How do we know if we’re doing the right things or even walking the right path?
We rarely know everything before we start. Often, we have to take a few steps, invest some resources, and then pause to reassess whether adjustments are needed. The real problem isn’t the absence of ways to reassess—it’s the comfortable illusion that everything is fine. Too often, everything is reported as good news until the moment it unravels.
Think of feedback loops like a rear-view mirror. You can ignore it for a while and feel like the road ahead is clear—but sooner or later, something you didn’t see will crash into you.
ERP projects prove this again and again: GREEN on reports right up to User Acceptance Testing, then suddenly AMBER or RED and stuck there forever. Software selections follow the same pattern—hailed as the right choice, only to collapse when the vendor can’t deliver. Even in hiring, we discover after a year that our “great candidate” was the wrong fit.
As humans, we are optimistic, distracted, and often uninterested in questioning our own decisions—until it’s too late.
The antidote is deliberate feedback loops. Formal or informal, structured or ad hoc, scheduled or occasional—feedback loops give us the truth early enough to adapt. They don’t just inform us; they prevent blind optimism from turning into preventable disasters.
So ask yourself: where in your processes have you built your rear-view mirrors, and more importantly, how will you respond to what they reveal?
