360 Review

Inevitably, strategies structures and people throughout the Armouries have changed, and will continue to change. By helping individuals understand and develop new skills and approaches competencies have played a crucial part in enabling changes.

But, the Royal Armouries (RA) has chosen a different, radical approach to competencies. An organisation oozing with history creates innovative HR!

Perhaps the most striking thing about the RA's approach is what it has not done. Knowing that the next two or three years would bring more change, which would make even the most carefully developed competencies obsolete, RA did no competency research. No focus groups, no interviews, no consultation.

Instead, RA adapted a set of "off the shelf" competencies. But, the RA did not impose those competencies; they helped individuals choose the competencies crucial to their different roles. There was real choice; even individuals with the same job chose different competencies. The RA recognised that there is always diversity within every role.

Briefing meetings helped individuals identify the competencies important them. Salespeople, curators, finance managers, HR managers chose from a "menu" of 23 competencies by examining the skills needed to tackle the future challenges of their roles. Most individuals selected eight or nine competencies, and a few people revised their choices a little in the following days.

A subsequent one-day "360 Feedback Workshop" provided each person with 360 Feedback on his/her chosen competencies, and helped them develop practical action plans.

Speed was the RA's initial reason for offering choice and tailor-made feedback. And, it was fast! Within a month an individual, who previously knew nothing about competencies, had helpful, pertinent feedback, and were strengthening their skills and performance.

The 360 Feedback Workshops seem to be very successful. Participants described the Workshops with adjectives such as "extremely helpful" and "enjoyable". They were unanimous in saying the Workshops…

• Provided a clear, useful assessment of their strengths and relative weaknesses.
• Explored and explain the 360 feedback in helpful ways.
• Produced a practical, careful plan for achieving something really important in the business

The things the participants really liked were the clarity of their 360 Feedback reports, and the creative, yet practical, approach to action planning.

There were other important advantages to RA in addition to quick, successful delivery. Costs were a fraction of those associated with the traditional approach to competencies, because there was much less to do. The budget needed to research each of RA's many job roles would have been massive. Smaller projects are both quicker and cheaper!

But, there's another really important benefit to doing things the RA's way. Individuals thought carefully about the challenges they will face, and made informed decisions about the competencies important to them. Unsurprisingly, individuals had far greater understanding and ownership of their competencies, than is often produced by competencies developed by HR.