Radical Candor Workshops

Improve feedback, deliver psychological safety and retain your best staff

It all started with a dog named belvedere

As the team that delivers Radical Candor in New Zealand & Australia. It’s important to learn about the conversation that inspired Kim Scott to bottle the magic of Radical Candor and share it with the world.

What we do

We present Radical Candor to your organisation, introducing the core concepts, building a shared vocabulary and sharing stories that will help your team relate to the ideas. We’ll then spend time answering questions and clarifying points, helping people begin to connect with Radical Candor. We’ll then cover tactics that everyone can put into practice immediately.

After the initial introduction of the concepts, we’ll move into hands-on training to help your team further internalise the concepts and learn how to apply them in your context. We guide your team through real-life scenarios in a safe and supportive environment, and give you actionable pointers on how to practice Radical Candor in your workplace.

As part of the workshops, we teach managers how to improve their feedback processes, and we help teams understand their role in the feedback process. As teams get started, we’re there to clarify and answer questions.

Workshops Kim Scott Radical Candor

Kim Scott

Creator

Radical Candor™ is a unique approach to empowering you to have stronger conversations with all the people you lead, to ultimately create breakthrough results in effectiveness, relationships and leadership excellence.

Radical Candor really just means saying what you think, while also giving a damn about the person you’re saying it to. But why does something so simple feel so radical?

Throughout our careers, as both business leaders and executive coaches, we’ve realised that – culturally – people in organisations struggle to have direct and caring conversations in the workplace. This lack of candour leads to breakdowns in communication, relationships and productivity. But it’s something that can so easily be fixed with a simple, yet powerful, approach.

Why Radical Candor is an “unnatural act”

Two nearly universal experiences make Radical Candor unnatural. One, most people have been told since they learned to talk some version of “if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say it at all”.  When they become a boss, the very thing they have been taught not to do is suddenly their job.  Furthermore, most people, since they got their first job, have been told to be “professional”. Too often, that’s code for leaving your humanity at home. But to build strong relationships, you have to Care Personally. You have to bring your whole self to work.

Australia Radical Candor

Making the unnatural feel more natural

Because Radical Candor is an “unnatural act”, Kim developed a framework that would be simple enough that you can keep it top of mind in the heat of the moment. This 2×2 is a tool that you can use to guide your interactions and to help you gauge feedback — praise and criticism.

One of the best ways to make Radical Candor easier is to remember what happens when you fail to Care Personally and Challenge Directly. While the quadrants are named colourfully to help you remember to move toward Radical Candor, it’s key to remember that these are not labels for people; they refer to a particular interaction or behaviour. Ultimately, everyone spends some time in each of the quadrants, and that’s ok.
Obnoxious Aggression™ is what happens when you challenge but don’t care. It’s praise that doesn’t feel sincere or criticism that isn’t delivered kindly.
Ruinous Empathy™ is what happens when you care but don’t challenge. It’s praise that isn’t specific enough to help the person understand what was good or criticism that is sugar-coated and unclear.
Manipulative Insincerity™ is what happens when you neither care nor challenge. It’s praise that is non-specific and insincere or criticism that is neither clear nor kind.

Happy Clients

MINDSET28 is a developmental tool not a “putting you in a box” tool, so the difference is that for the first time it gives people a pathway for continuous improvement rather than just telling a person who they are and how they will be forever.
Mark Averill

CEO & Managing Partner, PwC New Zealand

ilume has a refreshing approach to executive development coaching which leads to transformational change in business performance. Working in partnership with ilume has helped our people firm wide with their professional career and person
al aspirations. ilume really believes in what it teaches and how best to empower our people.
Brian Hassell

Chief Executive Officer, PriceWaterhouseCoopers

Whether you aspire to be a CEO or you simply want to be the best you can be, I believe ilume can be a guiding hand for you.
Aaron Ashby

Hub Manager Northern, Goodman Fielder NZ Ltd

It all starts with a conversation. A powerful conversation.

We only serve leaders and organisations we know we can help. Our time, like yours is valuable. We invite you to lock in a call with one of our principle coaches to see how we can bridge the gap from where you are to where you want to go.

Frequently asked questions

Where do you run Radical Candor Workshops?
We run workshops around Australia and occasionally overseas in New Zealand etc..
Are you an authorised Radical Candor Workshop Provider?
Yes, ilume Australia is the only licenced company to provide these workshops in Australia.
Who are your workshop presenters?
Our director Tim Ryan and Natasha Osmond-Dreyer run the workshops with teams. See the amazing workshop comments about our presenters or find out more on our team page.