Fearless Feedback Boosts Trust While Replacing Traditional Performance Appraisal at Independent Living, Inc.

Abstract

The leaders of Independent Living, Inc., a consumer‐directed, cross‐disability advocacy and service organization dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for persons with disabilities, recognized the need to enable management and staff to achieve organizational excellence under increasing cost pressures and funding challenges while becoming ever more responsive to the changing and increasingly demanding needs of a growing clientele. Analysis revealed that the organization's performance management system was hampering its effectiveness and that a new process for improving trust and developing capable leaders at every level was needed. Grounded in systems thinking, a fearless feedback approach was implemented to fully engage staff and spur both productivity and innovation. The results after four years show dramatic improvements in the value of workplace conversations, the level of trust, individual and team performance, leadership skills, and the ability of employees and managers to develop work‐related skills, accomplish goals, communicate more effectively with each other, and learn. Overwhelmingly, ILI staff members identified fearless feedback as an improvement over the traditional performance appraisal program previously employed. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.