When Roger fell out of his boat into the frigid waters of Blockhouse Bay yesterday, I was watching from a dock.

As his boat headed down the bay without a captain, he began to tread water, shaking with cold.

I called out to Mike and Bernie, whose boats were nearby. They zoomed to the rescue at top speed, pulling him onboard in under three minutes.

They captured his wayward boat and brought Roger back to shore, humiliated but unharmed.

The intriguing element to this story is that the day before, Mike and Bernie attended a seminar on water safety. As they set out in their boats, they joked, "Let's go find someone to rescue!"

It turned out to be more than a joke. They had prepared themselves with valuable information and plans, to save my friend Roger.

There's a parallel here to 360-degree feedback, where a fall into the frigid waters of error can have serious consequences. It's so important to prepare our rescue strategies in advance.

1. Keep participants out of danger

In the complexity of setting up a 360 project, it's easy to forget how much the participants worry about being judged. They will read every detail of their final reports with anxiety.

By offering them preparatory seminars and coaching, we can help them out of frigid water and into warm dry clothing.

2. Protecting responders' confidentiality

If someone discovers that you have made critical comments about them in a 360, you fear the impact on your relationship with that person, on your salary, your promotions, even your job security.

That's why responders need brief, effective training in how to write so the feedback doesn't reveal their identity.

Even more valuable is learning to present critical feedback so that the recipient wants to "hear" it, rather than rejecting it.

That means being kind as well as frank, specific rather than general, and assuming the best about the recipient.

3. Keeping the organization from slipping into frigid water

You've put a lot of thought and work into your 360 initiative.

Don't let it drown by failing to think through worst case scenarios in advance and planning for safety.

OK. Now let's go find someone to rescue!