Five Design Elements in the Task Cycle® Surveys from Clark Wilson Group

Observable Behavior: The Key to Reliability

Want a good feedback instrument? Better make sure that people are able to observe the behavior you are asking about. This may sound obvious, but it is easier said than done. Think about it. When you are rating someone on a 360 feedback survey, you really can't answer a question about something inside that person's head. It would not be a reliable answer. You can, however, answer a question about their behavior. That is more reliable.

One of the first questions we ask when we design feedback surveys is, "What are the observable characteristics? What are the behaviors that we can see that are important to a certain role?" Observability leads to consistency among raters. Because consistency leads to survey reliability, it is one of the key aspects of well designed 360 assessments.

Role Relevance: Another Key to Validity

Role relevance is the second key element of the validated surveys in the Clark Wilson Group product line. These surveys are based on research about the behaviors most relevant to a specific role. Different skills, such as planning or influencing, are practiced to some degree at all levels. But controlling work flow, for instance, is much more frequently practiced at the management level, while vision and influence are more frequently called upon in leadership roles.

Trainability: Key to Performance Improvement

One of the major goals of the Wilson system is to offer reports that an individual can use in training and development. This is one element that sets Task Cycle surveys apart in the marketplace. A lot of people get confused on this feature, because intuitively many think that personality characteristics--not behaviors--need to be measured. Unfortunately, these lead to understanding aspects of aspects of performance that aren't readily addressed by training. One of the reasons that we don't recommend Wilson surveys for performance appraisal is because they are so focused on specific behaviors. In an appraisal, you would consider all aspects of an individual's performance, including skills, motivations, temperament, job fit and many things that are not really addressed by training. Wilson surveys question those things that people can actually change.

Independent Factors Simplify the Challenge

The fourth element - and this one is subtle - is independence of the management behaviors from one another. In mathematical terms, we look for independent factors. When a factor is identified, it means we've identified a skill that can be mastered without having to simultaneously master another. For example, you can improve your planning skills without having to concurrently strengthen your communications skills. Here's another good example: Someone who is good at goal setting may or may not be good at planning. The behaviors are independent and don't always show up in the same person. Both factors are important, especially in terms of coaching.

The beauty of independent factors in survey design is that they restrict the survey to the minimum number of items that cover the maximum amount of relevant behavior.

For example, an employer might study competencies like persuasiveness, and then another competency like negotiating skill. Those two competencies are highly related to one another. If the person has mastered one, they have probably mastered the other. We avoid two scales that really measure the same skill. It's inefficient from a diagnostic standpoint. From a coaching standpoint, it can be quite confusing. It looks like a person has a lot to do, when really they only have one thing to do.

The importance of factors is not obvious initially, but it's one of the most important subtleties built into the design. Sometimes I've been asked if the dimensions on Wilson reports are correlated at all. The answer I give is that, yes, to some extent they can be. They cluster together, if you look at them graphically. Even though they are correlated, however, they are not correlated to the extent that they are always going to be present in the same person.

To summarize, here are the first four key design elements behind all of the Task Cycle surveys.

Hierarchy of Chained Behaviors: The Key

There is one final design element that completes the design of the Wilson surveys, however. That is "flow" or "sequence". For that, we turn to the Task Cycle.

This is the element that makes the Task Cycle surveys unique.

The Task Cycle came about a little bit by accident. When Clark Wilson was first working with this approach, he wanted to make it easy for people to remember their feedback. One of the fundamental tenets of learning theory is that it's easier to learn a chain of events than a series of independent events (clustered learning versus independent learning). He decided to put the independent skills in a sequence to make them easy to learn. The sequence includes these phases:

1) Establishing the purpose/Communicating goals
2) Laying the foundation/Planning and problem-solving
3) Sustaining the effort/Facilitating others
4) Feedback/Obtaining and providing
5) Monitoring and adjusting/Exercising positive control
6) Reinforcing performance/Recognizing others.

The real breakthrough occurred when Wilson discovered there was actually a mathematical basis not only for the independent factors, but for the sequence itself. In other words, there really is a sequence of steps that significantly enhances individual effectiveness in management and leadership roles.

That is the magic of the Task Cycle.

It is a very powerful learning tool. People can be given a set of data, and once they understand how to interpret it, they can say to themselves: it's related to my role, it's consistent among the raters, it's talking about things I can learn to do better, the recommended skills are independent of one another, and now I know in what order I have to do them. This can work to give them the feeling of optimism by setting up a challenge they feel they can meet.

Because of its strong design criteria and extensive research database, I feel that the Task Cycle Surveys from Clark Wilson Group are the best on the market today. That is why our organization represents them and has for nearly fifteen years.

For more information about the Task Cycle Theory or any of the surveys, you may wish to attend a Certification Workshop. Look at our web site for dates and places.