When your company or organization is trying to implement a new culture or formulating one, it should hold a unique point. Because KG is trying to implement the new learning culture where learning doesn’t have to be in a class but you can learn through other media such as reading, videos and podcasts. By unique it can have a range of things, the unique approach, the unique ritual to make it more sticky, the unique culture and many more unique approaches. This unique point will bring out the stickiness factor more for everyone in the company. The author of The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell, defines the Stickiness Factor as the quality that compels people to pay close, sustained attention to a product, concept, or idea. The stickiness will depend on the context.  Bola, one of KG’s business units, had a really interesting ritual and requirement to work there. The requirement is that you can’t just like sports, you have to love it and be crazy about it. You can’t just know the surface or basic knowledge of the sport that you are into, you have to know facts about it. For example, if you are into Formula 1, you have to know the fact of the champion in 1997, which drivers use which car and so on. The unique ritual is that every Friday at 3 PM, either you have work to do or meetings, it would be stopped and everyone has to play soccer. Larisin and Corporate HRD have a common practice in implementing the learning culture. Once a week an employee has to do a “Ted Talk” where they share the knowledge they know to everyone there. This knowledge can be your expertise or something that you know or do for fun. In order to have the learning culture mindset by doing this kind of knowledge sharing can strengthen the need of learning culture. Since you have to share your knowledge you have to at least learn something. The unique approach talked in Harvard Business Review is “shocking rules”, in other words, rituals and practices that are memorable, so “bizarre,” that people inside the organization “encounter almost daily” and that people who hear about them wonder why they are necessary. There are many examples of this “shocking rules” such as Amazon where Jeff Bezos insisted that the office furniture are built or bought by buying cheap materials, especially the desk where they bought cheap doors and nail the legs to it. This shocking rule reminds everyone that even though they are one of the biggest online marketplaces with billions in revenue, they should look at every opportunity to save money so they can deliver the best products at the lowest cost. In the end, not every lock can be opened with every key. This unique approach may work at your business or company, but at times it wouldn’t. It could because of the previous culture was too great of a difference with the one you want to implement now. Shocking rules are worth the try.  

360 degree review is thought to be the best performance review, but there are still some things that lack in this review. In the example of Kompas Gramedia, there are some cases that 360 degree review causes fights and displeasures. The 360 degree review at Kompas Gramedia, as far as the writer knows, has some “holes” in it such as confidentiality and follow up. At times reviewer can give scores with no context, either high or low and it’s causing problems. For the best outcome and maximization of 360 degree review, Harvard Business Review has put out some factors that would affect 360 degree review. These factors include confidentiality, candor, transparency, customization, and follow up. Confidentiality Coworkers and direct-reports can be more honest when they are labeled as anonymous. Candor Being frank with the review, it relates with the confidentiality, since when the reviewer knows that their comments and review won’t be attributable to them they can be more open about their honest review. Making a review that will not be digested as being attacked or devalued is important. Transparency What it means by transparency in 360 degree review is the objective of the review. There are many examples where managers, either top or middle level use the review for different reason than as told to the employees. For example there is a case where top management use the 360 review where they told their employees that the review is to learn how they are being perceived from their peers, but behind that the managers are actually using it to see which employee is suitable to replace a few open positions for managers. With that example, it could lead to complaints and legal issues. Customization This factor relates if the company is using an online vendor or other vendor to build the 360 degree review dimensions. If the company is using a vendor, then the company should be choosing vendors that would customize the 360 degree review to the company’s needs. Follow up The follow-up is an important process too, most managers think that it doesn’t matter as much as giving the feedback. But the idiosyncratic effect of the manager would affect the development of the employees. Follow up means after the review, to make sure the employee understand the good and bad point, the manager should clear that with a 1 on 1 follow up. There are no perfect performance review, even the 360 degree review. But when it’s implemented thoughtfully they would provide valuable insights and reliable baseline for employee’s development. At times we have to pick the best out of what we have.  

Feedback is an important part of an employee's growth and development. Most managers and colleagues will give you a "sandwich" feedback. The "sandwich" feedback is where negative feedback is "sandwiched" between two positive feedback. This happens because they don't want you to feel bad. But should you receive a sugar coated feedback or not? Sugarcoated or “sandwich” type of feedback can be deliberate or unintentionally delivered. Deliberate feedback of delivery is usually done by colleagues that you asked for feedback or when they want to give you feedback. For as unintentional, most managers do so without realizing it.  Deliberate sandwich feedback is caused because it is a common thing to do. People do this because it's easier for people to hear and accept negative feedback when it comes with positive feedback. They assume the sandwich approach provides balanced feedback.They also believe by giving both negative and positive feedback reduces discomfort and anxiety. Managers unintentionally deliver sugarcoated feedback because of the illusion of transparency. The illusion of transparency makes the communication vague and the receiving end can misinterpret the intent of the feedback. It is where people are so focused on their own intense feelings and intentions that they overestimate the extent to which their inner world come across to others resulting in the words may be too vague to convey their true intent. In order to avoid misinterpretation of feedback you could dispel any incorrect assumptions by asking questions or by requesting managers to use precise, explicit terms when delivering feedback. If your manager doesn’t ask you to rearticulate what they have told you, you can try using statements that begin with “So if I’m understanding you correctly, you’re saying…”. As the person receiving the feedback, you should not fear the negative feedback. As an employee negative feedback should be a motivation that leads you to grow to be a better employee. It may be hard in our culture, a high context one, to receive negative feedback but just hearing positive feedback would make you a stagnant employee in his/her comfort zone.