This piece is adapted from an Operators Guild Focus Session, led by Grace Chung and Whitney Shinkle, on how to build a real feedback culture inside a high-growth organization, shaped by insights from experienced operators who have done this work across stages, functions, and org designs. Focus Sessions are small-group, member-only deep dives where operators pressure-test decisions, share lived experience, and get into the practical realities that never make it into public blog posts or conference talks.
If you want access to conversations like this — the recordings, the decks, and the community behind them — you can apply to join OG.
Building a real feedback culture is one of the hardest systems to build in a scaling company because it depends on trust, shared language, consistent habits, and leaders who model the behavior even when it’s uncomfortable.
When feedback works, it’s one of the strongest levers a company has for performance, retention, and alignment. When it doesn’t, it silently erodes teams: decisions slow down, expectations drift, underperformance lingers, and talent gets stuck without knowing why. Most organizations live somewhere in the messy middle, wanting better feedback but unsure how to operationalize it.
Here’s a distilled look at how strong operators approach feedback: the systems behind it, the insertion points that make it stick, and the cultural shifts required to sustain it.
Great feedback cultures are systematic, multi-layered, two-way, and action-oriented
Strong feedback cultures anchor everything in clarity and action. More feedback does not create improvement; better feedback does. The strongest systems emphasize:
- Specific behaviors over vague traits
- Shared definitions
- Two-way dialogue rather than top-down directives
- Follow-through loops that turn insights into improvement
Good intentions get people talking about feedback, but it’s the strong systems that turn that talk into durable habits.
A functioning feedback culture relies on three layers working together:
- People define expectations, model the behavior, and create safety
- Functions embed feedback into tools, workflows, and operating rhythms
- Culture amplifies or suppresses the habits leaders try to introduce
Without structure, even the most well-meaning people slip back into reactive habits. Systems ensure feedback happens because the organization is designed for it, not because someone remembered to ask for it.
The insertion points: where real habits form
The healthiest feedback cultures emerge from small, reliable touchpoints that happen inside the flow of work.
A few high-leverage insertion points include:
- 1:1s, using consistent prompts and expectations that create psychological safety over time. These conversations give both parties a predictable space to exchange feedback.
- Functional tools and workflows, where the real work happens — code reviews, project retros, ticket grooming, briefs, debriefs — highlight where both friction and excellence show up.
- Annual or periodic surveys, used for spotting signals across teams: unclear expectations, manager capability gaps, or communication breakdowns.
These touchpoints turn feedback into a daily habit rather than an annual event.
Start small — especially if the culture isn’t feedback-forward
Companies trying to “become better at feedback” often do too much too fast. Real improvement comes from establishing just a few consistent practices and letting them take root.
A simple roadmap:
- Introduce one or two foundational practices. This could be a single feedback structure or a standing prompt in every 1:1.
- Train people on how to use them. Without training, practices become optional or misapplied.
- Reinforce for multiple cycles. Consistency is what transforms behaviors into norms.
- Expand only once the basics are reliable.
Feedback systems collapse when organizations roll out complex frameworks before the underlying habits exist. Strength and simplicity go hand in hand in the early stages.
Training is not optional
Giving and receiving feedback is a learned skill. People often resist feedback not because they dislike growth, but because they don’t know how to navigate these conversations safely.
Strong training includes:
- Shared language and definitions
- Examples of what “good” and “not good” feedback looks like
- Scripts that help people start hard conversations
- Clear expectations for both give and receive behaviors
Without training, organizations get inconsistency. With it, they get momentum.
Ownership and accountability need to be explicit
Feedback systems decay when no one owns them. Healthy organizations draw clean lines:
- Who defines and maintains the methodology?
- Who facilitates or documents recurring feedback practices?
- Who ensures follow-through and improvement actually happen?
When ownership is vague, people default to avoidance. When it’s clear, the system strengthens with every cycle.
Cultural blockers: why feedback breaks down
Even with good systems, certain patterns derail progress:
- Managers avoiding conflict
- ICs unclear on expectations
- Leaders modeling reactiveness rather than curiosity
- Feedback weaponized or inconsistently applied
- Promotions happening without any developmental conversation
- Feedback disappearing into a void, meaning no clarity on what happens next, no visibility into how it’s acted on, and no signal that the loop ever closed
Fixing culture means designing systems that make the right behaviors easier, safer, and more repeatable.
Scaling feedback as the company grows
As organizations expand, feedback naturally becomes more diffuse. The challenge isn’t to centralize it — it’s to keep it coherent.
What works:
- Reinforcing expectations in onboarding
- Refreshing training as the company adds layers
- Ensuring new managers inherit the feedback norms, not reinvent them
- Using company-wide communication to reset definitions during periods of change
Feedback is one of the few cultural systems that must scale in parallel with the organization, not months or years later.
Why leaders must model the behavior
Feedback culture lives or dies based on leadership behavior. Teams watch how leaders handle difficult moments, respond to critique, and communicate expectations — and they adapt accordingly.
Leaders who strengthen feedback culture consistently:
- Give thoughtful, specific, timely feedback
- Ask for feedback openly, signaling that it’s safe
- Respond with curiosity rather than defensiveness
- Share what they’re working on to normalize growth
- Close the loop on feedback they’ve received
No program, framework, or policy can compensate for leaders who don’t model the habits they expect from others. A culture grows from the behaviors people observe, not the ones they’re told to adopt.
How AI-driven performance insights strengthen feedback systems
As companies grow, managers are expected to give sharper guidance, spot patterns across teams, and support development with more precision, all while operating with less direct visibility than they had in the early days. This is where AI-driven performance insights are becoming essential.
Modern tools can now integrate with the real systems where work actually happens and surface objective signals about execution, collaboration, and team health. Instead of relying only on memory or subjective impressions, managers and employees get:
- Clear patterns about how work is getting done
- Data-backed insights that reduce ambiguity in performance conversations
- Personalized coaching tied to the individual’s function, role, and goals
- A company-specific view of what “good” looks like, grounded in real operating data
The lift is significant: managers spend less time guessing, employees get clearer direction, and teams build a shared understanding of expectations that scales with the company. AI doesn’t replace feedback. It elevates feedback by making reflection more objective, more continuous, and more actionable.
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