Fostering Open Feedback Loops

That’s the thing about feedback—you can’t just ask for it once and call it a day. I learned this the hard way. Early on, I’d send out surveys after product launches, thinking I was doing enough. But here’s what happened: responses trickled in, and the insights felt either outdated or too general by the time we acted on them. It hit me: feedback isn’t a one-time event—it’s an ongoing process, and that’s where feedback loops come into play. A feedback loop is a system where you consistently collect, analyze, and act on customer insights. It’s not just about gathering input but creating an ongoing dialogue that shapes your product, service, or messaging architecture in real-time. When done right, feedback loops build emotional resonance with your audience. They show customers you’re not just listening—you’re evolving based on what they need. How can you build effective feedback loops? → Embed feedback opportunities into the customer journey: Don’t wait until the end of a cycle to ask for input. Include feedback points within key moments—like after onboarding, post-purchase, or following customer support interactions. These micro-moments keep the loop alive and relevant. → Leverage multiple channels for input: People share feedback differently. Use a mix of surveys, live chat, community polls, and social media listening to capture diverse perspectives. This enriches your feedback loop with varied insights. → Automate small, actionable nudges: Implement automated follow-ups asking users to rate their experience or suggest improvements. This not only gathers real-time data but also fosters a culture of continuous improvement. But here’s the challenge—feedback loops can easily become overwhelming. When you’re swimming in data, it’s tough to decide what to act on, and there’s always the risk of analysis paralysis. Here’s how you manage it: → Define the building blocks of useful feedback: Prioritize feedback that aligns with your brand’s goals or messaging architecture. Not every suggestion needs action—focus on trends that impact customer experience or growth. → Close the loop publicly: When customers see their input being acted upon, they feel heard. Announce product improvements or service changes driven by customer feedback. It builds trust and strengthens emotional resonance. → Involve your team in the loop: Feedback isn’t just for customer support or marketing—it’s a company-wide asset. Use feedback loops to align cross-functional teams, ensuring insights flow seamlessly between product, marketing, and operations. When feedback becomes a living system, it shifts from being a reactive task to a proactive strategy. It’s not just about gathering opinions—it’s about creating a continuous conversation that shapes your brand in real-time. And as we’ve learned, that’s where real value lies—building something dynamic, adaptive, and truly connected to your audience. #storytelling #marketing #customermarketing

Learning doesn’t happen in reports; it happens in loops. On Monday, we talked about how learning often gets lost when our feedback loops are broken. But what do strong feedback loops actually look like in practice? When data and insights travel upward, downward, and across the system, teams start to adapt faster, engage deeper, and make smarter decisions. Here are the three loops that keep your MEL system alive ⬆️Upward Feedback Loops – From Field to Leadership This is how learning travels from the field to inform strategic and funding decisions. Example: Field officers summarize insights from community meetings into short learning briefs. These briefs are shared in quarterly management reviews to inform what gets scaled, paused, or redesigned. Why it matters: Without upward loops, decision-makers fly blind and data collectors feel unheard. ⬇️Downward Feedback Loops – From Leadership to Communities This is how learning returns to those who shared the data in the first place. Example: A project shares simplified dashboards in community meetings to show progress, discuss gaps, and co-create next steps. Why it matters: Closing the loop builds trust, accountability, and stronger collaboration. ↔️Horizontal Feedback Loops – Across Teams and Partners This is how learning moves sideways, peer-to-peer, country-to-country, or between partners. Example: Teams from different regions host “learning exchanges” to compare what’s working in similar interventions. Why it matters: Horizontal loops turn learning into a shared asset rather than a siloed report. When all three loops are intentional, learning stops being an event and becomes a culture. PS: Which loop is strongest in your MEL system, and which one tends to break down?

