Leading a Culture of Critique

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Recently, I’ve been reading a book called</span> <a href= "https://www.amazon.com/Ethic-Excellence-Building-Craftsmanship-Students/dp/0325005966"> <span style="font-weight: 400;">“Ethic of Excellence” by Ron Berger.</span></a> <span style="font-weight: 400;">He teaches teachers about how to invoke pride in students, to invite them to work through community engagement and thoughtful feedback, and multiple drafts of work. Check out his classic short video called</span> <a href="https://vimeo.com/38247060"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">“Austin’s Butterfly” here.</span></a></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">He asserts that thoughtful feedback (ie critique) is essential to making great work, which he also asserts is the whole point of life: Make great things.</span></p> <p><a href= "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWMH_X4IvOk"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">He boils a philosophy of critique down to three principles:</span></a></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Be Kind</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Be Specific</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Be Helpful</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">I wanted to bring together three of my favorite leaders to have a roundtable conversation about leading a culture of critique, and to open up about how to bring these ways of working together to life at work.</span></p> <p><strong>Aaron Irizarry</strong> <a href= "https://theconversationfactory.com/podcast/2018/9/2/culture-of-critique"> <span style="font-weight: 400;">has been on this podcast before</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">, with his co-author of “Discussing Design” Adam Connor. He’s the Senior Director of Servicing Platforms Design at Capital One and is a deep, deep thinker on this subject. </span></p> <p><strong>Aniruddha Kadam</strong> <span style= "font-weight: 400;">recently left LinkedIn, where he was a Senior Design Manager. He’s also an Advisor at Rethink HQ,</span> <a href= "https://www.rethinkhq.com/design-critique/lead