Feedback Variability

I went for a hike with four different fitness tracking devices as an experiment.  A Withings watch, a Garmin, a Whoop strap, and Samsung Health on my phone.  The Garmin and Whoop utilize wrist-based heartrate technology and I had one on each wrist.  The Withings watch utilizes wrist-based heartrate technology as well, but I was out of wrists, so I had it in my pocket.  When I analyzed the data after the hike, I was surprised that I got four completely different results.  I get that the wrist-based devices may generate a different result than the devices that were just tracking activity, but you’d think the two wrist-based devices would provide a similar result, or that the two non-wrist-based devices would provide a similar result.  Not even close.  Four different interpretations of the workout.

How does this relate to our performance review process?  If four technological devices, some of which utilize the same or similar technology produce such a variance, do we as a team of subjective, emotional human beings stand a chance of minimizing “feedback variability”?  It can be challenging enough to be consistent with our own assessment of a mentee’s performance.  What happened yesterday or this morning tends to skew our perception, potentially discounting the overall performance over a month or quarter.  Likewise, we tend to gravitate to the negative and a mistake someone made tends to be remembered over something positive.

Bringing a framework for consistency is important in a review process.  Formats such as “Stop, Start, Continue” tend to help provide well-rounded feedback.  Timeliness, however, is a critical component and building a culture of providing real-time feedback on the good, bad and ugly is part of the secret sauce of a successful firm.  A firm with an Edge!

Ironically, although they produced different results for a short workout, I continued to wear the two wrist-based devices and the results over a 24 hour period were relatively consistent…  By constantly monitoring and providing real-time data, we ultimately get to the right place.