The higher you rise, the less feedback you get! Dangerous! Great leaders actively seek out the truth: Gathering open and honest feedback as a senior leader is no walk in the park. It’s crucial for leadership improvement and organizational success. Real, unfiltered feedback can be transformational. But how do you get it when you’re at the top? Here are six ways, that can make a difference: 1/ Anonymous Surveys: Allow team members to provide feedback without the fear of repercussions. Use tools like SurveyMonkey or Google Forms. 2/ 360 Degree Feedback: Get insights from all directions. Peers, subordinates, and even your own superiors. A comprehensive view can reveal blind spots and areas for growth. 3/ Regular One-on-Ones: Create a safe space for open dialogue. Ask specific questions about your leadership and be prepared to listen actively. 4/ External Coaches and Mentors: Sometimes, people are more comfortable sharing with a neutral third party. Coaches can gather feedback and share it with you constructively. 5/ Feedback Panels: Assemble a group of trusted employees to provide regular, structured feedback. Rotate members to get diverse perspectives. 6/ OpenDoor Policy: Make sure your team knows they can approach you with feedback anytime. Encourage a culture where constructive criticism is not just accepted but valued. Once you’ve gathered feedback, it’s essential to take these steps to ensure it leads to real improvement: → Acknowledge and Thank: Always thank those who provide feedback. Acknowledge their courage and honesty. → Reflect and Assess: Take time to reflect on the feedback. Assess what changes are necessary and prioritize them. → Action Plan: Develop a clear, actionable plan based on the feedback. Share this plan with your team to show you’re serious about improvement. → Follow-Up: Regularly check in with those who provided feedback. Ask them if they’ve noticed improvements or if there are new areas to address. → Be Transparent: Share your journey of improvement with your team. Transparency builds trust and shows you’re committed to your growth. → Close the Loop: Ensure that feedback leads to action, and action leads to further feedback. This continuous loop fosters a culture of ongoing improvement. The best leaders are those who are willing to learn and grow. Feedback is your ally in this journey. How do you gather feedback in your leadership role? --- ♻️ Reshare to help other leaders grow. Follow Mike Leber for more like this. #Leadership #Feedback #PersonalGrowth

The Feedback Loop Revolution: Why Annual Reviews Are Dead Alex sat across from his manager, stunned. "I'm not meeting expectations? But... this is the first I'm hearing of it." His manager shifted uncomfortably. "Well, there was that project last February where the client presentation wasn't up to par. And in April, your report lacked the depth we needed." "That was ten months ago," Alex said quietly. "Why am I just hearing this now?" This scene plays out in offices worldwide every day. The annual performance review continues to be the primary feedback mechanism in many organizations. It's a system that fails everyone involved. For employees like Alex, it means navigating in the dark for months, only to be blindsided by feedback too late to act upon. For managers, it means the impossible task of remembering a year's worth of performance details and delivering them in a way that somehow feels fair and comprehensive. Contrast this with Emma's experience at a company using Maxwell's continuous feedback approach. After presenting to a client, Emma received a notification: "Great job addressing the client's technical concerns today. Your preparation showed. One suggestion: Consider preparing more visual examples for non-technical stakeholders next time." The feedback was specific, timely, and actionable. Emma immediately incorporated the suggestion into her next presentation. No waiting. No guessing. Just growth. "The difference is night and day," Emma explains. "Before, feedback felt like a judgment on my worth. Now, it's just part of our daily workflow—a tool that helps me improve in real-time." This is the feedback loop revolution. It's not just about frequency; it's about fundamentally changing how we think about performance and growth. Maxwell's approach transforms feedback from an event into a continuous conversation. The platform enables immediate, context-specific feedback that arrives when it's most relevant; two-way dialogue that empowers employees to seek input when they need it; recognition that celebrates wins in the moment, not months later; and early intervention for performance challenges before they become patterns. Organizations using continuous feedback report 34% higher employee engagement, 26% lower voluntary turnover, and 22% faster skill development compared to those relying on annual reviews. For managers, the shift from annual reviewer to ongoing coach is equally transformative. Instead of dreading a single high-stakes conversation, they build coaching into their regular interactions, strengthening relationships and improving outcomes. The companies thriving today understand that growth happens in moments, not meetings. They're creating cultures where feedback flows naturally, where employees feel supported rather than judged, and where improvement is continuous rather than annual. Ready to leave annual reviews behind? Experience the future of feedback with Maxwell: https://lnkd.in/gR_YnqyU

💬 When Listening Isn’t Enough: Designing Teams That Act on Employee Feedback We’ve all seen it: ✔️ The survey goes out ✔️ The insights come in ❌ And then… crickets. Listening without action is like watching the director’s cut without ever releasing the film. Great feedback loops don’t just collect opinions, they shape how organizations operate. Companies like Medallia are proving this: Employee Experience (EX) is no longer just about sentiment. It’s about designing teams, workflows, and leadership models that respond in real time. Here's an example: Schneider Electric wanted to boost employee engagement and retention, especially among frontline and distributed workers who often felt disconnected from corporate decision-making. What Medallia Did: Using Medallia’s Employee Experience (EX) platform, Schneider Electric implemented a real-time listening strategy that went beyond annual surveys. They deployed: - Pulse surveys tied to key employee lifecycle moments (e.g., onboarding, team transitions) - Text analytics and sentiment analysis to uncover patterns in open-ended feedback - Customized dashboards for local leaders and HRBPs to take targeted action The Outcome: Managers received tailored insights along with "action nudges"—specific, behavior-based suggestions to improve engagement on their teams. Leadership teams reorganized internal mobility pathways after identifying a common blocker in feedback around career progression. Engagement scores improved, especially among underrepresented groups and early-career employees. 🎯 The real competitive edge? Org design that closes the loop: -Leaders trained to recognize signal from noise -Team structures flexible enough to act on input -Feedback tied directly to decision rights and resourcing Systems in place to show employees: we heard you, and here’s what we did Because trust isn’t built in surveys—it’s built in what happens next. 📊 I’m curious—what’s one way your org has acted on employee feedback in the past year? #EmployeeExperience #OrganizationalDesign #LeadershipDevelopment #Medallia #PeopleStrategy #TrustBuilding #EXtoAction #HRInnovation

