Since I do most of my reading on a Kindle, my TBR pile is often misleading. I don’t usually have an order to what I read, and I frequently forget when or why I purchased a book. As I looked at the cover of The Culture Code: The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups by Daniel Coyle on my Kindle, I had no recollection of when or why I bought the book. I was pleasantly surprised.

Coyle begins by talking about culture and what it meant in the early days of human history. He then explains how our brains are still wired to respond to culture in the same ways – emotional, physical, and psychological safety – even though we are now at work instead of in hunter-gatherer nomadic groups.

The Culture Code shares interviews with several people who have built outstanding teams and cultures, from Google to Dave Cooper, the unofficial father of the SEALs. Several conversations with Cooper show how emotional, physical, and psychological safety in groups creates cohesion, action, and adaptability within those groups.

“Make Sure the Leader Is Vulnerable First and Often: As we’ve seen, group cooperation is created by small, frequently repeated moments of vulnerability. Of these, none carries more power than the moment when a leader signals vulnerability. As Dave Cooper says, I screwed that up are the most important words any leader can say.”

Coyle shares Cooper’s program of AARs – After Action Reviews – with his team and how candor is the most crucial part of building a successful culture. It’s not about positivity, cheerleading, or a you-can-do-anything attitude. Creating a culture is about modeling the behavior you want to see and not punishing it when you see it.

There are many helpful tips for leaders within these pages. It’s also worth noting that the subtext of Coyle’s The Culture Code shows that everyone and anyone can be a leader. Leadership isn’t about authority, titles, or deference to another person; it’s about honesty, vulnerability, and consistency.

Having read a fair few books on companies, teams, and organizational culture, I thoroughly enjoyed the book. I appreciate the punchiness of the book. Too many books on team culture highlight tired stories of achievement in the 1950s or focus on one particular success story that is unlikely to be repeatable at another company. Coyle shows real examples and the themes that tie Google and the Navy SEALs together in a flexible, repeatable way. I look forward to instilling some of the techniques where I work.

I read this book years ago along with dozens and dozens of other books. This one is the leadership style I lean into most often.

As a leader you have to be flexible to deal with different personality types, different education levels, different strengths, etc. As such I find value in Strengths Finder, DiSC assessment, Good to Great, Flexible Leadership, and many others. But this book covers a set of topics that I've found most effective at delivering a fully functioning, highly functioning team where trust is complete and everybody buys in. I doubt I'll ever stop using the ideas in this book because I know my teams benefit from them and my organization benefits from incredible productivity they achieve. Turnover decreased to the point folks only leave for internal promotions and I feel like Popovich with all my old employees filling up the leadership positions throughout the organization since I started teaching them these principles. I highly recommend using everything this book suggests. I even buy a copy for each of my mentees so they can begin to establish their skills before the next promotional opportunity comes up. It's a must-have in my opinion.

Along with this add "Start with why" by Simon Sinek. Two easy reads that work extremely easily together.

There are a lot of books about culture and how to create a strong and healthy one. Daniel Coyle knew that a strong and effective culture is part of the secret sauce of successful organizations. He knew that “A strong culture increases net income 756 percent over 11 years, according to a Harvard study of more than 200 companies.” He thought he could look at strong cultures in a different way and write a book about it. Here’s how he puts it.

“I spent the last four years visiting and researching eight of the world’s most successful groups, including a special-ops military unit, an inner-city school, a professional basketball team, a movie studio, a comedy troupe, a gang of jewel thieves, and others. I found that their cultures are created by a specific set of skills”

Coyle started with a definition of culture that’s a little bit different than the norm. He says, “Culture is a set of living relationships working toward a shared goal. It’s not something you are, it’s something you do.”

So, what is it that you do? What do people in organizations that create strong cultures do that their peers in other organizations don’t do?

Coyle organizes the book into three sections, each one of which relates to a specific skillset. The three skills are: build safety; share vulnerability; and establish purpose.

There are several chapters about each skill. There’s a good mix of stories and studies. Coyle chooses his examples carefully and tells their stories well. He doesn’t use bullet points or frequent summaries, so sometimes you will work to tease out his meaning. You can get a sense of this if you review my highlights from the Culture Code on Goodreads.

Most business authors put summaries of key points or action steps at the end of every chapter. Coyle doesn’t. Instead, he includes a chapter at the end of every section, titled “Ideas for Action.” That chapter functions as a review of the other chapters in the section. I think that’s a good device, but I’d rather he also put his key points at the end of every chapter.

