Since the foundation of subject:RESOUL, SOUL has been a central topic for us in developing organizations and individuals. For us, SOUL means, among other things, bringing people into real contact with each other.

Four employees of Aroundhome have succeeded in doing so today by getting involved in an experiment and trying out our "SOUL:talk".

The SOUL:talk is based on the sociocratic development talk. It is a personal equivalent to the 270° feedback, i.e. the feedback recipient receives feedback from one employee, one colleagues and the direct manager. The exciting - and SOULful - aspect is that the feedback is not packaged in an anonymous questionnaire, but is exchanged personally. This is done on the basis of the following four key questions, which are answered one after the other:

• What does the feedback recipient (FN) do well in his role?

• What further strengths does the FN have?

• What development potential do I see?

• What is necessary or helpful for a change to take place?

Wow, this is challenging for everyone involved, even today:

• The feedback recipient (David in our case) makes himself extremely transparent, especially since he also formulates a self-evaluation on all key questions.

• The employee (Anisha was so courageous today) gives her boss feedback - which is unusual enough for some organizations - and has two other managers sitting in the room who are formally above her in the hierarchy. Of course, you then worry about what you can say in order not to harm your own boss or to take damage yourself.

• The colleague (thank you, Flo!) also asks himself, "what can and may I say here" and possibly "what does my manager think of me", who is probably also sitting in the room to give feedback.

• The manager of the feedback receiver should be a role model for good feedback anyway (and in our case Sascha really was), but still the manager makes himself transparent with his behaviour. For him, too, the situation is usually unfamiliar.

• As a facilitator, I am of course also curious as to whether we will succeed in gaining a comprehensive, fair and honest view of the feedback recipient.

And it’s especially this challenging situation, that makes everyone prepare more intensively for the joint appointment than it would be the case with a usual feedback talk or questionnaire-supported feedback. Everyone is excited and attentive to the matter and does their best for a good process! The great transparency also has its advantage: it ensures that feedback is well thought out and that the feedback recipient continues to work with the feedback in the end - after all, more people know about the feedback and this brings commitment into the process.

Today we experience together a harmonious, honest and helpful process, which is commented at the end with the following:

• Feedback recipient: "I was very skeptical at the beginning. Now I'm positively surprised how rich the conversation was! "I’d gladly do it again, I can only recommend it to others!”

• Employee: "I was worried at the beginning, but I was able to say everything honestly. Does that also work for me? I have no employees" [Remark: Sure, that also possible :)]

• Colleague: "It's awesome that we have such similar views and at the same time shared very good impulses." "I can take a lot from this for me, too!"

• Manager: "That was a very honest approach, we have to keep that." "Very good format, I would definitely do it again!”

If you feel like similar experiments and trust your organizational culture and your employees to be open enough, we promise new fuel for intensive exchange, an honest and authentic culture and lots of SOUL!