Kim Scott's Radical Candour proposes a communication framework for giving and receiving feedback at work. It emphasizes the importance of both caring for your colleagues and challenging them directly. The book positions this approach as the middle ground between two unhealthy extremes:
Obnoxious Aggression: This is blunt, hurtful criticism without care or respect.
Ruinous Empathy: This involves avoiding difficult conversations or providing only insincere praise to protect someone's feelings.
Radical Candor, on the other hand, combines:
Care Personally: You should show genuine concern for your colleagues' well-being and development.
Challenge Directly: You should provide honest and specific feedback to help them improve, even if it's critical.
The book offers practical tools for implementing Radical Candor, including:
Regular one-on-one meetings: These create a safe space for open communication.
Encouraging feedback from both sides: Feedback should flow freely, not just downwards.
Focusing on specifics and actions: Feedback should be clear, actionable, and based on concrete examples.
pen_spark
Caring/Praise
public
praise tell the other person what is good and shows them what to do more
Challenge/criticism:
Private
Praise tell the other person what is good and shows them what to do more
Humble, Helpful
Immediate, In person (or on video)
Private criticism / Public praise and Not about Personality.
C — Context (Cite the specific situation),
O — Observation (Describe what was said or done),
R — Result (What is the most meaningful consequence to you and to them?)
E — nExt stEps (What are the expected next steps?).
Imagine you see your colleague walk out of the restroom with their zipper down. You might feel hesitant to tell them, fearing you'd be rude or make them feel self-conscious. This would be ruinous empathy because:
You prioritize their potential discomfort from being told over the potential public embarrassment they might face if nobody points it out.
You miss the chance to help them out in a discreet way, perhaps by pulling them aside and mentioning it privately.
Ruinous empathy is the concept in Radical Candor that describes being overly focused on sparing someone's feelings at the expense of their actual growth or well-being. It might seem nice on the surface, but it can be counterproductive.
Here are some examples of ruinous empathy:
Sugar-coating criticism: Instead of directly addressing a colleague's performance issues, you offer vague or insincere praise that doesn't help them improve.
Keeping quiet about problems: You see a coworker struggling or making a mistake, but avoid speaking up for fear of causing them embarrassment.
Picking up the slack constantly: Rather than letting a teammate face the consequences of their missed work, you take it on yourself, preventing them from learning from their mistakes.
Giving meaningless praise: You tell someone "good job" without explaining what they did well. This doesn't provide any guidance for future success.
1. Avoiding difficult conversations about bedside manner:
The tutor observes a student struggling to connect with patients, appearing cold or dismissive.
Fearing the student might feel discouraged, the tutor avoids giving constructive criticism and focuses on the student's technical skills.
2. Hesitation to correct clinical mistakes:
The student makes a minor diagnostic error during a consultation, but the tutor hesitates to point it out right away, fearing it might shake the student's confidence in front of the patient.
This delays the opportunity for immediate correction and could potentially lead to further errors or missed treatment opportunities.
3. Covering for missed deadlines or unpreparedness:
A student consistently misses deadlines for paperwork or arrives unprepared for consultations.
The tutor, wanting to avoid confrontation or negativity, completes the paperwork themselves or excuses the student's lack of preparation to the patients.
4. Offering vague, unhelpful feedback:
The tutor observes a student struggling with communication skills during consultations.
Instead of offering specific suggestions for improvement, the tutor simply says "good effort" or "keep practicing," which doesn't provide the student with actionable steps.
5. Not pushing students outside their comfort zone:
A student expresses anxiety about performing certain procedures.
The tutor, wanting to protect the student's comfort, avoids assigning them these procedures during consultations, hindering their development as a well-rounded GP.
MUM stands for mum ''Mum about unpleasant messages' The mum effect is like playing it safe when it comes to bad news. People tend to stay quiet and avoid sharing negative information, especially with someone in a position of authority. It's like keeping your mouth shut (mum means mom in British English) even though you might have something important to say.
Reasons
Fear of getting in trouble: People might worry they'll be blamed for the bad news, even if it's not their fault. This is like being the messenger who gets shot for delivering a message!
Protecting feelings: We might hesitate to upset someone or damage a relationship by sharing negative feedback. It's like wanting to spare someone's feelings, even if the information could be helpful.
Unclear expectations: Sometimes, people aren't sure if it's okay to share bad news or how their boss might react. This confusion can lead to silence.
Ignoring minor issues: A student might consistently arrive late for consultations or dress inappropriately. The tutor, fearing they might discourage the student, overlooks these issues, hoping they'll improve on their own. This allows unprofessional behaviour to become normalized.
Hesitation to address disrespectful communication: The student might use derogatory language towards patients or colleagues. The tutor, wanting to avoid confrontation, avoids addressing the behaviour directly, leading to a disrespectful learning environment.
Fear of reporting unprofessional conduct: The tutor witnesses a student engaging in unprofessional behaviour towards a patient, such as making insensitive jokes or not maintaining confidentiality. Fearing conflict or damaging the student's academic record, the tutor avoids reporting the incident, allowing the behaviour to continue.
Silence about recurring issues: Multiple tutors observe a student consistently displaying unprofessional behaviour, like poor time management or lack of preparation. However, they hesitate to speak up to the program director, fearing gossip or negativity. This allows the unprofessional behaviour to persist across placements.
Patient safety: Unprofessional behaviour can compromise patient care. For example, a student who arrives late for a consultation might miss crucial information.
Professional development: Students who are not held accountable for unprofessional behaviour might not develop the necessary professionalism and communication skills to become competent GPs.
Workplace culture: A learning environment that tolerates unprofessional behaviour sets a bad precedent and can create a stressful environment for patients and colleagues.
Scarff, C.E., Bearman, M., Chiavaroli, N. and Trumble, S. (2018). Keeping mum in clinical supervision: private thoughts and public judgements. Medical education, [online] 53(2), pp.133–142. https://doi.org/10.1111/medu.13728