{"id":249,"date":"2013-09-19T08:32:10","date_gmt":"2013-09-19T15:32:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/?p=249"},"modified":"2013-09-17T13:47:06","modified_gmt":"2013-09-17T20:47:06","slug":"thumbs-up-for-feedback","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/?p=249","title":{"rendered":"Thumbs Up for Feedback!"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul>\n<li>\n<div>Bob is consistently late to meetings.<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div>Sara&#8217;s tasks are always doing &#8220;just fine&#8221; up until the last minute: then suddenly there is a crisis and it can&#8217;t be done on time.<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div>Your overall team effort seems to be losing momentum compared to your pace at the beginning of the project.<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div>Michael and Susan are strong team players and often go the extra mile behind the scenes to support the team: but their effort is too often not explicitly recognized<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Sound familiar?<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>These are just a few of the messy things that can happen to a project team.<\/p>\n<p>So how do you prevent such things from happening, or at least reduce the number of times they occur?<\/p>\n<p>Sometimes the answer can be found in the THUMBS of each team member.<\/p>\n<p>Thumbs are pretty cool voting tools:<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Thumbs up\" src=\"https:\/\/svapm.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/03\/picture1.thumbnail.jpg\" height=\"96\" \/><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>They are always with you<\/li>\n<li>They can be called upon by anyone on the team<\/li>\n<li>They can express an infinite range of feedback: from 0 to 100% &#8211; in a flash<\/li>\n<li>And they are often brutally honest!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>All you need to do is ask:<\/p>\n<p>Asking for team votes using the thumbs-up\/ thumbs-down\/ somewhere-in-between method can be very helpful when obtaining team feedback or establishing group norms.<\/p>\n<p>To help Bob from being consistently late, for example, you can call for a thumb-vote to set new ground rules for starting and ending meetings on time:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;In the past few months I&#8217;ve noticed we have slipped into the habit of waiting until everyone is present before starting our meetings, which is typically 5 to 10 minutes late. I would like to respect everyone&#8217;s time and suggest that for all future meetings we start and end on time. So let&#8217;s take a quick thumbs-up \/ thumbs-down vote on that. Thumbs-up or thumbs-down for starting and ending all future meetings on time : &#8220;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Of course in this case, if you have anything less than unanimous thumbs-up, you&#8217;ll need to work though the issues and identify solutions as needed. But the quickie thumbs up, thumbs-down or sideways vote will help you assess the situation and create a zone of safety for the less expressive members of the team.<\/p>\n<p>For help in the early detection of tasks in trouble, ask each person to give a thumb-rating on the status of their project tasks at the conclusion of their report:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Thumbs down\" src=\"https:\/\/svapm.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/03\/picture2.thumbnail.jpg\" height=\"96\" \/>&#8220;Thanks for the update, Sara. How about a quick summary thumbs-up\/down rating on how confident you are that this task will be completed on time.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>I have found that for some reason our thumb seems to tell the truth more often than our mouth. A less than confident thumbs-up rating is always worth investigating, either in-the-moment or soon after the meeting.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Thumb up-down\" src=\"https:\/\/svapm.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/03\/picture3.thumbnail.jpg\" height=\"80\" \/>Upon completion of all project status reports, a call for a thumbs-up vote on the overall team performance can be helpful in assessing how well you are functioning as a team. If you see a lot of thumb movement during the vote, it may be time to check-in on what&#8217;s working or not working for the team.<\/p>\n<p>And finally, thumb-votes are also helpful in giving group feedback and support to individuals. After hearing a new recommendation or progress report, for example, it may be a good time to ask the team for a thumbs-up for Michael and Susan for all their behind-the-scenes effort in putting together the report.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Nice job\" src=\"https:\/\/svapm.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/03\/picture4.thumbnail.jpg\" height=\"96\" \/><\/p>\n<p>So: do you currently use a thumbs-up approach to obtain feedback on your team or other equally effective method for helping to create an atmosphere of open communication and accountability?<\/p>\n<p>Please let me know. I&#8217;d love to hear about it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bob is consistently late to meetings. Sara&#8217;s tasks are always doing &#8220;just fine&#8221; up until the last minute: then suddenly [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":104,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,6],"tags":[66],"class_list":["post-249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-leadership","category-communications","tag-feedback"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/104"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=249"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12842,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249\/revisions\/12842"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}