Isabel Isabel

Applying Radical Candor

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The purpose of learning Radical Candor is to "create BS-free zones where people love their work and working together".

"I would argue that criticizing other people in your team when they screw up is not just your job, it's actually your moral obligation."
- Kim Scott

So, what is Radical Candor and will it work for us? Should we and how could we start applying it in our daily lives?

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Index

Learning about Radical Candor

Watch video or read article

Be more constructive with your feedback.


Watch this video or read this article. If you want to go the extra-mile, do both.

Write down your 3 biggest insights.
Isabel
Isabel
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My 3 biggest insights from watching this video were:

1. Giving honest feedback in a constructive way requires you to "give a damn about the person" and to be "willing to piss people off".  In other words care personally but be willing to challenge directly. Make people hear you.

2.   Radical Candor is  HHIP.
- Its Humble, Helpful, Immediate, In person if it's negative, In Public if it's praise, and it deosn't Personalize (You sound stupid vs You are stupid.)

3.  The single most important thing a boss can do is Guidance. (Giving it, receiving it, and encouraging it.) Radical Candor is a tool to make sure everyone on the team gets the right kind of Guidance. 






What's one thing that we don't know about Radical Candor?

Research and come up with 1 thing that was not mentioned in the article, that you think is worth sharing with the team.

Make sure to cite your sources and say why you think what you're writing is important.
Isabel
Isabel
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One thing  that I found very interesting about Radical Candor that was not mentioned in the article was that it's not a bosses job to tell you what to do. I think that when you're giving feedback it's sometimes easy to fall into telling people what you would like them to do. 

I found this great description on Kim scott's website:

Telling people what to do doesn’t work. This also seems obvious. Yet, too many people think a boss’s job is to tell people what to do. It’s not. To do great work, employees must feel free. There’s nothing more destructive to great work than authoritarianism. Great bosses help a team move in a unified direction not by telling them what to do, but by guiding them through a process that involves a lot of listening, arguing, cajoling, and then letting go of ego to learn from the outcomes of those decisions. This process is exhausting for everybody, and so there’s pressure on the boss to short circuit it and tell people what to do. Resisting that pressure and forcing themselves and their teams through the process, called “the thrash” at Apple and “getting mugged by pigeons” at Google, is key to getting the best work from employees. Great bosses are editors, not authors.
http://www.kimmalonescott.com/


Me queda la pregunta de what exactly this process  of Thrashing o Getting mugged by pigeons looks like and how we can apply it. 



What do you understand from the Radical Candor graph?

How do you understand this graph?

Does it change anything about how you think of feedback/talking to others?

Radical Candor Matrix
Isabel
Isabel
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How I understand this graph is that in order to give feedback that makes a difference you have to care about the person but be willing to challenge them directly.  Depending on how much you care or how honest you are you fall into one of the four quadrants on the graph. The most desirable quadrant is Radical Candor. 

One idea that I liked that I read on her blog regarding this graph was that you can use the two axis to adjust your feedback.  So for example say you're giving feedback to someone and you see they are getting upset, then you adjust and move up the "care personally axis." You can show them that you care about them. Or on the flip side, if you see that they're not getting your point you move towards being more direct. 

One thing I'd like to add to this that I found very valuable was that this is the reason why you give feedback in person. Because 90% of communication is body language and if you can't see how they respond it's difficult to adjust your message. 


Give Feedback In Person (if possible)

Remember, the clarity of your feedback gets measured not at your mouth, but at the other person’s ear. That’s why it’s best to deliver feedback in person. Since upwards of 90% of communication is non-verbal, you won’t really know if the other person understood what you were saying if you can’t see the reaction. When talking in person, you can make adjustments based on their body language and emotions. If they are not hearing you, you need to move further out on the “Challenge Directly” axis. If they are upset, you need to move further up on the “Care Personally” axis — without backing off your direct challenge!


