This book felt incredibly aspirational. What's disappointing is that change in big institutions is so very slow. And oftentimes, the leaders willing to embody it surrender given the uphill climb to make it happen. Still a worthwhile and interesting read.

This book comes from a place of great intent. A place I love to visit. A place where we have organisations that embrace “Courageous Cultures”. Unfortunately, in my experience these organisations are very rare.

And this is why, whilst I agree with a lot that is covered in the book, there are too few organisations willing to be courageous.

I wish it was, but the world isn’t ready for it yet.

Courageous Cultures outlined the need for freedom to speak up, and speak out, as well as concrete strategies various levels of management can take to create such a culture. Hurt and Dye describe the dangers and lost opportunity of FOSU - fear of speaking up, creating a compelling case for why it is worth the time and energy to create a workplace environment where all employees know that not only are their ideas welcome - they are expected.

A common critique I have for leadership and management books is the repetition, but I found this book to successfully navigate the fine line between establishing memorable mantras and beating said mantras over the reader's head. One theme throughout Courageous Cultures is the relationship between creativity and clarity, and the authors did a good job keying in creativity and clarity while varying their anecdotes and takeaways to really develop that theme without getting too repetitive.

No book is perfect, and Courageous Cultures did have some fumbles. Often in the book, the authors would mention when something was going to happen later in the book - it felt a bit like breaking the fourth wall. Every time the authors announced that "we'll talk about x, y, and z in Chapter 13", it interrupted the experience and made for a slightly choppy read.

At the end of the day, a book on management is only as good as it is useful. Courageous Cultures contained many practical strategies that can be used right out of the box and are applicable to many levels of management. I'm glad I gave this a read - it gave me some new ideas for fighting the FOSU!