Return to flip book view

Collect and Interpret FeedbackWhat are the signs of progress?Feedback can be confusing during change. What’s worth acting on? Sometimes, what seems importantturns out to be just loud. How do you make sense of it all?In a change situation, you can look at feedback in two ways: Proactive and Reactive. You seek feedbackproactively on a schedule through existing channels and channels you create for the purpose ofmonitoring change. Reactive feedback is unsolicited and may come from an unexpected source. Bothprovide signs of progress. Both are worth tracking and evaluating on a regular basis to decide what actionsto take.You can create a framework that puts feedback to constructive use by starting with the question, what doI want to know, when, and for what purpose? This question assumes there are certain points in thechange process when actions could be taken to help people make progress. Feedback is used as input tomake decisions about those actions.This guide gives practical advice for setting up a feedback gathering framework and helps you make senseof feedback so you can put it to good use.1 © 2020 The Change Decision

1: Collecting FeedbackFeedback can be collected and tracked through formal channels, informal channels, and existing companyreports, and together provide actionable insights.Formal Feedback ChannelsFormal feedback channels are sources of input and reactions gathered through official mechanisms, suchas digital surveys, focus groups, team meetings and advisory groups.Broadly defined, a survey is a series of questions to gather input and reactions from a group of people. In achange situation, they’re used to gauge where people and the organization are in the change process.There are generally three types for change:● Pulse-Check Survey: A brief survey to check in on how people progressing● People or Team Readiness Survey: A survey to gauge readiness related to a change event● Organizational Readiness Survey: A survey to identify the operational readiness of theenvironmentA set of surveys are typically part of a measurement approach. Here are questions to answer beforepreparing surveys:● Who is your target audience? How might the questions you ask vary by audience?● What do you want them to know/do/feel as a result of taking the survey?● How much information do you need?● How often do you need the information you seek?● Do you need to explore a specific problem in detail?● At what points during the change process does it make sense to survey? For example, before amilestone is reached? After? Around an event or a launch of something new?● How will the survey be delivered? Email, company channel/app or some other digital channel? In ameeting? As part of an existing survey process?● What will be the recipient’s level of awareness about the change when they receive the survey?● How will you share the survey results with the survey participants? What will they be interested inknowing?Ways to gather survey information:Formal TypePurposeWhen to useTech-deliveredSurveysAn efficient, low-cost way tocollect data from a largepopulation.Use this when data gathered this way is goodenough to provide a reliable, accurate perspective.It’s also useful when you need information from alarge group of people and it’s unrealistic orunnecessary to gather information through morehigh-touch means.2 © 2020 The Change Decision

Focus GroupsA way to gather real-timereactions, dive deeper intoquestions and explore themes.Use this when you want to hear from a team orgroup that has something in common, for example,they all have the same role, background orexperience level. They are providing input fromthe perspective of the group they represent.1:1 InterviewsA way to gather detailedinformation from individuals.Use this when it’s important to get insights intoissues and solutions, or when the sensitive topicsmay be the focus or come up.Meeting PollsA way to briefly gather real-timereactions from a group.Use this when you need one-off input or to seetrends over time from the group.Once you know what surveys will be most useful to your measurement approach, prepare the surveycontent in advance so you can determine if/how the questions should be adjusted as the changeprogresses. Work with the leader and team to confirm who should participate.Surveys themselves serve as a communication tool because they send a message about how importantsomething is based on how they’re done, when, how often, the questions asked and how they’re designed.Make sure the culture of the organization is considered when deciding how to collect this feedback,including the participant’s time investment.Informal Feedback ChannelsInformal feedback channels are sources of input and reactions collected through unofficial mechanisms,such as rumors or stories shared in social gathering conversations. Monitoring informal channels is a goodway to get input from stakeholders about how they really feel about the change. Examples of othersources:● Unsolicited feedback about the change that comes to team member● Questions or rumors about the change that come up as part of a staff meeting● Spontaneous reactions when someone brings up the change● Discussion about the change at a social eventAlthough this feedback is typically anecdotal, it usually provides candid insights into the organization’sperception of the change.Data from Existing ReportsIn general, a company decides to make a change to make an improvement in some way. For example, animprovement in customer retention, an increase in repeat business, a reduction in staff turnover, an abilityto do something faster/cheaper, to generate new ideas for products, etc. Given that, reports that arealready produced to run the organization are likely to contain metrics that would be worth monitoringbecause they would indicate progress toward the change goal. This is something to discuss with the leaderto identify what would be most useful to look at. If the report is owned by someone other than your leader,you may need to ask for permission to have access to the information. Given the sensitivity of some3 © 2020 The Change Decision

