THE CHALLENGE CULTURE

So much of the human experience writ large relies on the wisdom of the crowd.

The great political lesson of our time, for instance, is that democracies provide an equitable way of aggregating individual preferences and resolving issues of collective action, precisely through open discourse and the free election of individuals to represent and act on our behalf. In like manner, the great economic lesson of our time may very well be that the market mechanism, though imperfect, is perhaps the best way of communicating information about the relative value and abundance of a product data reducible to the simple metric of a price. In either instance, the core point is straightforward: the more freely that information is allowed to flow, the better the quality of decisions that will ensue.

It's ironic in that regard that this is precisely how many business are not organized.

Businesses more often than not default to command and control hierarchies in order to overcome the challenge of coordination. While not bad in and of itself––especially considering other forms of organization are no better if not far worse––its inherent problems are well documented, such as groupthink, isolation, or even as simple as a lack of empathy on the part of decisionmakers. Worse, it's fairly common for a lot of businesses come what may to simply follow the HIPPO; that is, the highest paid person's opinion.

In The Challenge Culture: Why the Most Successful Organizations Run on Pushback, Dunkin' Brands Chairman Nigel Travis reminds us that pushback within an organization shouldn't be anathema; rather, it is a necessary characteristic of healthy and thriving institutions.

"The sad truth," Travis observes, "is that too many organizations in virtually every arena of endeavor operate with authorities that discourage challenge and questioning." It's a fair criticism: anyone who's ever been in a position of authority knows what it's like to have that authority questioned. But Travis makes what is an otherwise simple if not obvious point: when such questioning and criticism is properly channeled and isn't personal, it will serve the more enlightened purpose of ensuring greater accountability and adaptability within an organization. More often than not, good pushback isn't a challenge on the authority or integrity of an individual; rather, it is a healthy skepticism toward and an ongoing conversation about whether or not something is the right thing to do.

Travis makes his case by citing his own experience, having risen through the ranks of various organizations with each with their own unique cultures (Blockbuster Video, Papa John's, and Dunkin' Donuts) and seeing firsthand how the right kind of pushback can have a positive impact on business. He takes a "management-by-storytelling" approach to explaining what characteristics such a challenge culture can have by citing anecdotes from his vast experience to make his case. In that sense, there is nothing necessarily groundbreaking in anything that Travis has to say other than the fact that, quite honestly, it needed to be said.

It's also worth noting that Travis' own professional trajectory is a wonderful example of the career path someone with a background in human resources might have. Many prominent C-suite executives have backgrounds in marketing, sales, or finance; it's not often one hears of one who started out in HR. Yet that's exactly where Travis started out, and to the extent that The Challenge Culture is a memoir of his rise through the corporate ranks, it's plain to see how his HR training shaped him into the kind of executive he turned out to be.

Children are taught not to be too onion-skinned at an early age, which is good advice for executives and businesses to heed as well. At it's core, what Travis seeks to remind people in The Challenge Culture is that pride always comes before the fall, for which reason pushback is so vital in an organizational setting. It's always important to always challenge oneself.

I would consider this as part business book, part career memoir, which I think works well. Nigel Travis, the CEO of Dunkin’ Brands, has a big personality and a great sense of humor, both of which shine through as he relates his points through a variety circumstances. As someone who runs on Dunkin’ daily (large original, black, please), I found the company details of particular interest.