Self and Peer Assessment
Self and Peer Assessment is a robust and straightforward method to build skills and improve communication in any group with a common interest or task. Here is an imaginary example for a team of leaders in an international NGO.
Step one
Explain the objective of the work and the method to the team.
Step two
The team lists (brainstorms), without evaluation, what successful leaders in their situation need to do to be effective.
Step three
The team decides by each person having (say) three votes from the combined list the most important criteria. (The team needs to make the method manageable in the time available).
Step four
Team members rate themselves against the criteria using a simple scoring system. (“10 “) I am outstanding at (say) accepting help. (“1”) I am poor at accepting help.
Step five
The team members rate each other against the criteria.
An example of the scores of a team member
Here is an abbreviated example of what the scores of a member of a small team might look like.
| Criteria | Member | Colleague 1 | Colleague 2 | Colleague 3 |
| Accepting help | 4 | 7 | 7 | 5 |
| Adaptability | 9 | 5 | 5 | 4 |
| Responsiveness | 7 | 6 | 5 | 7 |
| Delegation | 5 | 5 | 5 | 6 |
| Networking | 3 | 8 | 7 | 8 |
Step Six
This step is critical. Team members seek and offer feedback and learning based on the scores.
How to get value from the work
For instance, in the example above, the team member might ask their colleagues to explain their evaluations where this is a mismatch between how that person sees her or himself and how others see that person. “You think I am better at accepting help than I do and much better at networking. Why is that? What am I doing that is working?” Positive feedback like this will build confidence.
However, there is a gap the other way on adaptability. The team member could enquire about the reason for this observation and say, “It sounds like I am not as good at this as I think I am or could be. What could I do better? How can you help me?”
Where the self and peer assessment scores are the same, it will be easy for the team member to ask for help. “We all agree I am average at delegation. You (Colleague 3 have a reputation and a score that says you are great at this! How do you go about it? Can you help me?”
Finally
Give this time, so everyone assesses themselves and gives their feedback. The team members will realise that no one is perfect and can help each other.
This work can create a learning culture.
There is much more about this on the internet. It has been used widely in schools and further education but not much in the world of work.