What I Want for Christmas: Feedback from You!

By: Sonia Di Maulo, Feedback Enthusiast

Holiday Wishes

Christmas giftIn Canada, we’ve already had Thanksgiving and Halloween (October), and now advertising for Christmas is in full swing!

As I was driving to a client meeting last week, I was listening to the radio and I heard this: “What do you want to get me for Christmas?”, a man asked his wife… (he really wants power tools!). And it got me thinking about what I want for Christmas… from you, readers of the Ready to Feedback Blog.

Last August, I launched a very exciting contest called Exposing Exceptional Performance in HR. As you know, I have been exposing exceptional performance for many, many years, and finally decided to formalize what I do in a contest.

About the Contest

Exposing Exceptional Performance in HRHere are some facts about the contest:

Society for Human Resources Management The Braithewaite GroupGoose Educational Media

Human Resources IQRecognition Management Institute Leadchange Logo

International Society for Performance Improvement Ready to FeedbackMVM Communications

Sounds great, right? All the right ingredients in place… right? That’s what I thought too!

Another fact:

  • 0 story submissions received

Why? I have a few ideas but I need help – success does not happen in a vacuum! Here’s where you come in.

How You Can Help

For Christmas, can you help me figure out why? Have a quick look at the submission form and please share improvements that could yield different results for the 2011 contest.

For example, I have already learned from a future participant in the contest that offering a team submission would have been helpful – so that is now on the list of improvements!

You can provide feedback on:

  1. Timing (August to November) – Would a different timeline work better?
  2. Length of time to submit – Was three months too short or too long?
  3. Type and grouping of prizes
  4. Rules – Where there too many or not enough?
  5. Anything else…?

Leave your early Christmas gifts below in the comments. Whatever your response, it’s just what I wanted!

I am also building an email list of people who would like to be kept informed about the 2011 contest: Exposing Exceptional Performance in HR. If you would like to be on this list, please email me directly at sdimaulo@readytofeedback.com or call 450-624-0459.

_________________

Sonia Di Maulo is Founder and Lead Feedback Enthusiast of Ready to Feedback.

Excellent communication skills = success!

  • How often do you ask others for feedback?
  • Are you prepared to accept whatever comes your way?
  • Does the feedback you provide WOW your customers and colleagues?
  • How well do you recognize and expose good work and gently encourage improvements through authentic feedback?
  • Do you have a feedback strategy?

It’s time to get Ready to Feedback!


November 19, 2010  Tags: , , , ,   Posted in: About Ready to Feedback, Contest: Exposing Exceptional Performance

2 Responses

  1. Mike Henry Sr. - November 22, 2010

    I thought of 2 areas of things as I looked this over just now.

    First, The submission process and form is complex. I’d simplify it and remove the detail about scoring, etc. I really thought that the submitter had to do a story AND THEN answer all of the specific questions in order to get all of the points. Did you only want one response that contained the answers to those questions, or did you want the answers separate? I couldn’t tell. If you only want one response, I’d try to figure out how to only have one place to respond.

    Also, I’d put the form online where they can enter the narrative or a link to the video right on your website. Include a link to tips. Provide a check step in the submission: “Did you answer such and such? What about such and such?” Also, regarding the form, I’d put the questionnaire only in the form or make it page one, and provide links to the rules, judges, scoring process, and prize list. Having to scroll down to page 5 to get to the form makes the other stuff seem overwhelming.

    And secondly, the prizes don’t motivate me. I doubt they motivated many other people either. Are you expecting an team member or a HR person’s boss to go to the trouble to do this? Or are you expecting the HR person to do it for themselves? Once you decide that, you can figure out how to motivate them. A team member might do all of this for a chance to win something for themselves. For example, you might all chip $100 and you could get the nominator and the winner each an iPad. Or a $500 Amazon gift certificate. Or a coupon for a party for the team. You may have thought of all of that, but I wouldn’t have nominated my old HR manager for this with those prizes. I would have done it in a heartbeat for a chance to win an iPad.

    Those are my thoughts. Good luck. Mike…

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  2. Chris Taylor - November 22, 2010

    Hi Sonia –

    Happy to provide feedback! When I downloaded the “submission form” I was surprised by the fact that the package was 10 pages.
    I don’t know if I’m the rule or the exception, but when get something this large, I put it aside to “read later” which, of course, never happens. This is, I believe, compounded by the fact that they had 3 months.

    I’d try to reduce the “submission form” to a one-pager, or (better yet) online submission form. That way they can’t put it down and come back to it. I’d also keep the actual application window shorter or, at the very least, have a large push right at the end (when you have a week or so left).

    I think the concept is great, and the content is good. I believe it’s mostly the format that did you harm on this one.

    Let me know if you need any clarification or further insight.

    Thanks Sonia!

    Chris

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