If feedback drives performance (and it does), what happens when your team isn’t Feedback Fit?

It’s a quiet problem—easy to overlook because on the surface, everything seems fine. People are polite. No one’s arguing. There’s no open conflict. But if you dig deeper, the cracks start to show.

Here’s what I see in teams that aren’t Feedback Fit:

• Useful conversations aren’t happening.
  People hold back, thinking: “They’ll figure it out eventually.” But without clear conversations, clarity gets lost, mistakes get repeated, and tensions simmer below the surface.

• Feedback becomes optional—or disappears altogether.
  When there’s no culture of feedback, it becomes easier to stay silent. The result? People don’t get the insights they need to grow. Performance stays stuck.

• A ‘nice and polite’ culture covers up the real issues.
  Yes, people are pleasant. Yes, meetings are smooth. But no one is calling out the elephant in the room. Real problems go unspoken—and unaddressed.

• Opportunities to improve are missed.
  Without feedback, you lose one of the most valuable tools for progress. And in today’s workplace, standing still is the same as falling behind.

• Lost productivity = lost money.
  It’s not just about communication—it’s about performance, time, and cost. When feedback is avoided, results suffer. And that’s expensive.

The good news? You can build a team where feedback flows more freely, and performance rises. It starts with developing Feedback Fitness—your team’s capacity to offer, receive and act on feedback with clarity and confidence.