“We want to have a transparent culture that is focused on results and performance, but at the same time focused on the people.”
Rashaad Bajwa is the Founder and President of 360score.me. They provide a 360 degree review tool for organizations to allow their employees to anonymously provide feedback to each other.
Transparency.
Rashaad: “We’re trying to get some of these benefits out of transparency, but also do it in a safe way We want to have a transparent culture that is focused on results and performance. There’s no doubt about that. There’s a lot of good data on why that’s really important, but also at the same time make sure that we’re focused on the people.”
Rashaad: “If we forget about the people and we’re only focused on performance, there can be a lot of collateral damage. I think getting that balance right is really important. For a lot of companies, the ones that we work in, finding that balance is incredibly powerful, and I think it’s what allows cultures to go to the next level.”
The Dot Connector.
Rashaad: “The Dot Connector is a brainchild of Ray Dalio, or at least from his organization, and it’s a way for people to be radically transparent with each other. Dalio is the head of Bridgewater Associates, which is the largest hedge fund in the world. He wants to create that environment where ideas always win instead of personalities. The way that he feels that he’s going to get that is this concept that he calls radical transparency. Radical transparency is incredibly powerful but can also be very intimidating.”
Rashaad: “It’s a software app. It’s a grid so people will have an iPad or a tablet or something along those lines. On the vertical and the horizontal axes, you’ll see all the individuals who are in the group. In every meeting, in virtually every interaction, but definitively in meetings, everyone is providing real-time feedback to each other. It is publicly consumed and displayed. Whether you’re the CEO of the organization or if you’re an intern, one of these boxes represents your grid and your score of everyone else in that organization.”
Rashaad: “This gives people the ability not only to vote or weigh in on people’s ideas, but also their behavior. This is as transparent as it gets.”
360score.me.
Rashaad: ” 360score is only a tool, and it’s a tool that can be used for good. Think about that Dot Connector. It’s only a tool too. If you have a bad culture that you’re just sitting there throwing grenades at each other, no one would last.
Rashaad: “With 360score.me, the actual software product that we’ve written that takes a lot of these things into place, anonymity is huge for us. We think anonymity provides the safety required to treat people in a humane way.”
Rashaad: “We do have grading scales and things like that that make it a little bit easier for cultures. If it’s not used with the right mindset, it can create damage. That’s why on our homepage one of the first things we say is everything that can go wrong. You’ve got to know that if you don’t go into this with the right intent, this radically transparent feedback culture can become gossip culture, can become backstabbing culture, can become kissing up culture, and that’s not going to take you to a good place.”
