Book Review - RADICAL RESPECT

RADICAL RESPECT: How to Work Together Better. Kim Scott (2024, Kindle Edition)

According to the book’s author, Kim Scott, there are two very different meanings for the word, respect. One has to do with admiration for someone’s abilities, qualities, or achievements…which is earned. The other, refers to a regard for the feelings, wishes, rights, and traditions of others…which is a human right (not “earned”) and crucial to a healthy culture. What makes the latter radical, Scott asserts, is that although it is so fundamental, it rarely occurs. 

Radical Respect is not only the prequel to Scott’s bestseller, Radical Candor, but also is a substantially revised, updated and shorter rewrite of her 2021 book, Just Work. Scott’s new book starts from a simple point of departure: organizations that optimize for collaboration and honor everyone’s individuality are more successful, joyful places to work. The goal of the book, according to Scott, is not simply to describe the problems, but to figure out what to do about fixing them. Accordingly, she offers frameworks for recognizing the different ways that bias, prejudice, and bullying interfere with our ability to work together as well as suggestions on how to get back on track.

The book is organized in two parts. The first half of the book focuses on what can be done to limit the ways that bias, prejudice, and bullying damage us and our organizations. The second half focuses on what can be done to address discrimination, harassment, and physical violations. Key takeaways from the book for this reviewer include the following:

• A “toxonomy” is offered to aid in diagnosing the different problems that need fixing so that the right solution(s) can be identified and applied to address the right problem.

• Two useful frameworks are presented. The first framework helps to identify the nature of the problem (i.e., whether the problem is one of bias, prejudice, or bullying) and what to do about each. The second framework, which is described in the latter half of the book, helps to determine what to do when power creates the conditions for discrimination, harassment, or physical violations. Both frameworks are helpful, albeit the first framework is addressed in considerably more detail than the second. 

• A particularly value-adding aspect of the book is that it is organized around the different things that can be done to address each of the identified problems, depending on one’s role(s) and responsibilities as a leader, an observer, the person harmed, or the person who caused harm. For example, ideas are offered on what leaders can do to foster a culture of success; how to be an upstander versus a silent bystander; how to be part of the solution, not part of the problem. Ideas are also offered on making intentional choices about how or if to respond when one is the person harmed.

• Key principles and ideas are presented on how leaders can work to make an organization’s management systems fairer and more successful at every stage of the employee life cycle (e.g., systems pertaining to compensation, performance management, coaching and mentoring, exiting, eliminating NDAs (non-disclosure agreements) and forced arbitration, organizational design, and hiring).

• A chapter is dedicated to the topic of how to reinforce a culture of consent. Specifically, it addresses different ways that touch can go wrong at work (i.e., unwanted touch, consensual touch between peers, abuse of power relationship, violence, alcohol and drugs in the workplace), how to try to prevent the problems that can result, and what to do if they happen despite one’s best efforts. 

Overall, the book provides a consolidation of ideas and advice from Scott’s other books and also from the works of a selection of other experts in the field. Throughout the book, Scott infuses short stories from her career as an executive coach at numerous tech companies as well as her own experiences as CEO of two failed startups to demonstrate the relevance of ideas presented, while also acknowledging the limitations of her own experience. She is careful to point out that the book does not promise to be a “quick fix”, but rather offers tools for diagnosing the problem as well as practical suggestions for moving forward to improve on the situation-at-hand and build a better workplace culture. 

This latter point is an important factor to consider when reading the book. While the topic covered in Radical Respect is extremely relevant, it is also a highly complex and controversial topic. The ideas offered on how to understand and address toxic situations in the workplace are generally based on common sense, but are not to be interpreted as a panacea for success. Indeed, some of the perspectives advanced by the author may be viewed by some readers as reflecting the author’s own unconscious biases, limitations in the scope of her own experience, and/or her privileged background. 

That said, from the perspective of this reviewer, Radical Respect is a thought-provoking read and a useful resource for reflecting on how each of us can work to create a workplace where respect and collaboration prevail over domination and conformity.