Case
Learning Experience Design, Facilitation
Feed (Back & Forward) @Fidelidade
Because (big) changes are not made in a single day.
Feedback: from the bogeyman to being at ease in conversations.
One day, Rita, from the People and Organization Department, called us. Fidelidade wanted our help to create a true Feedback & Feedforward Culture.
They wanted to go beyond a training program that was taking place at the time. They had made a significant investment in training for leaders and their teams in order to give them skills related to how to give and receive feedback. They also realized that by itself would not be enough and that a hands-on approach and a closer support would be needed to create new feedback habits.
We were asked to design a sort of "helpdesk line ", available from anywhere in the country and for anyone who might want to use it.
We agreed. In fact, from our perspective, culture is not established by decree, it involves continuous individual and collective learning.
For us:
"Culture is what people believe in and how they do what they do"
Who is afraid of feedback?
Although we were about to go on vacation, we thought it would be good to be with these people, whenever they would need to talk with their teams about this "bogeyman" that is feedback. The skills to offer and receive feedback, in our opinion, translate into a set of capacities that allow dialogue and communication, that is to talk, in a clear, open and constructive way.
To talk about this and help dispel this "bug" idea, we provided a schedule of voluntary and individual counseling sessions, spread over 2 months, during which we talked about how each leader could talk to their teams, with a focus on development and joint discovery of future perspectives.
Using a mix of face to face and remote sessions, we ensured that everyone would have accompaniment, regardless of the geography. The management was complex, but it would have been even more so if the technologies were not so advanced. Everything went on quickly and efficiently, with the leaders being fully committed to the counseling sessions.
6
Way Beyond Counselors
160
face to face sessions (throughout the country)
112
remote sessions
The bogeyman meets a unicorn.
There were many questions about particular cases, "difficult" cases in which context it seemed that a " feedback formula" could not be applied.
"Ah! Can I ask questions too?", "And can I listen?", "What then?" Then it is just conversations. Conversations between two people who take the time to analyze what has happened (feedback) and who commit themselves to creating a future together (feedforward). There were many messages expressing gratitude and requests for us to come back.
And that was what we wanted to hear, us and Fidelity.
What we heard
The initiative was highly valued at Fidelidade for its practical advice to leaders and team managers at a critical time in our People's journey at Fidelidade. After the deployment of a new process linked to the development of competencies, which requires the accelerated growth of the feedback and feedforward culture, we still have a great need for a close monitoring in the field, which enables a more structured learning, through meaningful experiences for those who lead. It is also very important to inject new visions about situations and problems that many of those who made their trajectory in Fidelidade still have to solve.
- Rita Resendes, Head of People Development
"The changes to the competency analysis model, made prior to the sessions, emphasized the behaviors that are expected of our People, but to our leaders, that is a big challenge - how to give feedback and contribute to the growth of the team? Way Beyond supported us with a solution that aims to help these people find the best answer.
Those who participated loved it and understood how to get into the culture of feedback and feedforward, in order to better lead their team members.
The change in behavior was not immediate, but the seed which was left germinated and has already borne fruit.
It is true that continuous feedback is not yet a common practice in Fidelidade, but we are on the right track and, with these sessions of Way Beyond, we have taken larger steps to achieve that goal. Thank you."
- Patricia Correia, People and Organisation Department
"I loved my session and my counselor as she subtly led and guided me so that I could myself discover the answers to the questions initially presented in the session. Enjoy the opportunity!"
- Inês Rato, Leader
"I saw the counseling session with Way Beyond as an important opportunity to mitigate some of my fears on the approach to be followed in meetings with employees, particularly concerning issues of greater sensitivity and potential disagreement. In short, I wanted to avoid these moments having the consequence of reversing the good work already developed with the employees. My interlocutor, (...) in a very effective manner, was able to quickly identify my profile as a responsible/evaluator, highlighting my strong points, validating the positive aspects, and frankly naming the paths to follow and not to follow. The detail of the assessment was thorough and accurate and allowed me to acquired tools of great value for my daily life, which I applied immediately and with great success.
(...) I would like to mention that this approach with a delimited theme/subject and directed to the real needs of the receiver, has an added advantage to the more extensive general trainings that have to include all situations and are therefore less effective."
- José Mendes, Leader
"What I have to say about the Fidelidade project is that it was, genuinely, a project I'm proud to have been part of. And it gave me a lot of pleasure because it is gratifying to realize that there are companies that are aware that it is in the small conversations between leaders and their teams that change starts to happen, that it is from the resolution of small problems that great things are done, that united and aligned teams produce more and better! That leadership is not a myth but a reality that must be paid attention to, in fact, a priority.
It was gratifying to feel the support from Fidelidade's employees and the sincere way they shared their real difficulties, whether related to motivating difficult employees, or concerning having "tough" conversations, or even simply with communicating assertively. There were weeks of frank conversations and, above all, rich and very adjusted to our interlocutor. We did leadership role-plays with real situations, shared examples and, sometimes, merely good practices. It was good to realize that there were never empty talks and that time invariably passed too quickly. It was also good to feel the openness of the employees and their willingness to do better. May this project have been a seed so that all the feedback conversations will always be seen as a valuable tool for professional and even personal development!"
- Filipa França, Way Beyond Adviser
"The counseling session with Way Beyond allowed us to discuss and structure the messages to convey in the individual feedbak moments. It was very helpful!"
- Marco Rodrigues, Leader
The more one talks the better the conversation gets
And this will to do better, to create the conditions for the feed (back & forward) culture to be built and established, is the true commitment of Fidelidade and its people for the future.
And the future will continue to be made, from conversation to conversation.