Angel and Tiggs

Once upon a time at an MBA Human Factor class, our professor used the group of students as part of a very innovative and valuable experiment. As far as I remember, it was the best class I’ve ever attended.

The professor asked us to shuffle the seats around and make a circle around the room. There were 25 or so of us. Each student was given one blank sheet of paper and asked to sign his/her name on it. After that we passed the sheet onto to the next classmate. This classmate then had 2 minutes to write down traits he/she considered strong qualities and also traits to improve (the word “bad” in HR still seems to be politically incorrect) before passing the sheet on to the next classmate. The cycle would end after every classmate entered his/her comments. The exercise was entirely confidential. I mean, each person’s input was handwritten. Anybody could try to match calligraphy styles, but that would be time-consuming, cumbersome and creepy. Once populating the sheet was over, it was time for results. Our professor asked each student to pick two comments, one positive and one that contained room for improvement. Even after 11 years I remember mine clearly.

Good traits Dependable, committed and dedicated to classes, the program and other classmates

Room for improvement “You must be able to ‘turn off’ after work. This is not an office environment, so no need to be really formal or stressed out about things. Be more casual”.

And then boom! That had just happened. Three sentences written in an A4 sheet of paper by an anonymous classmate changed my life. Never again after the exercise have I been the same because never before the exercise had anybody told me I needed to relax sometimes, especially at places away from the office.

Why was the exercise so good? Blame it on simplicity.

– It provided everybody a great, informal 360º review. It opened my eyes and mind in a way I had never experienced before.

– Timing-wise it was perfect. Our class had been together for little more than 3 months. We knew each other well enough to formalize impressions. Our group would meet at least two nights a week for classes, in addition to weekend group assignments and casual pub hangouts (Did I say casual? “Almost weekly” is the right expression here).

– Set up was minimal. All we needed was a pen, a sheet of paper, some chairs and a moderator. Instructions were given in 30 seconds, promptly understood and agreed.

Success! Taking things seriously was a critical success factor. Every person in the room was an adult, physically and mentally. Despite the young age (mid 20s to 30s), everyone already had really good jobs or worked for some of the biggest companies in the world. Feedback was mature and polite, with a couple of exceptions. A few times we giggled over flirtatious comments, always written by guys trying to set themselves up with the ladies.

Compliments are always welcome. Things to improve were a rare, light and sometimes funny wake-up call to something I hadn’t necessarily noticed up to that point. Interestingly for a random experiment with random opinions, results were fairly consistent. Think about it: work evaluations are infrequent, once or twice a year, or simply nonexistent in many workplaces. They’re usually focused on 1 or 2 people, and sometimes those people are not the peers you spend most of your time working with.

Lessons learned and next steps. In my humble opinion, the exercise was very valuable, not only for its immediate results but also the potential benefits it may generate later. I still remember the impact it had on me. It can be applied to any organization or group on a regular basis. It would also be very interesting to gauge other groups’ feedback and build a bank of personalities. I was lucky enough to be with an exceptional bunch of people who taught me and made me realize a number of really interesting things about myself and the milieu we were in.