Whereas meeting feedback concerns specific timed events, collaboration feedback looks at the value-add generated by longer term collaborations such as may occur through asynchronous meetings or within teams.
What is collaboration feedback
Collaboration feedback is set up in the same way as meeting feedback but the opportunity to feedback remains open, pinned to the dashboard, until the organiser or any team members choose to release it from the dashboard. Collaboration feedback gathers feedback data in two different ways:
- Agenda feedback looks at the team’s perception of how well they are collaborating to deliver the team’s goals or values. By using the agenda fields to reflect what the team is seeking to achieve (rather than the meeting structure) the team have the option to feed back on how well the standards of the team are being fulfilled, for example: Customer focus; mutual support; personal growth (or whatever else the team decides are its goals/standards).
- Participation feedback enables the team members to feed back to each other individually, providing encouragement for things which have added value to them, and alerting people to areas where their approach may be at risk of undermining that value.
As with normal meeting feedback, collaboration feedback can be shared with the team in respect of the agenda feedback, but is only visible to individual team members (and their line management) in respect of participation feedback. However, we are aware of situations where the team wanted a shared understanding of participation feedback, and so included team member names within the agenda.
What are the benefits of such feedback
The advantage of this means of collaboration feedback is that:
- It can be set-up (and modified) as easily as setting up a meeting
- People can receive feedback from multiple collaborations independently
- The nature of feedback can be tailored separately to each different group/team
- Feedback can be interpersonal and/or collective, and is simple and intuitive
- Data can be collated to develop a business wide picture of how collaboration is improving
- Individuals can track their own personal development in terms of the feedback they are receiving
Where to use collaboration feedback
Collaboration feedback can be used by leaders for their direct report teams; in natural workgroups; by project teams; or common interest groups; where people are part of an asynchronous meeting; or cross-functional working party. They can even be used between organisations for working groups in industry bodies or lobby groups.
How to use collaboration feedback
To set up collaboration feedback, set it up as you would a normal meeting, but:
- Precede the subject with the text ‘Pin:’ and/or set the finish time of the meeting to the start time (i.e. make it of 0 minutes length)
- Invite everyone who is to be part of the collaboration, and explain why you have set up ongoing feedback (rather than normal meeting feedback)
- List the team goals and/or values as the agenda (using the format that Inspirometer can read)
- Include meetings@inspirometer.com on the attendee list
To provide collaboration feedback, download and log into the mobile app, scroll down to the ‘ongoing collaboration’ panel which relates to your team/project, and click the feedback button.
To stop collaboration feedback, as a participant, simply unpin the ongoing collaboration panel from your dashboard using the ‘Remove’ button (but please be aware that you will no longer be able to take part in feedback for that team).
To stop collaboration feedback for all participants, such as at the end of a project, the person who set up the feedback will need to click the ‘Release’ button, and this will remove the feedback option for all participants.
In the event that a particular set-up of ongoing feedback is released prematurely, this can be rectified by resending the original ‘meeting’ invitation.