Facebook Style of Performance Management

Grab a piece of paper and draw a straight line. Look at the line you drew. Does it start from the top right corner of the paper? If it doesn’t then that is not the way I wanted that line drawn.You did not do a good job of drawing a line. This is how most feedback is given at work. It is a judgement passed on the work you have done. Imagine that you are sitting with a heap of output that you have worked on for the year. If I tell you that most of it is wrong, your natural reaction will be to tell me that I should have told you so much earlier instead of waiting for a year. Anyway there is precious little that can be done about it.According to Marshall Goldsmith,

“There is a fundamental problem with all types of feedback: it focuses on the past, on what has already occurred—not on the infinite variety of opportunities that can happen in the future. As such, feedback can be limited and static, as opposed to expansive and dynamic.””Ask for feedforward—for two suggestions for the future that might help achieve a positive change in (someone’s) selected behavior. “

Imagine if you got feedback about what you could do better in future to be more, wouldn’t you find that more valuable than a post mortem? This is precisely the reason why giving feedback on a weekly basis is far more effective in driving change than annual or even quarterly feedback processes.Think of feedback as the “like” button you press when you read someone’s status update. It is a brisk conversation. This approach of having brief conversations makes it manageable for the giver as well as the receiver. The receiver does not feel overwhelmed.Facebook Inc. uses the same philosophy in their day to day work as well. The social network’s 2,000 employees are encouraged to solicit and give small nuggets of feedback regularly, after meetings, presentations and projects. More formal reviews happen twice a year. (Read about it here)Combining the two ideas ie instead of giving feedback, try the feed forward approach. And do it daily and no later than weekly.Have you used this approach? What has been the result?  Is daily feedback a bit much to expect? Or is it just right? I would love to know through your comments.