Feedback is not a loop until someone checks whether behavior changed.
Most companies have feedback events: a comment in a one-on-one, a Slack nudge, a review note, a tense conversation. Events can help, but they do not create a system. A loop has an expected behavior, an observation, a correction, a practice opportunity, and a follow-up.
This matters because people often understand feedback intellectually and still repeat the pattern. The work changes when feedback is tied to a real moment: the next customer call, the next roadmap review, the next forecast, the next handoff, the next written decision.
Managers should stop measuring whether feedback was "delivered" and start measuring whether the work changed. If nothing changes, either the feedback was unclear, the standard was unrealistic, the person lacks skill, or the consequence is too weak.
Operator artifact: create a feedback-loop log with four columns: behavior to change, next observable moment, practice/support, follow-up evidence.
Field test: take one piece of feedback and schedule the next observation before the conversation ends.
This is part 7 of 10 in People Systems That Actually Raise the Bar.
