Designing Behavior Observations 1: Overview

In GideonSoft, behavior observations are organized by creating Events, which provide context, and then adding Behaviors within each Event. If Observations are configured at the Module level, they will be available in every new Instance that is created thereafter. If Observations are configured at the Instance level, they will only be available in that Instance.

 

To begin, select “Observations” from the left-menu of either the Module or Instance Homepage, and then click the “Design” button.

 

Creating an Observation Event

• Click “New Event”.
• Event Name … this will be displayed to end users, so it should be logical and clear.
• Who can record observations for this event? … Select all the Roles that belong to people who should be allowed to record observations during this event.
• Who can be observed for this event? … Select all the Roles that belong to people who can be observed during this event.
• Team Filter (optional) … lets you filter the target people list by teams.
• Notes (optional) … for internal use
• General Options … additional options that can provide additional context:
  • Allow comments to be added to observations
  • Require comments on all observations
  • Allow interactions to be specified in observations … enables observers to select multiple people involved in a behavior and indicate primary and secondary roles.
  • Single Target Mode (mobile only)
• People Options
  • Make evaluations as 360 assessments … requires 360 relationships to be set up
  • Include People … as targets of observation (default on)
  • Include Objects … to include instance objects (default is off)
  • Include Role Objects … to evaluate a Role (as opposed to a series of individual assessments for everyone assigned to the Role); default is off.
  • Include Team Objects … to evaluate a Team (as opposed to a series of individual assessments for everyone on the Team); default is off.
  • Copy evaluations to assigned people in Role/Team objects … Creates a copy or ‘shadow’ evaluation for every member of the Team.
• Click “Create Event”.

 

From here, you can add Pre-Questions and Behaviors.

 

Adding Pre-Questions to an Event

Pre-Questions are optional, and can be used to differentiate between Events that occur more than once. For example, there could be multiple training sessions, so you can ask “Which session?” with the possible responses “Morning”, “Midday”, and “Evening”. Enabling this feature prompts users to provide a response before recording a behavior.

• In the left panel, drag the Pre-Question item to the box in the middle of the page.
• Question … enter the question text.
• Responses … enter the possible responses.
  • You can separate them using commas, semi-colons or line breaks.
• Click “Add”.

 

Note: Multiple Pre-Questions can be added to a single Event and will be displayed consecutively.

 

Adding Behaviors to an Event

Typically, you would enter behaviors that are either desired (positive) or possible indications of a problem or concern (negative). Occasionally, behaviors may be neither positive nor negative (e.g. “Was not present at this event”), and Observations provides a method to capture these actions as well (neutral).

• You can add as many Behaviors as needed to a single Event. We recommend being mindful that too long a list can be overwhelming for observers, for them to search to find just the right one.
• The behaviors will be displayed alphabetically.

 

In the left panel, drag and drop one of the “Behavior” items (Positive, Negative or Neutral) or an “Action” item, to the box in the middle of the page. You will then see the following options:

• Label … this is the displayed behavior. For example, “Arrived late”.
• Severity … indicates how good or bad the behavior is weighted. For example, a minor safety violation might have a severity of “-1” while a major safety violation has a severity of “-3.”
• Behavior/Action Settings (optional)
  • Comments Required
  • Show behavior/action at the top of the list
  • Show behavior/action at the bottom of the list
• Filters … (optional) allow you to group similar behaviors together. This enables the observer to filter down the list of Behaviors shown for an Event.
  • Enter new filters in the box.
  • Separate each one with commas, semicolons or line breaks.
• Tags … (optional) can be used to group similar themes of Behaviors together across Events. This helps to track the types of Behaviors an individual is exhibiting across Events.
  • Enter new tags in the box.
  • Separate each one with commas, semicolons or line breaks.
  • For example, behaviors like “Encouraged teammates,” and “Stayed back to help” could be tagged as “Team Player”.
• Data … this ties behavior observation data into the data model.
  • Variable Name … uses the built in Variable Name Generator.
  • Variable Type … this is automatic and cannot be changed.
• Click “Add”.

 

When the Event is fully prepared, with some Behaviors, click “Publish”.

 

 

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Version(s): 19.3 and later