Coyle’s a good storyteller and he makes it a point to try to tell stories you may have heard before from an angle where you haven’t seen them before. One of those stories is the story about Tylenol and its credo. Another is the story of the founding of Pixar.

In telling those stories, Coyle leaves out some interesting and potentially helpful things. For example, he tells us about the meeting where Johnson & Johnson executives reviewed the company’s credo to see if it should be revised. We know there was a meeting. But Coyle never tells us whether they changed the credo or not at that meeting. He simply jumps ahead to the Tylenol crisis, where the credo became guiding principles for one of the most successful disaster recovery examples ever.

Then, there’s the story of Ed Catmull and Pixar. Coyle says, “If you set out to design a life that represented the perfect merger of art and science, you might design one that looks like Catmull’s.” Then, just below, after mentioning a little bit about Catmull’s parents and his early interests, he says “After college, he landed a job with George Lucas…”

Well yes, it was, technically, “after college,” but it was a full five years after Catmull got his PhD. And, after talking about the life as a model for the perfect merger of art and science, Coyle leaves out the fact that in his pre-Lucas and pre-Pixar days, Ed Catmull worked on projects for ARPA during the time he was working as a physicist.

Those are important things to know if you want to learn how Ed Catmull developed into the manager he is today. You can learn more about them in his book, Creativity, Inc, about his life and Pixar.

Special Note

Chapters 15 and 16 are worth reading, even if you skip everything else. Chapter 15 is “How to Lead for Proficiency” while chapter 16 is “How to Lead for Creativity.” The two skills are different and which one you choose as a manager will determine what values you treasure and what kinds of performance you optimize.

In A Nutshell

This is a book that will help you create a strong and supportive culture where you are. There are problems with the book, but they’re not big enough or consistent enough to really detract from the value. If you want to learn about how to create and maintain a positive and strong culture in your team or organization, buy and read The Culture Code: The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups by Daniel Coyle.

Strong cultures make teams work better and produce higher profits—according to a Harvard study, about 7% more a year. A healthy culture—one which protects the organization—is comprised of three critical elements: Safety, Vulnerability, and Purpose. In his well-written book, Daniel Coyle outlines a Maslow-derived model that starts with safety: You get the most honest responses and best effort from people when they feel safe and connected to a team. As a leader, you create a safe environment by listening, thanking people, helping people to interact, getting rid of bad apples, and by giving all people a voice. Next, vulnerability starts with the leader admitting flaws, thus making it easier for others to admit theirs. “I need your help,” becomes the message when leaders are vulnerable. And an attitude of “we can do this thing together” results. Many stellar organizations have their own versions of this vulnerability tenet that makes them stronger. Practice vulnerability by the leader: Going first, communicating expectations, delivering negative feedback in person, listening well, aiming for candor not brutal honesty, and embracing discomfort. Finally, purpose completes the culture code (Safety—Vulnerability—Purpose). Purpose-driven questions are “What is this all about and why are we doing what we do?” Purpose is about the higher calling of work—not about the what or the how of work, rather about the why of it. Establish purpose by developing and enforcing priorities—especially in group relationships. Also, support proficiency and creativity separately but equally, develop memorable culture slogans, measure what matters most, develop symbols (artifacts) of culture, and set the behavior bar high and with specific, defined actions.

This book could really be life-changing if its ideas are put into practice. It is inspiring and exciting to contemplate. There are so many areas where it can be implemented, from our interactions with teenagers in our home to business meetings to church gatherings. Not to be dramatic, but it makes me want to be a better person.

An absolutely great team culture book. Really gets to the heart of team dynamics, psychological safety and the culture of challenging the status quo to get the most out of any projects

A must read book for all those who seek to understand the dynamics within groups. Presents real stories which confirms the importance of understanding how to elevate group cultures to another level.

Third book for Jan: “The Culture Code” by Daniel Coyle. I went into this looking for insight on how Sarah and I can build a life-giving culture for our growing family. Many of the ideas in this book were not new, in fact if you’ve picked up books on highly productive groups (think Pixar, Navy Seals, Amazon, etc) you’ve probably come across this material. However, Coyle puts the ideas in one place, in highly readable content that is applicable for any context.

