What if your leadership team had a feedback method that involved more creative play and less complexity?

If you're from the UK or are familiar with the popular card game Top Trumps, feel free to skip these first two explanatory paragraphs; for everyone else, let me briefly explain Top Trumps before moving on. Top Trumps is a card game you can play with any number of people. The basic premise is that everyone gets an even number of random cards from the deck. The decks have categories like sports cars, dinosaurs, or even Harry Potter characters.

The cards in the deck display the key criteria used for comparison during the game. For example, if the deck were sports cars, your key (performance) criteria would be things like top speed, 0-60 in how many seconds, cool factor, or engine size. For instance, if you had a Ferrari card with a top speed of 217 mph, you would declare to others playing – "top speed 217mph." If they couldn't match or beat this criteria, you would win their cards. If there is a draw, you face off with that person until there is a winner. You win this game when you win all the cards from other players by selecting key (performance) criteria that "tops" others.

As you can imagine, this game requires a certain familiarity with the deck category and the cards within the deck. Winning can take a long time due to the constant fluctuation of cards. Here are a few other truths in this fun game:

• There's always a "Top Trump" in every deck. This card (characters, vehicle, animal, or machine) is the hardest to beat. In a Harry Potter Top Trump deck, the Top Trump is, of course, Harry Potter. In a dinosaur deck, the Top Trump might be a tyrannosaurus Rex, or in a men's football player deck, it might be Lionel Messi.?
• Even though there's typically a Top-Trump, it can be beaten by a card that has one performance category slightly higher.
• The more you play the game, the more familiar you are with the cards, and you will eventually understand which category will give you the best chance to win that hand.

Top Trumps have been a staple in my house since my kids could read. Well, to be honest, my youngest started when he was three. Every number he announced was "ninety-ninety," and we let him win all the cards because it was so adorable. So, what does this have to do with feedback on leadership teams? - I've been wondering lately what it would look like if a leadership team had their own Top Trump deck. How would they go about creating that? What performance categories would they choose? How would they make the process simple while adding some levity to the discussions (notice FASHION is a category on the cover graphic cards)? How would they make that effort safe for everyone? Would everyone agree with their rating if the team rated each other on the performance categories? Would anyone be (pleasantly or unpleasantly) surprised? Would there be a "Top Trump"? If so, could another leader beat them in a particular category? What if the Top Trump wasn't the person at the top? Could they handle that?

And what if they could play the game with each other? Would they be happy if they were dealt their own card? How would you play yourself? What if they had cards that were not so great – how would they play those? How would that team view "winning" this game if they designed the cards and played a round or two?

You could argue that, given enough strong cards to begin with, the Top leader (or CEO) should win the game. After all, shouldn't the "boss" know their team's strengths better than anyone else? If I imagine a high-performing and trusting team playing their own Top Trumps card game, here's what I'd imagine seeing:

• Much laughing. Laugher, especially at yourself, helps the ego take a break. As long as the laughter is from a place of knowing, it's assured there is safety in the room.
• It's no surprise, but there might be some half-hearted objections. High-performing teams also frequently give and receive feedback with clear intentions and positive motives. If you get your own card and are surprised, that might be an area of concern.
• Lots of metaphors for how the team functions. Shouldn't any team be incredibly astute at leveraging the best of everyone through any situation? The eventual winner of this card game would have precisely done that, with a little bit of luck.
• A desire to make realistic gains in the performance categories and requests to revisit the game as people grow and the team changes.????

?

If you've been paying attention, you can see many parallels between my questions and the questions we ask when completing things like 360 performance reviews, giving and receiving feedback, creating psychological safety, succession planning and talent reviews. A 360 assessment is a diagnostic tool that captures a moment in time with some recency effect, but what leaders really want to know, and what’s motivating to hear, is - what habits and behaviors do I need to shift in the future, followed by detailed examples of how to do that.??? ?

There’s a great deal of value in most talent management tools, like 360-degree feedback. The challenge with many tools we use is that they are overly diagnostic at the same time; I wonder if there are alternative methods of achieving the same result by reducing complexity and adding some creative play while dismissing the notion that everyone's performance is a secret.

?

Written with Permission from Winning Moves UK Ltd.