Feedback Close-Up: What you gain from informal conversations with clusters of your teams

I wrote a LinkedIn article last May about how our Deloitte Consulting team was intentionally gathering feedback at scale from our then 75K+ (now 85k+) person team. Since then, the world has (somehow) only gotten more complicated. We’re navigating an everchanging economic environment, and the workforce and workplace has continued to be in a state of flux. And while “flux” often carries a negative connotation, I believe it fundamentally creates exciting possibilities because we can experiment with new ideas/approaches.

That means it’s never been more important to be tapped into your broader team and get the feedback and ideas from all “levels” of your organization to chart your path forward.

Building a strong culture, unlocking your team’s potential, producing the most creative and innovative work…all of it stems from your people. As leaders, we need?to be hearing from them so we can make informed decisions that shape the future trajectory of our organizations and build people-first cultures where everyone feels included. But there is another i-word that is incredibly powerful alongside included - and that’s influential. People believing that their voice not only will be heard but that it can influence and drive action-oriented change.

I previously shared some of the ways we at Deloitte Consulting have been intentional about doing that at scale. I still believe that feedback at scale is important (and totally doable) but it’s not the only way to get feedback. In fact, making space and time for in-person moments with clusters of your team are critical to creating a space for teammates to share experiences and feel heard in a way that is different than filling out a survey.

If I were to analogize this, I would think of feedback as a smoothie (one of my favorite meals). The data and input from feedback at scale is the solid fruits (think strawberries, blueberries – anything but bananas – but that’s a personal preference) and then getting feedback in more casual, small-group settings is your liquid base (think almond milk, coconut water). The data/"fruit" give you a solid foundation in numbers, while the in-person moments contextualize the insight, fill in the gaps, and create connection between the data sets. Together, you get a richer, deeper understanding of your teammates’ collective experiences. The real challenge is, how do you create that in a large organization? Especially as we see organizations become more global, more disparate, and more hybrid/remote?

I’ve been trying to do just that through a series we’ve been calling “Unmuted” – in-person conversations with different types of teams (think anywhere from 20-75 people) from across our Consulting organization. These conversations are designed with some of the most top-of-mind (and complicated) challenges our teams are facing. To date, many of these conversations have revolved around such topics as talent experiences, making connections, and building our team’s culture.

So far this year, I’ve had more than 25 of these conversations, engaging with more than 1,000 colleagues, and have a few more scheduled over the next several months. Now you may think, “But Dan, 1,000 colleagues is certainly a lot, but that’s a drop in the bucket for the 85K+ teammates you have.” And you’d be right. But there is something profound about 1,000 human conversations that can even be more valuable than 10,000 or 100,000 data points. Here are a few of the lessons that I’ve learned along the way.

Lesson #1: Feedback Demography is a KPI

We constantly track and measure the things that contribute to our organization’s growth, whether that’s new hires, net new clients, growth in our alliance relationships, etc. If feedback is important to your organization’s success (as I believe it is), why wouldn’t we measure it?

I’ve actually been keeping track of my Unmuted series, taking note of which locations I’ve been to, what levels of people I’ve met with, what people’s focus areas are (for example, meeting with both a specific client team and the local DEI group at a certain office), and more.

This allows me to ensure I’m reaching a broad cross-section of our team. If I notice most of my meetings are with a certain group of practitioners, I can adjust the rest of my schedule to incorporate more voices. It also helps me prioritize these sessions, since I can set goals and track against them. If I know I hit 28 sessions this year, what is my goal for 2023 and how I can get them on the calendar to make sure I hit that goal????

By measuring feedback KPIs, I can make sure that I’m still getting feedback from all corners of the organization – just on a smaller, more intimate level.

Lesson #2: Feedback Isn’t One Leader’s Job

I believe a key part of my role as CEO is to listen and learn from our people. But I don’t have a monopoly on gathering feedback at Deloitte Consulting. Our other Consulting leaders regularly travel to other Deloitte locations, including Deloitte University, and meet with practitioners at all levels for the same kind of conversations and discussions.

As part of the Unmuted series, I make sure to bring our other Consulting leaders with me. We hear consistently in the follow-up survey to each Unmuted event (yes, we collect feedback on the feedback sessions) that this access to leadership is valuable and that the team enjoys hearing other leaders’ perspectives beyond just mine (I too get tired of hearing my own voice!).

It’s s also beneficial for my fellow leaders to experience the personal, thought-provoking conversations that we are having. For example, I recently asked a number of our leadership team members to join me for one of our Unmuted conversations and, during that conversation, we received some amazing feedback from the participants. My colleague told me afterwards about how incredibly impressed he was by one of our professionals who has only been at Deloitte Consulting for two months and was already contributing helpful ideas about how our organization could improve. It’s always good for senior leaders to be reminded of the amazing talent we have on our teams, and it’s helpful for them to hear feedback directly from our teammates instead of filtered through me or others.

Lesson #3: Take Advantage of the Format

In my last article, I talked about how we used some of our digital tools and hybrid ways of working to gather feedback at scale on certain topics. Those tools have been extremely helpful and have informed a lot of our decision making. However, I know there are plenty of topics that are much more complex and can be harder to tackle in those larger forums, especially when you want to be able to answer questions and provide more detail. So, during these Unmuted conversations, we take advantage of the small group setting to really dig in.

Our topics range from broad (like the future of Deloitte Consulting) to specific (such as how to better integrate two teams that have recently merged). We are able to discuss things with more nuance than if we were in a bigger setting, and it is helpful for me to see where our teams are looking for more clarity, context, and guidance.

Smaller conversations like this also call for a more casual conversation style. You can’t prep for what questions people might have – you simply need to do your best to answer them. And that is one of the things I loved about these sessions, because the conversations are driven by the people in the room, which allow for the dialogue to be more genuine and candid.

What participants tell me is that this type of conversation is extremely valuable, in addition to broader town halls, debates, or unmoderated chats. People value the opportunity to ask questions directly and tell me that the unscripted nature (compared to a standard town hall meeting) lends itself to more authenticity and connection.

The feedback I get from these conversations, paired with what we get from our feedback at scale initiatives, helps paint a more holistic picture of what our team is feeling and thinking about than either one could do alone.

Why it Matters

As 2023 gets into full swing, it’s clear that the only answer about the future is that there is no answer. The external economic and business environment is continuing to change, and organizations across the country are still grappling with when, where and how people work and how all that impacts an organization’s culture.

It’s a moment where leaders are called to make a lot of decisions – important decisions, ones that can have a major impact on your organization for years down the road. Feedback from your team (your entire team across all “levels” not just your senior leadership team) is critical to making these decisions in a way that help to make your team stronger and your entire organization better.

Feedback is an art, not a science, but there are important considerations that can help you maximize the effectiveness of the feedback you get. My hope is that you can apply some of these lessons in your own organizations and teams, no matter the size or scale, to get the feedback you need to shape a successful future for your organization and build a stronger culture. #culturefirst #feedback