It’s review time again! You know the drill…

You spend 20 minutes thinking about how it was to work with Bob this last quarter. And you think of some nice things to say about him. And answer some “on a scale of 1 to 5” questions about how he is as a team mate.

Then the same thing for Alice. Then Chuck.

A few weeks later you get the results about how they filled in those “1 to 5” questions for you.

“What? My teammates said I’m only a 2, below expectations, as a team player? What the hell!”

Why is this normal?

Can you imagine this happening on a sports team?

Would Joe ever be surprised “What? My teammates think I’m only a 2 field goals?”

Well, that never happens. Because sports teams don’t do 360 reviews (that I know of). Why not?

Perhaps because their performance is more or less self evident to everyone else on the team? Why is that?

Perhaps because they’re working as a team?

If your team is surprised by their 360 review, this should be seen as a big problem. (Even if it’s a positive surprise!) It means that the team is not working effectively as a team.

Which further implies that if your team is working effectively as a team, you don’t need 360 reviews! Wouldn’t it be great to cut that waste of time out of our lives?