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗜𝗺𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝗙𝗲𝗲𝗱𝗯𝗮𝗰𝗸 𝗶𝗻 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗗𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗹𝗼𝗽𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 🗣️ Ever feel like your Learning and Development (L&D) programs are missing the mark? You're not alone. One of the biggest pitfalls in L&D is the lack of mechanisms for collecting and acting on employee feedback. Without this crucial component, your initiatives may fail to address the real needs and preferences of your team, leaving them disengaged and underprepared. 📌 And here's the kicker—if you ignore this, your L&D efforts risk becoming irrelevant, wasting valuable resources, and ultimately failing to develop the skills your workforce truly needs. But don't worry—there’s a straightforward fix: integrate feedback loops into your L&D programs. Here’s a clear plan to get started: 📝 Surveys and Questionnaires: Regularly distribute surveys and questionnaires to gather insights on what’s working and what isn’t. Keep them short and focused to maximize response rates and actionable feedback. 📝 Focus Groups: Organize small focus groups to dive deeper into specific issues. This setting allows for more detailed discussions and nuanced understanding of employee needs and preferences. 📝 Real-Time Polling: Use real-time polling tools during training sessions to gauge immediate reactions and make on-the-fly adjustments. This keeps the learning experience dynamic and responsive. 📝 One-on-One Interviews: Conduct one-on-one interviews with a diverse cross-section of employees to get a more personal and detailed perspective. This can uncover insights that broader surveys might miss. 📝 Anonymous Feedback Channels: Ensure there are anonymous ways for employees to provide feedback. This encourages honesty and helps identify issues that employees might be hesitant to discuss openly. 📝 Feedback Integration: Don’t just collect feedback—act on it. Regularly review the feedback and make necessary adjustments to your L&D programs. Communicate these changes to employees to show that their input is valued and acted upon. 📝 Continuous Monitoring: Use analytics tools to continuously monitor engagement and performance metrics. This provides ongoing data to help refine and improve your L&D initiatives. Integrating these feedback mechanisms will not only enhance the effectiveness of your L&D programs but also boost employee engagement and satisfaction. When employees see that their feedback leads to tangible changes, they are more likely to be invested in the learning process. Have any innovative ways to incorporate feedback into L&D? Drop your tips in the comments! ⬇️ #LearningAndDevelopment #EmployeeEngagement #ContinuousImprovement #FeedbackLoop #ProfessionalDevelopment #TrainingInnovation

Feedback is your ally, not your enemy. It's tough to hear; tougher to ask for. But you should do it, whether you’re the leader of an organization or an individual contributor. How to solicit it effectively? Here are five steps. Embrace discomfort as growth. It's hard to hear we’re not perfect. But let’s be honest, we know we’re not. Getting feedback can help us see our blindspots and make us better.  Ask a focused, but open-ended question. Instead of asking, “Any feedback?”, ask questions that invite specific insights, like “What’s one thing I could stop doing or do differently to better  ___?” Fill in the blank with an area you’re hoping to excel in.  Give the feedback-giver time to think. If you’re asking it in-person, it can be as uncomfortable for the feedback giver as it is for you. If you’re asking through a survey, consider making it anonymous so people can give open, honest feedback. Listen with the intent to understand, not to defend. Acknowledge the feedback without judgment. Look for the kernel of truth in it.  Act on feedback and communicate back. Show you value their input by taking visible action. Close the feedback loop by sharing how you’ve implemented the suggestions or why certain advice couldn’t be acted upon at this time. This shows your commitment to improvement and encourages continued honest dialogue. I’ve observed leaders engage in “feedback theater” – soliciting feedback to appear to care about their team or organization, but dismissing it and moving on. In contrast, some leaders genuinely want feedback, but then ignore it, even when it’s specific and consistent. These behaviors effectively erode trust, disengage teams, and undermine commitment. Embracing feedback with courage, humility and a commitment to growth not only elevates your leadership but also builds a foundation of trust and transparency.

