Business · Book club
Brave New Work book club questions
Here are 12 book club questions for Brave New Work by Aaron Dignan, ordered to open easily and end somewhere worth arguing about. Copy them, print them, or bring them up one at a time.
Brave New Work is Aaron Dignan's diagnosis of why most organizations are dysfunctional and a practical guide to building something better.
Aaron Dignan · 2019 · 4h 45m
Full summary and key takeaways →The 12 questions
- 1.
Dignan argues that most organizational problems are OS problems, not people problems. Can you think of an example from your own experience where the system was the actual cause of the dysfunction?
- 2.
Which of the twelve domains Dignan describes — purpose, authority, meetings, compensation, etc. — is most broken in your current organization? What's the evidence?
- 3.
Dignan makes the case for distributing authority. What would have to be true for that to work well in your organization? What conditions currently work against it?
- 4.
When have you encountered a rule or process at work that seemed to exist more to manage anxiety or maintain appearances than to actually solve a problem?
- 5.
Dignan says meeting culture reveals organizational health. What does your meeting culture reveal about your organization?
- 6.
What would it mean for your team to have more explicit, legible decision-making protocols? What decisions currently get made through implicit social dynamics that would be worth making explicit?
- 7.
The book draws on examples like Buurtzorg and Morning Star. What's your reaction to those examples — inspiring, irrelevant, somewhere in between?
- 8.
Where in your organization is psychological safety lowest? What structural features do you think contribute to that?
- 9.
Dignan argues that structural change matters more than culture change. Do you agree? Where in your experience has that been true or false?
- 10.
What is one convention in your current workplace that you follow but have never examined? What is it actually optimizing for?
- 11.
What would the bravest version of a change to your organizational OS look like? What would get in the way of making it?
- 12.
Dignan deliberately avoids prescribing a specific model. Is that restraint helpful or frustrating? What do you wish the book had been more concrete about?
How to run the discussion
- Pick six to eight, not all of them. An hour of real discussion covers fewer questions than anyone expects, and racing the list is what makes a book club feel like homework.
- Open with what people noticed, not what they concluded. Asking for a verdict first hardens opinions before anyone has heard each other.
- Let the disagreement run. The questions below that split a room are the ones worth the time; the ones everyone answers the same way can be skipped.
- Ask the quiet person a specific question. A direct, narrow question is far easier to answer than an open invitation to contribute.
Themes worth steering toward
If the conversation stalls, these are the threads that usually restart it.
Common questions
What are good book club questions for Brave New Work?
Here are 12 book club questions for Brave New Work by Aaron Dignan, ordered to open easily and end somewhere worth arguing about. The strongest openers ask what each reader noticed rather than what they concluded, and the discussion usually turns on organizational design, self-management, culture change.
How long should a book club discussion of Brave New Work last?
Most groups run 60 to 90 minutes of actual discussion. That is roughly six to eight questions, not all of them, so pick the ones that suit your group rather than working down the list in order.
What are the main themes in Brave New Work?
Organizational design, Self-management, Culture change, Leadership, Bureaucracy. Those are the threads most likely to divide a room, which makes them the useful places to steer a discussion that has gone quiet.
Picking the next one? See books like Brave New Work or questions for other book club picks.
