rotmanmagazine.ca / 89discourse and pushback are intended to generate learning,
stimulate ideas, foster innovation and build healthy rela-
tionships.
There was an article in the Wall Street Journal recently
about the book about Netflix [Powerful: Building a Culture of
Freedom and Responsibility by Patty McCord]. As indicated
in the book, Netflix takes the concept of a challenge culture
to an extreme. I actually think you need to be more balanced
about it: If you are challenging people more than 10 per cent
of the time, it becomes counterproductive.
As leaders, we need to set up opportunities and encour-
age our people to challenge things. In my own organizations,
I set the ball in motion by organizing ‘Coffee Chats’ for em-
ployees, including people from all levels. I’ve found that if
you give people examples of topics they can bring up in these
sessions, they realize that nothing is taboo and that it is a
safe environment for frank discussion.
Describe the other end of the spectrum—the ‘you’re
fired!’ culture that has prevailed at some companies.
Trump and The Apprentice epitomize the ‘you’re fired’ cul-
ture as a competitive workplace that rewards results and
where leaders are bold and decisive. But Trump hardly in-
vented the concept. The notion that one’s connection to an
organization can be severed at any time is very bad for the
stability of any organization. Wells Fargo was an extreme
example of this type of culture. Over a period of years, it
engaged in a variety of dubious practices designed to bring
in more customers and sell more products. The pressure on
employees to meet sales targets — especially at lower levels
of the organization — was so great that they began to engage
in questionable practices such as signing up customers for
services without their approval.
Employees were reluctant to speak up for fear of losing
their jobs, and rightly so: When these practices came to light,
the company failed to admit its mistakes and fired 5,300 low-
level workers. The culture of fear ran so deep that just a year
later, Wells Fargo was found to be up to the same old tricks.
Shortly after being interrogated by the U.S. Senate Banking
Committee, then-CEO John Stumpf retired and vanished
from the public eye, and the company was seriously dam-
aged by the experience.
The lesson is this: If you don’t allow enough challenge
within your organization, someone else may very well end
up doing the questioning for you. You may not have to face
a congressional committee, but it is likely that you will find
yourself dealing with other outsiders — such as activist in-
vestors. Furthermore, with unemployment at historically
low rates, companies are in a war for talent, and culture is
more important than ever. Making your culture positive and
safe has become a critical element for success.When you joined Dunkin’ Brands in 2009, it did not yet
have a robust challenge culture. What steps did you take
to change that?
In my first senior management meeting, I realized that I was
doing most of the talking. Everyone appeared to be stuck in
their silos: The general counsel was only thinking about le-
gal issues, and the marketing VP was only thinking about
marketing. That is why everyone who has ever joined my
management team has heard me say, ‘I encourage you all
to speak about and challenge our entire business — not just
parts of it’. I make it clear that I want people to be outspo-
ken, to take risks and say things that they may feel uncom-
fortable saying.
To encourage this, I might say to my finance execu-
tive, ‘Hey, what do you think about this new marketing
idea? Do you think it’s going to resonate?’ I have reinforced
this mindset over time — and in truth, I did have to change
some people on the senior team, because they just weren’t
comfortable with it. But before long, one of my senior vice
presidents openly challenged me in a meeting. Once you getChallenge should always be civil: It should never
involve attack, intimidation or bullying.