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The book is framed around three skills for building a great group culture: Build Safety, Share Vulnerability, Establish Purpose. Easy enough. But it was the insights gained from various controlled experiments and the wisdom given by those interviewed that really helped me take the abstract and begin to see these ideas in practice. For instance, safety: Much of the inertia in group projects involves the safety within the group- “How am I performing?”, “How do I compare to my teammates?”, “Can I tell them what I honestly feel about their work?”, “What role do I play in this?”, “Who is the leader?”...How do groups overcome this? It starts with belonging cues. Belonging cues can be eye contact, physical touch, close proximity, short exchanges (no long speeches), lots of questions, active listening, humor, etc. Really anything that tells others, “Hey you belong here. You’re safe here. You and your work are valued. Help the team get better.”

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Then there’s vulnerability. Sharing vulnerability in a group empowers others and unlocks a group’s ability to perform. The two sentences that underpin the section are: “Anybody have any ideas? Tell me what you want, and I’ll help you.” They come from stories where people in positional power risk vulnerability to help their groups fuse collective energy and achieve something better than any one of them could’ve done alone. Vulnerability tells others: “I can’t do this alone. But we can do it together”.

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Lastly establishing purpose. It goes without saying- aim at nothing and you’ll get it every time. But aim at the wrong thing and you’ll get that too. Develop a mission statement. Anchor to it in all you do as a group.

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Highly Recommend.

O autor compara grupos de bebês, com executivos de uma maneira impressionante e nos mostra que as vezes, ter títulos é menos importante do que fazer o básico.

If you read a lot of business books this book is definitely not for you. I have read most of the "lessons" in this book in other books. I found it extremely boring.

Most of the things in this book are almost speculative and hearsay.

Daniel Coyle avait déjà mené l'enquête dans Le petit livre du talent, ouvrage dans lequel il cherchait à comprendre comment se cultivaient les talents.

C'est à une autre enquête qu'il nous invite dans "The Culture Code". Il tente de répondre à cette question : qu'est-ce qui fait que certains groupes s'avèrent plus performants que ne le serait la somme de leurs membres là où d'autres le sont moins.

Pour cela, il nous emmène explorer différents environnements capables de générer des performances exceptionnelles : IDEO, PIXAR ou Johnson & Johnson mais aussi l'équipe de Basket des San Antonio Spurs ou l'unité d'élite de la Marine américaine (SEAL Team 6). Il nous plonge également dans des recherches universitaires sur lesquelles il s'appuie pour expliquer ce qu'il a observé.

Il met en évidence 3 caractéristiques majeures :

- Créer un cadre de sécurité où l'on peut s'exprimer sans crainte de représailles.

- Ne pas hésiter à parler des vulnérabilités de chacun car ce niveau d'échange fonde la confiance et la solidarité entre les membres de l'équipe,

- Définir, faire vivre et sans cesse se référer à une noble cause (high purpose) qui fédère et inspire l'ensemble des membres de l'équipe, en particulier dans des situations critiques pour lesquelles aucune procédure n'existe et qui exigent des décisions rapides.

Le choix des termes pour exprimer ces 3 caractéristiques est contestable : le cadre de sécurité agrège des pratiques d'écoute, de reconnaissance, de partage d'expérience, mais aussi de sélection drastique des membres ; les vulnérabilités, qu'on pourrait également appeler humilité, symbolisent toutes les pratiques qui permettent de construire une atmosphère de confiance et de solidarité; la noble cause vise tout ce qui va permettre de partager les critères de discernement dans la conduite des opérations au quotidien.

L'intérêt de ce livre, agréable à lire, grâce à son style narratif, réside également dans son souci pratique. Pour chaque thème, l'auteur le développe selon une structure ternaire :

- présentation du thème

- étude de plusieurs cas pratiques d'organisations l'ayant mis en oeuvre

- idées pour aider le lecteur à le mettre en oeuvre.

Ce livre s'inscrit dans ce courant du management contemporain (voir par exemple Principles: Life and Work, Reinventing Organizations: Vers des communautés de travail inspirées., La Révolution Holacracy : Le système de management des entreprises performantes, An Everyone Culture: Becoming a Deliberately Developmental Organization), qui pointe que l'obstacle principal à la performance réside dans une culture qui fait primer la hiérarchie et la régulation par la norme écrite là où l'enjeu clé se situe dans un rapport juste à la réalité et une recherche permanente de la vérité.

C'est une bonne synthèse pour comprendre que certains schémas de pensée encore très présents dans le monde professionnel sont obsolètes et causent les difficultés qui ne peuvent résoudre qu'en en changeant.

I love this book. It's easy to read, it's actionable, and it creates opportunities to find parallels between your workplace and some of the most successful companies in the world. I bought a copy for each of my team.

a very insightful read, full of great examples. It did taper off a little at the end . with the Purpose section a little disappointing imo. Still, highly recommended.