Bonfire Book Club — Radical Candor
Radical Candor: Be a Kick-Ass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity by Kim Scott
Care Personally
Author Kim Scott says the cold, hard, scary truth is actually a good thing, as long as it is delivered with genuine care and kindness.
While it might be easier to sugar coat everything (aka Ruinous Empathy) — that doesn’t help anyone grow and improve. On the flip side, no one is inspired to do their best work for the boss who delights in delivering criticism (Obnoxious Aggression). There is a sweet spot in the middle, Radical Candor, where you both Care Personally and Challenge Directly. You deliver the truth with kindness and compassion.
After we read the book, the company spent a day in an on-site off-site. Work stopped, and we broke into cross-disciplinary groups to discuss what resonated, and to brainstorm ways to adopt those ideas into Bonfire’s culture.
We also thought about how we personally approach giving and getting feedback, and talked about ways we could all improve. Some of us might come off as a little brutally honest, while others might dance around the issue. Still others may say nothing at all. But the only way to improve is to communicate and practice giving, and most importantly getting, feedback.
GSD
The other main take away from the book was the Get Stuff Done (GSD) wheel, though we mainly focused on the distinction between debating and deciding. This was especially important to us at the time, because we were deciding which of our 40 pitches would become our first game. To make sure we were making the best decision possible, we needed to communicate honestly, openly, and respectfully. It was crucial to hear and process everyone’s insights.
When we looked at the GSD wheel, we could all think of times where some of us would think we were in a debating meeting, while others thought we were in a deciding meeting. People would be confused, and people’s feelings would get hurt. Since we were on the cusp of such a huge decision, we were able to use this technique to make sure we were all on the same page.
Bonfire is still implementing Radical Candor in our daily life. It takes courage to ask for and deliver personal feedback. But we need to do it if we’re going to be our best selves and do our best work.
If you prefer audio, the book is available on Audible, or you can listen to the free Radical Candor podcast and get a lot of the information and techniques we found in the book.
Read more from Bonfire’s Book Club
Ilkka Paananen’s BAFTA Talk
Supercell CEO Ilkka Paananen talks about champagne toasts, small teams, and company culture in a BAFTA lecture. We are inspired by the philosophy of staying small, and how turning the traditional org chart upside-down gives teams the power to serve the players.
Beyond Entrepreneurship
We used this book as a guide during our first offsite, where we created our mission, our purpose, our vision, and our values. Beyond Entrepreneurship has specific definitions for each term and a detailed framework for how to define them.
