What if you never felt pain? At first it sounds great. I twisted my ankle and it hurts right now. I wish it didn’t. But, pain plays an important role in preventing humans from hurting ourselves or ignoring serious medical conditions. In fact, as Bill Gates notes, the body is designed as a giant continuous feedback system. Your brain tells your hand to grab the handle of the pot. Your hand tells your bran, “Yikes, it’s hot!” Your brain tells your hand to let go. In fact there are a few people born without the ability to feel pain. The feedback loop is broken and they can sustain serious injuries. Continuous feedback from the nerves to the brain, including sensations of pain and more pleasant ones, is necessary for normal human function. Successful companies apply the same principal to the coordinated actions of their business.

In order to be useful, continuous feedback in business must be:

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Accurate

When you touch the hot handle of a pot, the message sent to your brain is not ambiguous. You’re pretty clear with yourself about whether it is mildly uncomfortable or likely to cause blisters and your brain initiates an appropriate reaction. In business, feedback must also be as accurate and nuanced so that leaders can determine if a situation needs to be monitored or if immediate action is warranted. Asking employees to predict not only the likelihood of goal achievement, but also the quality with which the goal will be achieved is one method of ensuring accurate, valuable feedback..

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Timely

It wouldn’t be very useful if your hand felt the heat half an hour after you touched the hot pot. Unfortunately, leaders who wait for quarterly or annual performance reviews to measure progress toward individual goals miss the opportunity to react emerging situations before they become critical. Checking the status of objectives weekly puts leaders in the position to respond quickly.

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Bi-Directional

When some managers think of feedback, they think specifically about telling employees how they are doing vs. performance objectives. This is useful, but incomplete. It is also important that employees be given the opportunity to report conditions on the ground and provide insight into whether they have the resources, support and time they need to get the job done well.

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Your nervous system provides a built in continuous feedback system for your body. Your company didn’t come with one, but business management systems that provide a platform for automating feedback around company goals and objectives can provide the necessary support for this critical function.