Rebooting Tech Culture; How to Ignite Innovation and Build Organizations Where Everyone Can Thrive
Telle Whitney
Harvard Business Review Press (May 2025)

Employees rank “feeling appreciated” of greatest importance to them.

I wholly agree with Telle Whitney about the importance of several Cs to the health of any organization, whatever its size and nature may be. In this book, she focuses on six: Creativity, Courage, Confidence, Curiosity, Communication, and Community. She also acknowledges the importance of two others: Collaboration and Change management. If asked, my addition would be Civility.

If your organization — especially if it’s a tech company — needs to ignite innovation while building a workplace culture within which personal growth and professional development are most likely to thrive, Whitney provides invaluable information, insights, and counsel that explain HOW.

For example, in a healthy organization, all employees

CREATIVITY: Feel encouraged to bring their unique perspectives and to collaborate to innovate.

COURAGE: Feel encouraged to take risks.

CONFIDENCE: Feel encouraged to believe in their ability to succeed or accomplish specific tasks.

CURIOSITY: Are invited to ask questions, challenge assumptions, and learn from diverse and  multidisciplinary perspectives.

COMMUNICATION: Are able to contribute to meetings regularly, and everyone has a chance to present their views.

COMMUNITY: Feel they belong.

For each of the six “Cs,” Whitney also includes a set of recommended “Actions”  to take in order to achieve the given objective(s). For example, COURAGE:

o HOW TO Create Opportunities for All Employees to Contribute
o HOW TO Assign High-Risk, High-Reward Assignments Broadly
o HOW TO Support Employees Who Speak Truth to Power

With each set of ACTIONS recommended for the other “Cs,” Whitney’s focus is also on HOW.

I commend Telle Whitney on her brilliant, substantial contributions to thought leadership throughout the global marketplace and highly recommend this material to all C-level executives and those who aspire to become one as well as to middle managers and to those who are now preparing for a business career or have only recently embarked upon one.

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Here are two suggestions while you are reading RebootingTech Culture: First, highlight key passages. Also,  perhaps in a notebook kept near-at-hand (e.g. Apica Premium C.D. Notebook A5), record your comments, questions, and action steps (preferably with deadlines). Pay special  attention to several clever reader-friendly devices such as revealing observations generated by  “FROM THE SURVEY” and the aforementioned ACTIONS.

These two simple tactics — highlighting and documenting — will expedite frequent reviews of key material later.