lawyer e-mailed me the other day and asked whether I had a form for doing an annual review.

An annual review? “Like a performance review?” I asked. That’s exactly what she wanted: a form to use to explain to the employee how she’s doing at her job.

I asked how old the employee is that she’s planning to evaluate. “Twenty-nine,” she replied.

That’s when I launched into my rant. Ranting is something I do. It’s not a good thing. I get wound up and find myself talking without stopping for like seven minutes. It’s only when I run out of air that I stop talking. I’m not sure that’s it’s an especially helpful technique for teaching someone something. That’s why I’ll not repeat it here. I’ll keep this short.

Twenty-nine-year-old employees (and most others) are used to getting feedback immediately. Waiting a year is not something they do.

The Continuous Feedback Loop

Today, people send a text and get a response within seconds. That’s how feedback works today. That’s what we’ve come to expect: action, reaction, action, reaction. No one waits a year for feedback anymore. When feedback (the reaction) comes long after the action, it’s not connected. You can’t have action—wait a year—reaction and expect it to make sense. It doesn’t work today, and it probably didn’t work way back then either.

If you want people to improve and grow, you’ve got to have a tight feedback loop. They act, you react and provide feedback, and then they act again. The second action is better because of the feedback they received. They improve a bit with each cycle. If you give them feedback five times a day, they get better quickly. If you give them feedback once a year, well, they probably never get better.

Is there a form for instant feedback done repeatedly each day? Nope.