Rypple brings employee coaching into the social media age. Infrequent meetings and annual or semi-annual performance evaluations are too slow and ineffective for workers who now communicate in real-time. In recent years, new management styles like “agile” software development and Toyota’s kaizen approach to manufacturing have brought the idea of frequent micro-feedback to workers, so they always know where they should be going. For today’s workers, using a social platform for coaching feels natural. These folks are on Facebook and maybe Twitter all the time, so why not use something similar to stay in touch with the boss and coworkers?

A Shared Private Space

To use Rypple for coaching an employee, whom we’ll call Debra, start by clicking on the “You & Dave” tab that appears on each employee’s profile page. (If it was Dave, the tab would read “You & Dave.”) This is a private space visible only to you and Debra. Here, you can see shared goals, exchange private notes, and assign specific actions as well as update those actions with comments. Finally, the shared manager-employee page is where Rypple lets you both prepare for regular one-on-one meetings.

You should still conduct these in person, but Rypple provides a place to prepare before the meeting without having to dig through old notes and emails. Everything is right there on one page, uncluttered by noise.

See What’s Being Said

Check the profile pages of all your direct reports regularly to see what thanks, praise, and feedback they’ve received from colleagues. Again, Rypple keeps important feedback from getting lost in email, text, or IM.

Guide Your Team with Goals

Rypple Goals are where you start to actively guide an employee. Go to the “You & Debra” page and in the upper right corner, look for Shared Goals. Click Add to create a new goal. Rypple presents you with a pop-up dialog that lists any goals you have already created, and any shared goals to which you already have access. It also lets you create a new goal.

To create a new goal for an employee, click Create Goal at the right of the popup dialog. The dialog will change to an input panel. Choose Private, so that only you and the employee can see the goal for now. (You can invite others later.)  Enter a name for the goal, then some objectives—specific activities you need to accomplish for the goal to be successful. Then click Next.

For a new goal, you can leave this next panel alone. It lets you invite other contributors if you choose. And it contains a default message telling the employee how to use Rypple to help meet the goal. Click Next.

Update Goals as Priorities Change

The next panel lets you input key results, such as “get Customer X to buy at least 10,000 seats”—the things that define success for that particular goal. It also provides a calendar deadline for the goal, such as the end of the quarter. Input these and click Next. The final panel lets you choose an icon image for the goal that will differentiate it on sight from the others in the employee’s list. You can choose from an archive of images, or click “Upload your own image” to customize the goal with an image you upload and crop. After you’ve chosen an image, click Done. The Goal will be added to the employee’s page, and they’ll also get a status update in their main feed telling them they have a new goal.

Once a goal has been created, you and the employee can click on it to add updates and comments, just like on Facebook. (If you invite other contributors later, they’ll also be able to post.)

Use Goals to Inspire Action

Going forward, turn the Goal into specific action items by going to the Goal’s page and typing into the Add Action box. A short, imperative sentence such as “attend the Web 2.0 conference to get leads” is best. You can also add actions for your fellow contributors. Look for the menu link below the box that says “For: You.” Click this to change the action to be for the employee instead. The employee will see these as “Action for Dave Smith.”

After you’ve created an Action, roll over it to see a list of options appear: Comment (again, it’s just like Facebook); Due Date (which pops up a calendar); Edit (which lets you change the text); and Delete. Use these to keep actions up to date. Moreover, as priorities change, you and the employee can drag and drop their list of actions to re-sort them.

Keep your employee’s view in mind: They will see a list of Goals on the right-hand side of their page. When they click on a goal, they will see a list of Actions for that Goal, kept up to date and commented upon. If you keep the list up to date, they’ll never have to go digging through your emails to figure out what you want from them.