People want feedback for performance and improvement, but not feedback that simply says how you should do better – that's where connected conversations comes in
Connected conversations are part of a movement in business, especially in the areas of HR and professional development, towards a view that the traditional performance review isn’t fit for purpose – for either employees or employers.
In fact, scientific research has shown traditional performance reviews demotivates people and doesn’t improve employee performance. According to Gallup, only 29% of employees agree the performance reviews they receive are fair, and just 26% agree that they’re accurate.
There are now a range of major organisations – such as Microsoft and Netflix – that have dropped their annual appraisal process and have moved to other ways of motivating and reviewing their employees’ performance.
People want feedback for performance and improvement, but they don’t want feedback that simply says how you should do better in these areas.
That’s where connected conversations comes in.
What are connected conversations?
Connected conversations is a process of continued conversations over a period of time that sees performance management for employees evolve over time, rather than as a one-off event that takes place annually.
As David Marshall, founder of Marshalls, explains:
“Using connected conversations, you can work out what energises your employees and focus on improving their performance. The advantage is that this takes place on a continual basis, not isolated to a one-off appraisal once a quarter – or even once a year. Once you know the strengths of your employees and what energises them, you can then focus their work on their areas.”
David Smith, a former HR Director at Asda, said that effective organisations in the 21st century will be those who train their leaders to conduct effective coaching conversations that stimulate and encourage higher performance.
Connected conversations is the way to achieve this improved performance without resorting to outdated and ineffective formal appraisals or annual reviews.
What is the background to connected conversations?
The connected conversations model came out of our work with University College London, where they wanted a performance appraisal for their employees – but to use an alternative model more in line with modern research around how appraisals should work
One of the key elements underpinning the connected conversations model is the intelligent career theory where, if you want to help people manage their carers, they need to know:
- What’s important to them
- What do they like going and are good at
- Knowing whom? Does your network know of your aspirations, and is what you’re trying to achieve in line with what people say about you?
If organisations want to motivate employees, they need to sculpt employee performance around these key points from the intelligent career theory. Connected conversations use these to create an employee-centric approach.
Why should companies adopt the connected conversations approach?
Michael Moran, CEO of 10Eighty – specialists in career management and help companies increase employee engagement – explains the advantages of implementing a connected conversations approach:
“The old-fashioned way of performance reviews and setting targets isn’t working. It’s better to be agile and use connected conversations – giving people feedback on a regular basis and more regularly. We’ve found that, for companies that adopt a connected conversations approach, their employees are more motivated, stick at tasks longer and are more resilient.
“Connected conversations is all about playing to people’s strengths. If you want to encourage people to improve their performance, to stay at things longer, it’s about doing things that energise them. If you get this right, you end up with a productive and engaged employee. And if you have engaged employees, you get a much more sustainable business, with a more agile and faster growing business.”
Here are several reasons for taking the connected conversations approach that will benefit your organisation:
- Return on investment: Taking this course drives profitability, customer satisfaction and shareholder value. It’s been proven that, if you increase your employee engagement, you’ll put an extra £1,500 per person on average to the bottom line of your business. Multiply that by the number of employees who take the course, and you can work out the impact it has on your business
- Engage for success: There is a lot of data around the correlation between business performance and employee engagement. By implementing connected conversations, it’s good for your business and it's good for your shareholders
- Increased employee engagement: If your company is employee-centric, those employees will be more motivated and will stay with you longer. The outcome is more profit and more value for your business
How can we get started with connected conversations in our company?
Together with 10Eighty, we’ve created a formal, alternative set of performance appraisals that fall under the connected conversations model – and distilled into the connected conversations course.
The connected conversations course equips managers with the skills required to give feedback and motivate employees, but make sure employees are still reaching organisational goals.
The course also helps employers become people-centric, shows how managers can give regular feedback to grow and improve their employees, and help employees manage their career using the three areas of intelligent career theory.
The connected conversations course features an interactive learning package with high-quality video scenarios, and associates from us and 10Eighty talking about the key issues that surround modern performance and appraisals best practice.
What we’ve got here is this new movement for strengths-based and employee-centric approach, which goes way back to the scientific method of the early 20th century and Frederick Taylor – where you design the company around production, not the people. That’s fine for guiding cars, but a shop or knowledge business is a lot about managing the person and the way they do their job. As knowledge workers, we are more determined in the way we work ourselves.
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This content was initially published on Marshallelearning.com (June 2018) and has been uploaded to and lightly amended on Ciphr.com as part of the brand amalgamation in August 2024