Teams · 12 records · for a shared workspaceRun a review cycle

A review cycle is judged on whether the feedback surprises anybody. This spreads the evidence gathering across the period rather than the fortnight before, and makes the writing start early enough that calibration is not a rush.

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Goal

Reviews where nothing is a surprise Month 4

Evidence gathered across the period, not recalled at the end.

Gather as you go Month 3

The whole point. Recall is biased to the last month.

  • Start a running note per personDo firstDay 7
  • Collect feedback from the people they work withMonth 2
  • Check nothing in the draft will be new to themDo firstMonth 3

Write and calibrate Month 4

Early enough that calibration is not a rush.

  • Draft every reviewDo firstMonth 4
  • Calibrate with the other managersMonth 4
  • Hold the conversationsMonth 4

Routines

  • Add to each person's noteweekly
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Dates you will not have to remember

Calibration meeting

Month 414:00120 min
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Nothing should be new

If something in a review surprises somebody, the failure happened months earlier in the one-to-ones. The review is only where it became visible.\n\nGeneral praise and general criticism are equally unactionable, and both are what gets written when the evidence was not collected as it happened.

Questions

Run a review cycle, answered.

At the beginning of the period, not the end. A review written from memory in the final fortnight is heavily weighted toward the last month, which is unfair in both directions and is the most common complaint about the whole exercise.
By saying it earlier. Nothing in a review should be new — if it is, the failure happened in the one-to-ones months before, and the review is only where it became visible.
Specific examples and a clear statement of what would be different at the next level. General praise and general criticism are equally unactionable, and both are what gets written when the evidence was not collected.
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