In just a few moments you will know the one concept that would help dietetics increase pattern recognition, course correct before problems compound, build real accountability, and create genuine trust between members and leadership. One of the most important things I do as a systems architect is map feedback loops. Before I can design an intervention, program, or strategy, I need to understand how information moves through a system and whether it is capable of learning from itself or simply repeating what it has always done. A feedback loop occurs when something happens at the edges of a system, that information travels back to the center, the center responds, and the system changes in a way that benefits everyone inside it. Without feedback loops a system cannot learn. It can only broadcast. This distinction is arguably one of the most significant structural gaps in how the nutrition and dietetics profession is currently organized. Most professional organizations have two things that look like feedback loops but functionally are not. The first is the broadcast, which includes president's messages, town halls, webinars, and newsletters where information flows in one direction from leadership to members and nothing of substance travels back. The second is the formal governance structure, which includes committees, elected boards, and delegate systems that do matter and serve a purpose but require members to already have access, time, credentials, and connections to participate. Neither of these is designed to capture what the frontline practitioner in a rural clinic or the new grad navigating their first job actually knows and needs. A real feedback loop requires three things that are largely absent from how many professional organizations operate. 1. A visible channel where problems can surface publicly rather than disappearing into a staff inbox through a contact form 2. A response that is equally visible so that when one person's problem gets resolved, the other people who have the exact same problem can benefit from that resolution rather than starting from zero 3. Evidence that the information actually changed something, because without that evidence the loop never closes So what would this look like in practice? To start, open community sessions on a rotating basis, bringing in different leaders, committee chairs, and practice group representatives throughout the year so that anyone can show up, ask real questions, and everyone learns from the conversation in real time. And a publicly accessible forum where problems surface visibly, not locked behind a membership paywall, so that a pre-dietetics student, a new grad, and a 20 year practitioner can all see the same issues, contribute to the same solutions, and watch the system respond. The best part about this system is that the effort is distributed. When the community owns the process the burden stays low and the learning stays high.

My AI lesson of the week: The tech isn't the hard part…it's the people! During my prior work at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), we talked a lot about how any technology, whether a new drug or a new vaccine or a new information tool, would face challenges with how to integrate into the complex human systems that alway at play in healthcare. As I get deeper and deeper into AI, I am not surprised to see that those same challenges exist with this cadre of technology as well. It’s not the tech that limits us; the real complexity lies in driving adoption across diverse teams, workflows, and mindsets. And it’s not just implementation alone that will get to real ROI from AI—it’s the changes that will occur to our workflows that will generate the value. That’s why we are thinking differently about how to approach change management. We’re approaching the workflow integration with the same discipline and structure as any core system build. Our framework is designed to reduce friction, build momentum, and align people with outcomes from day one. Here’s the 5-point plan for how we're making that happen with health systems today: 🔹 AI Champion Program: We designate and train department-level champions who lead adoption efforts within their teams. These individuals become trusted internal experts, reducing dependency on central support and accelerating change. 🔹 An AI Academy: We produce concise, role-specific, training modules to deliver just-in-time knowledge to help all users get the most out of the gen AI tools that their systems are provisioning. 5-10 min modules ensures relevance and reduces training fatigue.  🔹 Staged Rollout: We don’t go live everywhere at once. Instead, we're beginning with an initial few locations/teams, refine based on feedback, and expand with proof points in hand. This staged approach minimizes risk and maximizes learning. 🔹 Feedback Loops: Change is not a one-way push. Host regular forums to capture insights from frontline users, close gaps, and refine processes continuously. Listening and modifying is part of the deployment strategy. 🔹 Visible Metrics: Transparent team or dept-based dashboards track progress and highlight wins. When staff can see measurable improvement—and their role in driving it—engagement improves dramatically. This isn’t workflow mapping. This is operational transformation—designed for scale, grounded in human behavior, and built to last. Technology will continue to evolve. But real leverage comes from aligning your people behind the change. We think that’s where competitive advantage is created—and sustained. #ExecutiveLeadership #ChangeManagement #DigitalTransformation #StrategyExecution #HealthTech #OperationalExcellence #ScalableChange

The Rollout Is Just the Starting Line. Now Listen, Learn, and Adapt Rolling out new technology isn’t a finish line; it’s where the real work begins. The first few weeks post-launch are critical. That’s when friction points surface, shortcuts emerge, and usage patterns reveal what’s working (and what’s not). That’s why smart leaders build robust feedback loops from day one, not as an afterthought. 📢 Create clear, no-hassle ways for employees to share real-time feedback (on usability, integration gaps, or where they’re getting stuck). 🔁 Commit to action: Based on that input, adjust workflows, refine dashboards, or tweak configurations. Even small changes show you’re listening. 🎯 Provide targeted follow-up training, focused on what people need help with, not what the vendor’s onboarding assumed. This isn’t about perfection on day one, it’s about building a system that adapts quickly and aligns with real user experience. Because when employees feel heard and supported, adoption doesn’t just stick, it accelerates. How are you closing the loop between user feedback and system evolution? If you need help, you can always talk to Digital Transformation Strategist.