{"id":3858,"date":"2023-08-07T08:00:24","date_gmt":"2023-08-07T15:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/?p=3858"},"modified":"2023-08-07T08:30:00","modified_gmt":"2023-08-07T15:30:00","slug":"brain-friendly-employee-feedback-turning-the-tide-at-microsoft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/brain-friendly-employee-feedback-turning-the-tide-at-microsoft\/","title":{"rendered":"Brain-friendly employee feedback turning the tide at Microsoft"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Microsoft<\/p>\n

[Editor\u2019s note: This content was written to highlight a particular event or moment in time. Although that moment has passed, we\u2019re republishing it here so you can see what our thinking and experience was like at the time.]<\/em><\/p>\n

As much as we might say we\u2019re open to feedback from our peers, human nature can make it hard to have an open mind when it comes our way\u2014it can feel too much like a threat. In fact, neuroscience shows our brain reacts to the term \u201cfeedback\u201d in a way that often shuts down our ability to take in new information and learn.<\/p>\n

At Microsoft, the company\u2019s culture continues to shift to learn more from others, so it\u2019s crucial to deliver\u2014and capture\u2014other people\u2019s perspectives in constructive ways.<\/p>\n

\"Liz
Liz Friedman led the effort to build a new brain-friendly peer-to-peer feedback tool at Microsoft when she was director of global performance and development in Microsoft Human Resources.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cWe wanted to get past the instinctive defense mechanisms that our mind has when people say they want to give us feedback,\u201d says Liz Friedman, a senior director in Microsoft Human Resources. \u201cIf we can do that, then we become more willing to listen to perspectives our colleagues have for us\u2014people want feedback, it\u2019s just sometimes hard to hear.\u201d<\/p>\n

Solving that challenge meant getting inside people\u2019s heads.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s why we studied what happens in the brain when someone says they want to give you feedback,\u201d she says. \u201cWe wanted to learn how to encourage brain-friendly behaviors that open us to giving and getting feedback.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brain science (and early findings at Microsoft) show that people are more receptive to feedback when they ask for it. \u201cIt puts our brain in a more reward-oriented state that allows us to be more open to learning,\u201d Friedman says.<\/p>\n

It was clear that a new approach was needed; one that fit into a larger, company-wide culture shift to encourage employees to build on each other\u2019s work. The goal was to show employees that they can have healthy, open conversations with each other about what\u2019s working and what they can do better.<\/p>\n

In 2018, Friedman and her team reached out to their partners in Microsoft Digital and launched conversations about building a new feedback tool to help support this new overall approach.<\/p>\n

Microsoft previously had a peer-to-peer feedback process through an online tool, but, by being routed through the tool, the feedback took an indirect path.<\/p>\n

\u201cGoing from feedback provider, to a manager, and then to the employee made it harder and slower to get valuable insights to the employee who needed it most,\u201d Friedman say. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t as helpful as it could be. And our process didn\u2019t go far enough in promoting brain-friendly behaviors like asking for feedback that we learned about in our research.\u201d<\/p>\n

The team initially questioned whether it should continue offering a tool that invited employees to give each other feedback, or if conversations should all happen offline. But, because feedback is so important to personal growth (90 percent of employees say giving and receiving feedback is valuable), the conversation quickly turned to how to open as many channels as possible for feedback, including building a tool that would make feedback more actionable without triggering negative feelings.<\/p>\n

What resulted is the Perspectives tool, where employees are invited to suggest things that their colleagues should \u201ckeep doing\u201d and actions they should \u201crethink.\u201d The \u201ckeep doing\u201d category offers the person giving feedback an opportunity to call out the person\u2019s strengths and to suggest how they can leverage them further. \u201cRethink\u201d suggests the person consider someone else\u2019s perspective on how to approach something differently.<\/p>\n

\"Jay
Jay Clem\u2019s team built the Perspectives feedback tool for Microsoft Human Resources when he was general manager of Human Resources IT in Microsoft Digital.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Perspectives includes a process for an employee to make specific asks about the kind of input they are looking for, which helps them be more effective in asking, and further dials down the threat, Friedman says. And feedback now goes directly to the employee without a supervisor reviewing and distilling it first, and it\u2019s no longer anonymous.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow it\u2019s truly peer feedback\u2014you\u2019re getting insightful comments directly from peers versus through your manager only,\u201d says Jay Clem, whose team built the Perspectives application when he was general manager of Human Resources IT in Microsoft Digital. \u201cPerspectives is focused on providing specific and actionable feedback to help you grow.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Human Resources IT team in Microsoft Digital team creates the tools and processes that HR uses to serve Microsoft employees. \u201cWe got involved because we saw an opportunity within Perspectives to build out even better employee experiences,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

The team pulled in data from Workplace Analytics, which uses an employee\u2019s calendar, interactions, and document sharing data to provide insights on work patterns\u2014including who they work most closely with on a regular basis, and those that they don\u2019t work with as frequently.<\/p>\n

\u201cWithin Perspectives, we are able to serve up suggestions in the interface for a few more people that they might want to ask to give them feedback,\u201d he says. \u201cThe idea is to suggest people they wouldn\u2019t normally think of.\u201d<\/p>\n

Clem and his team were among the first to pilot the new approach. He recalls when a colleague suggested he had missed an opportunity to work with a Power BI team in the company\u2019s legal department.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember thinking, \u2018Wow, I don’t think they would have shared what they shared with me without this new approach,\u201d he says. \u201cI was like, ‘Oh, this is a total blind spot for me.’ I corrected it, and I felt safe to do it, and I appreciated it.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a feature that has been widely appreciated.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt makes it easy to ID a wider assortment of people whose perspective may be valuable, and this helps support the macro view that you learn best when you get input from a more diverse group of colleagues,\u201d Friedman says.<\/p>\n

The Perspectives tool is a key element of the approach but is only one part in the company\u2019s journey to improve the way employees give each other feedback. \u201cIt takes time to shift culture and this is just one way, though a valuable one, to help us get there,\u201d Friedman says.<\/p>\n

To learn more about why Microsoft HR rolled out the Perspectives tool, read Kristen Roby Dimlow\u2019s blog post on the topic<\/a>. Dimlow is corporate vice president of Microsoft Human Resources Total Rewards and Performance.<\/p>\n

\"Key<\/p>\n

Here are some of the top things we learned deploying the Perspectives feedback approach here at Microsoft: <\/strong><\/p>\n