The Challenge Culture: Why the Most Successful Organizations Run on Pushback

The executive chairman and former CEO of Dunkin' Donuts and Baskin Robbins reflects on the unique, results-oriented discipline he's developed over decades of leadership, which provides a blueprint for any organization to achieve prosperity. We live in an era in which successful organizations can fail in a flash. But they can cope with change and thrive by creating a culture that supports positive pushback: questioning everything without disrespecting anyone. Nigel Travis has forty years of experience as a leader in large and successful organizations, as well as those facing existential crisis-such as Blockbuster as it dawdled in the face of the Netflix challenge. In his ten years as CEO and chairman of Dunkin' Brands, Travis fine-tuned his ideas about the challenge culture and perfected the practices required to build it. He argues that the best way for organizations to succeed in today's environment is to embrace challenge and encourage pushback. Everyone-from the new recruit to the senior leader-must be given the freedom to speak up and question the status quo, must learn how to talk in a civil way about difficult issues, and should be encouraged to debate strategies and tactics-although always in the spirit of shared purpose. How else will new ideas emerge? How else can organizations steadily improve? Through colorful storytelling, with many examples from his own career-including his leadership in turning around the fear-ridden culture of the London-based Leyton Orient Football Club, of which he is part owner-Travis shows how to establish a culture that welcomes challenge, achieves exceptional results, and ensures a prosperous future.

About the Author :
Nigel Travis, the chairman of Dunkin' Brands, was the company's chief executive officer from 2009 through 2018. His distinctive human-centered perspective on leadership and management, now viewed as essential in today's complex and diverse global organizations, took root early in his career when he was a human resources manager.

Review :
"The Challenge Culture is a must-read for those wanting to improve their leadership skills in light of a fast changing social and political workplace environment. Nigel implores all of us to foster an open and engaging culture of challenge. For over three decades, Nigel has been at the helm of internationally recognizable organizations, and the insights of The Challenge Culture provide a powerful playbook for people across the business world."--SamKennedy, president and CEO of the Boston Red Sox "A culture built on open dialogue and honesty will deliver collective positive outcomes for customers and team members."--CatherineD'Amato, president and CEO, The Greater Boston Food Bank "Business and politics have become ever more competitive and unpredictable. In order to succeed in this environment, Travis introduces The Challenge Culture where employees are encouraged and are sufficiently self-confident to push back, engage in debate, and, along with their leaders, search intensively for the best answer to critical issues. A must-read for all people leading organizations in these turbulent times!"--Larry Bossidy, retired chairman and CEO of HoneywellInternational, coauthor of Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done "Nigel understands the intricacies of everything. And, even better, he knows how to put them together to make a business run the way it should. This book not only takes you inside his businesses, but inside the mind that challenged them to thrive. If you can use 20 percent of what he's suggesting, you'll be ahead of the game. Use 40 percent and you can blow the doors off."--Mark Goldstein, former chiefmarketing officer, BBDO Worldwide "Nigel Travis has been at the top of major maverick enterprises which missed moments for vital re-invention as well as those which seized the moment for needed transformation. I knew Bill Rosenberg, the visionary founder of Dunkin' Donuts, well and he'd have loved the challenge culture Travis helped inspire there today. Dissent is not disloyalty but can be the spark for innovation and the safeguard for integrity. Firms from the governance financial frauds of Enron and Worldcom to the privacy and gender 'bro cultures' at today's tech titans would have benefited from Travis' leadership lessons. Conformity kills creativity and subverts justice and The Challenge Culture is the antidote to a contagion of conformity across sectors."--Jeffrey A. Sonnenfeld, senior associate dean for LeadershipStudies and Lester Crown Professor of Leadership Practice, Yale School of Management "Smart and insightful, this work offers an insider's account of the leadership approach behind a successful global brand that executives in any industry can emulate."--Publishers Weekly "We all know that America runs on Dunkin', but have you ever wondered how Dunkin' runs? Dunkin' Brands chairman and CEO Nigel Travis has experience running some of the nation's largest franchises and shares his insight on the importance of creating a challenge culture, one that questions the status quo, encourages internal pushback, and helps companies be nimble enough to adapt to change. The Challenge Culture is a must-read for employers and employees alike, and promises to get ideas for long-term success percolating."--Robert Kraft, chairman and CEO of the KraftGroup and The New England Patriots "What a wonderful read, with terrific, memorable thoughts, and a powerful theme: what is essential for a successful business is the ability to question the leadership and ask 'why?'. There are more lessons to be learned than offered by any Harvard MBA."--Jack Cowin, chairman andmanaging director, Competitive Foods Australia Ltd "Women, especially young women, in today's world need to understand the importance of challenging authority and speaking up to share their point of view. The Challenge Culture brilliantly explains how to do it." --Nicole Lapin, author of Boss Bitch and Rich Bitch