.
It’s true, some people will do this. But you should be more focused on getting high quality feedback than on getting high scores. You can’t do much with a score, but you can make a world of difference by acting on feedback.
Reason 3: You are convinced people simply won’t provide any feedback at all.
We’ve got mountains of data from large enterprises across many industries that prove this is simply not true. Joyous has collected hundreds of thousands of comments from people at all levels of all kinds of businesses.
Reason 4: You don’t think your leaders are equipped to handle the feedback they will receive from their team.
Your leaders are talking to their team members in real life all the time; perhaps even on MS Teams or Slack or email. This is no different. In fact, we’ve made it even easier to talk about work because we’ve designed questions that are about people’s experiences - not their leaders. And it doesn’t take long to do. It takes a leader with 10 direct reports less than 10 minutes a week to respond to Joyous conversations. The return on investment (ie actionable outcomes and relationship building) is high.
Reason 5: Your organization doesn’t have an open culture, they are just not ready for this.
If this is true, then open feedback is exactly what you need. It’s critical for engagement that people know that their voice matters and that the organization cares what they have to say.
If you still don’t think you are ready for open feedback, book a time to talk to me. I’ll share my first hand experiences helping other organizations just like you navigate the change: from the start of the RFP process to fully up and running.
Ruby is a comedian-turned engineer, previously leading product at two global tech companies, she has been CEO at Joyous for 4 years. Her passion for making a positive impact on people’s lives is perfectly matched with the mission of Joyous to make life better for people at work.
She enjoys working across all parts of the organization and is passionate about product direction and data science.
She is the co-author of Joyfully, a book about shared leadership, modern organizational structures, and a new way of working. Her second book Pathways, is a guide to help woman and other under-represented people get a job in technology in six months or less.
She was the Winner of the Product Category for Women Leading Tech Australia 2022 and a finalist in the Inspiring Individual Category of the HiTech awards in 2023.
