After an earlier post on a military perspective on 360 degree feedback I found in my inbox, a blog post from an admiral.

From the initial “Shipmates,…” that opens up the blog post I am immediately struck by the difference in language from what we may consider normal business language. But, when you read the article you see he actually advocates an unusual method of collecting the feedback (he considers online solutions to be expensive … clearly he visited some of our competitor’s websites!)

“1. Find a Shipmate you trust.
2. Pick 7-11 people you work with (subordinates, peers, superiors, mentors, etc)
3. Send your people an e-mail saying that they will get a call from your colleague. Explain that you’d appreciate their honest feedback and anonymity will be maintained.
4. Your colleague calls your people to find their perception about your strengths and your areas for improvement (with potential corrective actions).
5. Your colleague tallies and synthesizes and sanitizes the information they gained through their interviews.
6. You and your colleague meet to share what you learned about each other.
7. You send a follow-up e-mail thanking those who participated and sharing a little bit about what you learned.”

Now, “find a shipmate you trust” is a big statement in this proposed route. This colleague has a big task – to garner the feedback, synthesise it and then share it. What interests me is that in most organisations this approach would be dismissed out of hand. But here, a very senior person is openly advocating the approach. Why?

Brendan