Courageous Cultures | Book Review

“There’s a world of difference between insisting on someone’s doing
something and establishing an atmosphere in which that person can
grow into wanting to do it.” (Mr. Rogers p. 157)

Karin Hurt & David Dye offer a how-to guide for the emerging leader often trapped within a larger organization dominated by a prior-generation, command-and-control, management-dominated culture. It’s a great companion work to S. Chris Edmonds’ the culture engine.

The authors introduce a Cultural Oasis as the solution when wondering if it still possible to build a Courageous Culture on my team (p. 31) within unsupportive or toxic environments.

Envision this review as including: A macro-level business audit, a personal cultural (leader) audit, a description of a courageous culture and a suite of tools we may construct our team’s oasis with. It’s worth mentioning several areas where Hurt and Dye’s ideas may fit within a Personal Leadership Philosophy. Beginning with Chapter 5, the authors include First Tracks sections listing how we may put our new tools to good use.

Cultural Audit

We can all relate to unsafe meetings or a work environment where the Fear of Speaking Up (FOSU) exists (p. 5). As a countermeasure, three helpful cultural characters (pp. 5-6) are offered:  

• Microinnovator The employee who consistently seeks out small but powerful ways to improve the business.
• Problem Solver The employee who cares about what’s not working and wants to make it better.
• Customer Advocate The employee who sees through your customers’ eyes and speaks up on their behalf.

It appears there is a disconnect between the C-Suite and the “front line” in many organizations. Consider this: According to a recent PricewaterhouseCoopers CEO Survey, 77 percent of CEOs say they struggle to find the creativity and innovation they need (p. 11).

Yet the authors found five reasons that people don’t speak up to contribute solutions, suggest microinnovations, or advocate for customers:

1. People don’t think leadership wants their ideas.
2. No one asks.
3. They lack confidence to share
4. They lack the skills to share effectively.
5. People don’t think anything will happen, so they don’t bother. 

Making things worse, many organizations tolerate behavior inconsistent with listed core values. Leaving a toxic leader in place tells your team (p. 28):

1. That you lack courage
2. That you don’t value them
3. That this kind of abuse, harassment, and bullying is o.k. 

Especially since only one or two experiences with a bad manager, or bullying peer, will be enough “proof” for most people that speaking up isn’t safe (p. 42).

If your organization focuses on exit interviews or reading Glassdoor reviews, you probably missing earlier cultural warning signs. For example, from 25 to 30 percent of employees get income from short-term or freelance work each month and the number is growing (p. 11).

Takeaway: We can’t underscore the importance of alignment as a high-payoff leadership activity.

Personal Audit

The authors ask us to master our stories, reminiscent of Crucial Conversations, or put another way, asking “What Do I Really Want?” This is also an excellent reminder we should maintain a personal leadership journal. This allow us to recall the moments that made [others] think we were courageous (p 43), guiding future decision-making, increasing the chances we’ll courageously choose to live according to our values (p. 44).

Courageous Culture Snapshot

A Courageous Culture is one where (p. 3):

• Teams at every level of your business continuously ask, “How can we make this better?”
• Leaders have the courage to ask what’s not working and really listen.
• Everyone is confident to raise a hand on behalf of the customer and put purpose about politics. 

This sounds like an effective After Action Review (AAR) everyday mindset. Cultures require an elegant dance between two seemingly contradictory leadership characteristics: Clarity and Curiosity (p. 51). It’s very similar to Navy SEAL Jeff Boss’ solution for Navigating Chaos. Ask yourself how much clarity your Personal Leadership Philosophy provides – where are we going? what does our future look like?

Our Toolbox

We can start by overcoming FOSU. Your team won’t be able to hear anything you say about courage and innovation without first watching what you do – very closely – to see if what you do matches up with what you’ve said (p. 68).

Have you ever watched a leader ask for feedback and then
defensively justify their decisions and shoot down objections? (p. 80)

Think of Marshall Goldsmith’s Trigger-type questions. You ask in ways that draw out people’s best thinking (p. 79). These are not passive, yes or no answered questions. When you ask a courageous question, you (pp. 81-83):

• Get specific
• Be humble
• Don’t respond – yet

Take a look at the great list of courageous questions on page 83, a favorite is: What must I do better as a leader if we are to be more successful?

Then we need to follow up, or walk the talk.

If you’re inspecting without being “in the arena” or not putting yourself out there for your team or not on the front line to know what really happens, you won’t be able to celebrate true success or have the credibility to influence change. (p. 138)

Start Building

In both Creating a Motivational Environment and Leader as Coach workshops, we’re focused on the environment (think culture) we’re creating.

To build an infrastructure for courage, pay special attention to how (p. 144):

• Employees receive performance feedback (or performance coaching).
• You equip people with the skills they need to succeed.
• You choose leaders – and how you equip them.

People want to know “why?” The authors found that sixty-seven percent of our research participants said management operates according to the notion that “this is the way we’ve always done it.” (p 148)

We can bring together our diverse cultural Microinnovators, Problem Solvers, and Customer Advocates (p. 173) and use eight good coaching questions (pp. 179-181):

1. What is the goal?
2. What have you tried?
3. What happened?
4. What did you learn from this?
5. What else do you need?
6. What else can you do?
7. What do you think will happen if you try option A?
8. What will you do? 

Summary

How will you know when your culture is courageous?

“When you surround yourself with others who also believe that
silence isn’t safe and effort is everything, you’ll soon find that you
feel lonelier hiding your truth than speaking it.” (p. 192)

Karin Hurt generously provided a copy of her book for review.