Team Building Using 180° Feedback

One way to dramatically increase the impact of team building is to combine the PTPS with the companion survey, Parker Team Player Survey - Styles of Another Person (SOAP). Using this approach each team member gets the opportunity to compare his or her self-perception via the PTPS results with the scores of his or her teammates garnered from the SOAP. I recommend that you collect SOAP data from a minimum of five teammates for each person to obtain sufficiently rich data and maintain the anonymity of the respondents.

Here's the way it works with an intact team:

1. Meet with the team to explain the purpose of the activity and the process.
2. Give each team member one copy of the PTPS and at least five copies of the SOAP. Ask each team member to print his or her name in all of the SOAP booklets at the top of the page facing page 1. They should not write the name of the person who will complete the survey anywhere in the booklet.
3. Recommend that the SOAP booklets be given to teammates and other people who have worked with them on teams. Suggest that they remind the respondents to carefully complete page 8, Observations.
4. Identify an objective third party such as a computing service to which the completed surveys should be sent. The task of this organization is to summarize the data and prepare an individual report for each person that presents his or her PTPS results and the data from the SOAP surveys along with the Observations from the SOAP booklets. The report should in no way identify the SOAP respondents.
5. At the team building meeting each person receives their report with ample opportunity to study the data. They should be given an opportunity to ask questions for clarification. I encourage team members to form dyads to discuss the data and get additional feedback from each other. Several rounds of these discussions enrich the experience.
6. At some point, people are asked to prepare a personal action plan to increase their effectiveness as a team player. The format on page 17 of the PTPS provides a convenient worksheet for this exercise.
7. A useful conclusion to this activity is to ask each team member to share his action steps with the entire team. This open sharing helps support the motivation to change and has a positive effect on team climate.

For more details on this process see Team Building Workshop Facilitators Guide by Glenn M. Parker available from Consulting Psychologists Press or contact me directly.

Glenn Parker.
glenn@glennparker.com