Richard Branson writes eloquently about the need for feedback in the chapter “Mirror, mirror” in his book “The Virgin Way”: “I am constantly amazed at how many businesspeople seem to dwell in some kind of subjective blinkered cocoon instead of looking objectively at their own products and services.” He shares stories going out of his way to get feedback from customers and employees alike. Organizations need constant feedback from the environment to adapt and thrive. In our view, a big part of “intelligence” is being able to gather feedback and correct course based on that information. Many organizations built systems to get feedback from their Clients, but much less work has been done on gathering the internal feedback - and this is where HRO can help. On the company level, our Organizational Diagnostics services help companies in creating knowledge from employee perceptions in order to reach the next level of success.

On the individual level, feedback is often referred to as "the "breakfast of champions", and indeed few people would doubt the importance and value of feedback for developing accurate self-perception. Why then, is feedback so often insufficient in practice?

The challenge of feedback is the interpersonal risk it represents for both the Feedback Provider" and the "Feedback Receiver". HRO takes the fear out of the equation by setting up proven feedback mechanisms taking people step-by-step from low risk feedback processes all the way to candid conversations that you would expect from your managers. The range of feedback tools are: online anonymous feedback (Five Minutes Feedback or 360), range of feedback exercises on team building and leadership training, Assessment Centers with feedback and Feedback Skills Training. Welcome to read more about our Assessment services, 360 Assessments products, and Assessment Center services.

Why are we so keen on feedback

Capitalizing on the occupational psychology background of our consultants, HRO developed an Empathy and Feedback Skills training program over the years. The method started with the FiT In™ personality inventory validation initiative. The HRO team tested more than 1,000 people in a one and half year period, and conducted feedback talks with people from various industries who took the test. We talked to operators, sales staff, department managers, vice presidents and CEO's, and it was fascinating to see how much these people benefited from these talks. By the end of 2007, the number of people tested with FiT In™ had increased to 4,000; by the end of 2015, to 20,000. HRO was conducting feedback talks with hundreds of people, and developed the successful Feedback skills training course.

We discovered that people really needed advice and objective feedback about themselves. Why? Because when it comes to understanding ourselves, we all need help from others. Because in a sense, we are locked in our views, and sometimes even worse, we are the greatest enemy of ourselves. Whether we know it or not, our defective concepts and hidden emotions keep us from being our best. There are no quick fixes for this, but the feedback training, and tools like FiT In™ give a method for appreciating ourselves and others, and open a door to the world of our emotions. This is the base of developing self-awareness. And without a solid self-awareness any development is limited and there is a good chance that even the best learning efforts will not help much. Please contact us for working out the feedback program relevant to your organization and challenges.