Radical Candor Enthusiasts – Workplace Activation
Hello! My name is Mia and I am a Radical Candor Enthusiast. I have been a fan of Kim Scott’s work since I first read the book, many moons ago. I lean into radical candor in all the ways including learning more by following Kim Scott’s and Radical Candor’s social media accounts, reading their blog posts, and listening to their podcasts and incorporating the Radical Candor communication model into as many conversations and presentations as possible.
What is radical candor you ask? Read on, I answer.
Empathy & Trust
Communication is always part of the problem, and also always part of the solution. To any issue, in any industry, for anyone, in any career stage. Effective communication builds trust, strengthens relationships, helps prevent conflict, and increases productivity. Effective communication also helps us understand ourselves and others better by building empathy. The purpose of radically candid communication is to provide strategies and resources to enhance effective communication while managing difficult conversations and supporting upset clients and colleagues. Entrepreneur and author Kim Scott’s Radical Candor model of caring personally and challenging directly creates a firm foundation for successful, strong, and sustainable communication wins.
Radical Candor
When we are being radically candid, we care personally and communicate directly. We care about what is being discussed, and we care about who we are discussing it with. We do not have to love or even like the other person. We can, however, recognize them as a fellow human being and treat them with respect. Speaking with radical candor can lead to profound growth and change, as a foundation of trust is established.
When we communicate directly but clearly do not care about the other person this leads to defensiveness resulting in what Scott calls ‘obnoxious aggression’. If we care but do not speak directly, this leads to an approach of ‘ruinous empathy’. The empathy, or felt connection, has no boundaries of clear communication so the other person is left in the dark and ignorant about what you are actually feeling and thinking. When we do not care and do not speak directly our approach is ‘manipulative insincerity’ which leads to mistrust. It is typically quite easy to pick up when someone has a hidden or second agenda that is not being communicated. When this occurs, trust is weakened or completely lost. With radical candor we avoid these pitfalls and instead create an environment based in trust.
I offer periodic office hours for radical candor enthusiasts to meet fellow enthusiasts, share how they are implementing radical candor in their workplace, ask questions, and/or brainstorm solutions. The links below will take you to the Zoom reg page for upcoming office hours.
Radical Candor Workplace Activation Office Hours:
Monday, July 27 @ 12-12:45pm CT (Zoom reg link)
Wednesday, August 5 @ 10-10:45am CT (Zoom reg link)
Monday, September 21 @ 12-12:45pm CT (Zoom reg link)
More fall dates coming soon!
Implementation Examples:
Example #2
In the staff room or a common area, put up a board with a stack of empty post-it notes or hang a dry-erase board with markers. After introducing the Radical Candor communication model, invite team members to ‘catch’ each other utilizing radical candor by posting a note on the board with the person’s name and briefly describing the situation. At each staff meeting, read new post-it notes or dry-erase messages that have been added. You may also wish to enter the names of the folks’ that were recognized into a drawing for a gift card or some other prize. Ask your industry representatives to donate prizes!
Example #1
- Introduce radical candor at a staff meeting by providing a bit of context (feel free to share any of the verbiage included in the above blog post) and showing Kim Scott’s video that Mia often includes in her presentations.
- Facilitate a discussion around radical candor and ask who is interested in serving on a ‘radical candor’ task force, ideally composed of folks from several different departments. This task force of radical candor enthusiasts are then invited to come up with a plan for how the workplace could incorporate radical candor into their daily approach to each other and the work at hand.
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Mia Su Cary, DVM (she, hers)
W: https://caryconsulting.com/
LI: https://www.linkedin.com/in/miacarydvm/
IG: @zenvet23
