Courageous Cultures

Having already read \”The Seven Things Your Team Needs to Hear You Say\” and \”Winning Well\” I was VERY excited when Goodreads and Amazon told me the authors were releasing another book. \”Courageous Cultures\” did not disappoint. I\’ve been the frustrated leader who doesn\’t understand why people didn\’t say something, and I\’ve DEFINITELY been the frustrated employee who sees a problem and has ideas on how to fix it, but doesn\’t want to say anything. This book helped me on both fronts. From my first cursory read I was captivated by the idea of the \”Problem Solver\” employee (because it fits my personality perfectly.) Dye and Hurt explain how help your employees become a Problem Solver, Customer Advocate, etc. The book is backed by peer-reviewed research, but takes it a step further to apply this information to the modern economy. In the tech heavy, gig economy, and even pandemic world, how can I keep up? CC will tell you. The book also reinforces some of the concepts from \”Winning Well\” including my personal favorite \”ASK FOR WHAT YOU WANT.\” If you\’re a leader/manager/employer who wants to help their employees, or an employee who wishes they could be heard, then this book is worth every penny. (Maybe buy a copy and slip it onto your boss\’ desk?)

When asked to define what I mean by an organization\’s culture, I usually say, \”Culture is the way we do things here.\” If the way your organization does things is to stifle criticism and snuff out new ideas, you\’ve got problems you may not know about yet. I remember sitting in a caf on a street that was getting s \”downtown makeover\” including all new streetlights. When I looked across the street I could see that a crew was installing one of the new lightposts squarely in front of–and very close to–the entrance to a store. I would place a small wager that at least one of those workers was thinking, \”This post doesn\’t belong here, but, oh well, what are you going to do? This is what the plans say. The last time I said something about a situation like this, I was told that I should mind my own business and get the work done.\” The consequences of that incorrect light pole placement might not be felt for years, when a customer leaves the store while paying attention to their phone and walks straight into it. If the culture of that construction company were courageous in the way that Karin Hurt and David Dye describe it, that worker would be seen as a problem solver, not a complainer. Courageous cultures encourage constructive criticism, recognize innovation, and celebrate problem solving. While my streetlight example was more or less a casual observation, I have seen this type of thing take place in organizations of many kinds and sizes, resulting in lost opportunities, disengaged employees, and a road to future difficulty or even failure. So what do the authors suggest and, perhaps more important, how do they help you develop a culture that encourages what they call \”teams of microinnovators, problem solvers, and customer advocates\”? They helpfully provide a model: I.D.E.A. – Interesting Doable Engaging Actions. The model can serve as a helpful funnel to bring the best courses of action forward and get your Courageous Culture going. Why now? Because the stakes are high and the game is changing. Organizations that overvalue the status quo, or that think they have all the answers, or–worse yet–think, \”This is the way we\’ve always done it\” (the eight most dangerous words in business) are struggling to respond to industry disruptions, a changing workforce, new ways of working, Digital Transformation, and more–all happening simultaneously. We can\’t rely on a single department or team to recognize where improvements are needed or to create innovative solutions; we need everyone in the organization to contribute, and this book gives us the roadmap to make this happen. A note of caution: This book will absolutely not solve your organization\’s cultural issues. That\’s up to *you* – and everyone else in the organization. But look around you. Are conditions the same as they were last year? Even if there were not a global pandemic right now, business conditions would be evolving at lightning speed. Get started now. Get the I.D.E.A. model working in your organization, and start making continuous improvements. Oh–and don\’t forget to download the Executive Strategy Guide designed to get you started and help you along the way.

Courageous Cultures is a practical guide for energizing your company from within. Karin and David have leveled up, transforming their managerial focus from Winning Well to an executive focus here. This makes sense: the managers who could understand and deploy Winning Well strategies were likely to win promotion to executive positions. With this greater power comes greater responsibility, and Karin and David clearly outline how that power can be used to ignite the most powerful resource any company has: its people. Within most organizations, there is great, untapped potential among the employees. Courageous Cultures gives practical steps that can help you start from wherever you are to create a culture where that potential doesnt have to be squeezed from your employees: it blooms forth naturally. And when your people achieve their potential, your organization will, too. I used to be a model employee. I consistently led my department in quantity and quality of production. I brought innovations that improved the company. I fostered my teammates work, helping them to become better so the company could be more successful. But time and again, the corporate culture shut down my ideas and stifled my productivity, so I moved on, forcing the company to hire two people to do my work. The descriptions of the problems in Courageous Cultures are so accurate that they gave me anxiety flashbacks in reading them. But the descriptions of the solutions are so practical and achievable that they give me hope. Now Im my own boss, but if I ever go to a job interview again, I will come armed with the question: Are you a Courageous Cultures company?

I am an attorney in a government organization and not a leader in a business that earns money, but I still found this book to be completely on-point in regard to how to be a better, more competent and confident leader of a team (and a better team member!). My work culture can be challenging and it can be difficult for people to feel like their voices are being heard. I am working to develop a team that is different than the overall work culture – willing to take risks, say when something isnt working and commit to a project. I think this book will help me prepare my team for tough conversations and more productive projects in the future.

Super precise and to the point, this book is a beautiful live recount of whats actually happening in the world of hard working dedicated high performance teams focussed on changing their workplace environments for the good of all stakeholders.

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