It does change the way I see feedback because it allowed me to see that I can adjust caring personally and being direct. And it showed me that not being direct can actually be very harmful. Even if you care personally you end up in ruinous empathy. 






Thinking about Radical Candor

Thought-provoking questions

Take a moment to answer these questions:
  • Is being “obnoxiously aggressive” really better than being “ruinously empathetic”? 
  • What if the feedback being delivered aggressively wasn’t informed/helpful? 
  • Is no feedback ever better than misinformed/unhelpful feedback?
Isabel
Isabel
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  • Is being “obnoxiously aggressive” really better than being “ruinously empathetic”? 
                     Yes, it's actually better. Because it allows you to deal with problems head on, while ruinous empathy just let's all the problems build or fester until it's too late to do anything about it. 

  • What if the feedback being delivered aggressively wasn’t informed/helpful? 
                         Then it's called being a jerk.  If you're going to give feedback at least it should be informed or helpful. I can that if you don't care about the person and you're "obnoxiously aggressive then the intention might not be for it to be helpful but at least it should be informed. Otherwise it's just insulting the other person or trying to bring them down. 

  • Is no feedback ever better than misinformed/unhelpful feedback?
                   Yes, no feedback is better than misinformed or unhelpful feedback. Feedback or guidance should be given to either encourage you or help you get better. 



Fears and things you're looking forward to?

Do you have any fears about starting to practice Radical Candor in our organization?

Are there any things that you're looking forward to if we start practicing Radical Candor in our organization?
Isabel
Isabel
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My fear with starting to practice Radical Candor in our organization is that we're going to be constantly fighting.  I can see that as we move towards being more direct and challenge others it will lead for confrontations that don't happen right now and it will create an unpleasant work environment. 

What I'm looking forward to in practicing Radical Candor is the opportunity to learn how to be more direct and give useful feedback. I tend to view it as "it's their problem" I'm not going to get into that.  So I appreciate the opportunity to learn to do things differently. 



Design a system for how we can implement Radical Candor

Think of activities that we can build into our routine that will help us practice Radical Candor.

If you were to give a series of directives to another organization, to help them start practicing Radical Candor, how would they look like?
Isabel
Isabel
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Here is a game that might be interesting:

A few ideas:

1. Radical Candor Squares
This is to give you opportunities to practice radical candor.
So you have squares (preferably dark chocolate) that you give out when you give feedback. The goal is to give out at least 10 squares per week. At first it will be challenging because some of us aren't use to giving that much feedback.

The person receiving the feedback will give you either a blue dot or orange dot in return. Blue means you need to show that you care more and orange means you need to be more direct.

At the end of the week you count how many squares you gave out and what types of dot you received back. This will let you know if you need to give more feedback or less and if it needs to more direct or you need to show care.

2.  5-1-1
After each call or meeting or whenever you like, you call a 5-1-1 with someone. You have five minutes to give them feedback 1 on 1. The rules are,
- if you're working remotely, you jump on a google hangout or call and leave camera on so you can read non-verbal cues.
- It should be immediately after the meeting/call.

3. Punching bag Oxygen Mask
Adapted from Kim Scott's " Put your own oxygen mask on first.
"There’s a reason you hear this every time you board a plane — it’s good advice. “You can't possibly give a damn about other people if you don't give a damn about yourself. "

For those of us who like me have trouble receiving feedback you buy a punching bag where you can take out your anger after each feedback session. In the process you release the energy and you break a sweat. A real punching bag is better than making someone else your punching bag for giving you feedback or killing yourself with toxic thoughts. 

Or really the sentiment is that we all do something that we need to do in order to take care of ourselves first. Figure out what's going to make you feel taken care and do it. No excuses. 



Talking about Radical Candor

Prepare for the dialogue

Come up with 3 questions about Radical Candor that you want to ask during our dialogue. Write down your questions here.
Isabel
Isabel
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1. How can we make Radical Candor Fun? 

2. What are some good guidelines for a feedback session? 

3. Is Radical Candor Worth it?