Afterpage · week card
Radical Candor
Kim Scott
Key ideas
- Care personally and challenge directly.
- Three ways it goes wrong.
- Ask for criticism before you give it.
- Keep guidance small and immediate.
- Praise as carefully as you criticize.
The week
| Day 1 | Read the summary. Five key ideas and where the book overreaches. |
| Day 2 | Sort your last five feedback moments. Write down the last five times you gave, softened, or held back feedback, and mark which of Scott's four quadrants each one fell in. Bad day: Write down one recent time you held back feedback and name its quadrant. |
| Day 3 | Ask for criticism, then wait. Ask one person what you could do or stop doing to be easier to work with, and stay silent for six seconds after you ask. Bad day: Send one person a message asking what one thing you could do differently this week. |
| Day 4 | Give one specific piece of praise. Praise one person today for something specific they did, saying exactly what it was and why it mattered. Bad day: Send one person a two-line message naming one specific thing they did well. |
| Day 5 | Prepare one piece of criticism. Pick one problem you've been avoiding raising with someone and write what you'll say, short enough to say in under two minutes. Bad day: Write one sentence describing the problem, with no words about the person's character. |
| Day 6 | Say it in person, in private. Deliver yesterday's criticism to the person in private, face to face or on a video call, in two or three minutes. Bad day: Message the person to ask for five private minutes, and name the topic. |
| Day 7 | Act on what you heard. Change one thing based on the feedback you got on day 3, and tell the person what you changed. Bad day: Send the person one line saying what you'll change because of what they told you. |
Free week by email at getafterpage.com/books/radical-candor