information, it may make sense for your leader to receive the report and then pass along the relevantinformation to you.Tracking and Reporting DataIt’s a good idea to track feedback in a central place so you can find it later. You can keep the detail in arepository and track basic information about what was gathered, from whom, when and through whatchannel in a separate document. Sometimes questions or concerns are raised about how feedback wascaptured. Tracking it centrally prepares you for this situation.Once you have analyzed and interpreted the feedback you can report the findings by creating a ChangeDashboard or another reporting tool. You could also integrate this information into the company’s existingreporting tool and process.Another consideration is how this information will be shared across stakeholder groups and at what levelof detail, how often and for what purpose. Decide what’s appropriate for:● Leadership, influencers, change champions● The team, partners, people close to the change work● The company overallSharing this information with the stakeholders in a way that respects their interest in the change can buildtrust and confidence in the change and the change process.Creating a FrameworkTo set up a feedback gathering framework, let’s go back to the question, what do I need to know, when andfor what purpose? To answer this question, consider major milestones and events that will be part of thechange. What do you want people to think, feel or do related to that milestone? How would they reactideally? What feedback could be collected to gauge this?Consider the points along the process or timeline when an action could be taken to support the change.What would be helpful to know to decide what actions to take?From here you can identify all of the existing feedback channels that might be used. How suitable is eachsource for the purpose you have in mind? How reliable is each the source? Which would you considerprimary sources and which would be supplementary? The answers to these questions will help you narrowdown your feedback collecting methods and decide if you need to fill a gap by creating a new feedbackchannel. You can use this information to create your framework.At this point you can ask yourself what unsolicited reactive feedback could come in and when. Forexample, you may be expecting a lot of reaction to an upcoming announcement. By asking yourself whatunsolicited feedback could come in, you can think through how prepared you and your leader are tomanage it constructively. You may decide to do things like, prepare an FAQ document for expectedquestions or to make sure your calendar is free of meetings so you can respond or schedule a check-inwith your leader during the event to align on what you’re both noticing. Practices like these give you theability to manage feedback well and can build confidence and support for the change. You may want tonote these practices in your framework.4 © 2020 The Change Decision

2: Interpreting FeedbackWhen you have data from different feedback categories (formal, informal, existing report data), you canlook at the feedback within and across each category for insights.Here are some questions to ask:● What trends do you notice within roles, levels or areas of the company?● Are there any inconsistencies across feedback categories?● Does anything stand out as a theme?● How has the data changed over time?● What behaviors are emerging?● What are the potential risks? Opportunities? What could be done to investigate further?● What actions could be taken to help people make progress?In context: Sometimes negative feedback is not so negative. A simple example of this is an event surveywhen the majority of negative feedback is focused on superficial aspects of the event, such as room layoutor temperature. While participant comfort matters, this may be a sign that participants could not findanything of substance to critique. Think about the weight and relevancy of the feedback compared withthe overall goal of the change.Depth: Pay attention to the depth of the feedback. Do people provide superficial responses? If so, what isthe percentage of superficial feedback compared with more in-depth feedback? Given the purpose youhad in mind, is that a problem? You may need to note this in your results. You may need to throw out thisfeedback or give it less weight compared with the in-depth feedback.Response/abandon rate: A low response rate or high abandon rate is something to look at. What messageshould you take from this? It could be a sign of low awareness. Perhaps people did not understand therelevance of the change to them. It might be a sign that people are afraid or unhappy with the change.People may be concerned that their feedback could be traced back to them and may be punished in someway. Ask yourself what it would take to increase their participation but stay away from incentives, such asgift cards, or making participation mandatory. This will send the wrong message and skew your results.The goal is not a high response rate alone. The goal is to gather feedback that is an accurate reflection oftheir thoughts and feelings about the change. A higher response rate is better for accuracy but themotivation to participate must be authentic from their point of view. Check in with people to see if you canlearn why people did not participate.Your focus: Notice where you’re focusing. It’s human nature to focus on the negative feedback anddiscount the positive feedback. Are you looking at the whole picture? Are you taking anything personally?Taking a step back and looking at the overall picture can help you decide the relevancy of feedback to theoverall goal.5 © 2020 The Change Decision

Feedback and Joy at Work:● What do you see in the feedback assigns of trust, respect, cohesion,belonging, adaptability,accountability, growth, integrity,participation and commitment?● Are there any signs of an increase ordecrease in these Joy at Workdimensions over time?● How is this impacting the changeprogress?6 © 2020 The Change Decision