The Culture Code: The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups Kindle Edition

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 NoteChapters 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 NutshellThis 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.

Overall I loved this book. But several of the corporate cultures he writes about as being positive have since had sexual misconduct issues, or in some cases no women or few women to include in the cultures. I think it would make for an excellent follow up to examine how women and non-binary persons are accepted into the workplace using the advice in this book. Or how to alter corporate culture to empower all people.I reached out to Daniel in the hopes that he had some thoughts. I haven't gotten a response, but here is what I said as it applies to the book:Hello Daniel!I just finished reading The Culture Code and I really enjoyed it. I'm a photographer and lots of your research connected to my own about putting clients at ease and communicating that failure is ok.However, I did have one thought that I hoped you'd be able to offer some additional insight into. Some of the cultures you researched had/have issues with toxic masculinity. I was an improvisor in Chicago for over 10 years, and in many ways the trust used to build strong groups was also used as a vehicle to groom young women to trust terrible men. Similarly, John Lasseter stepped down as head of Pixar amid misconduct allegations. And the Navy SEALs still haven't had a women in the squad.My question is, when strong culture comes from expressing safety and vulnerability, how can these institutions be viewed as strong when women's experiences have been so different? And in your research had you noticed any ways that other companies had dealt with toxic masculinity?

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.

If you liked Good to Great this book is for you. If you want to create a high performance culture Daniel Coyle gives you plenty of examples of successful business cultures, failed cultures and why they failed. His examples are punctuated with the source documents successful cultures use. He also shows you how and why creative cultures, for example Pixar, require a different cultural design than a service company such as Zappos. This, in all of the business books I've read, was new. Definitely worth a read.

I was little disappointed by this book. If you not read many books about leadership, then this would be a really good place to start. It is easy reading, and the points are made through real life examples and stories rather than theory, The disappointment for me is there was very little here that can't be found elsewhere, but if you are new to all of this then it would make a really good introduction - so much of the work of team building seems counter intuitive at first, and this book covers that well

Fab book. Really interesting little anecdotes that illustrate quite complex theory and psychology. What was best was how actions and behaviours were clearly illustrated that could be applied by any individual committed enough to try. Have shared with my entire leadership team and it has had a profoundly positive effect on our business. Would definitely recommend. Writing style had a lovely tone and wasn't all about the writer. Buy it.

If you work in a team, but especially if you lead one, this book is not good; it is absolutely fantastic. This ranks as one of the most important learning resources in existence in terms of group performance. Buy this book now, immediately read it five times, implement everything in it and watch your culture become the primary driver of results in your business or team. Then buy Talent Code, another game changer from this author, and repeat the process.The best thing about this book is that the principles within it have a cumulative effect; the more you implement, the more often they are repeated and the longer they remain in place, the more acute and sustainable the positive results. Whether you are running a FTSE100 business, or coaching a Sunday League football team, you must read this book.

This is an inspirational read and a call-to-action for any team looking to be more successful. The book takes examples from the best teams on the planet including Pixar, The Navy Seals and the airline industry and draws lessons from these into inspiring but actionable points that can be implemented in your own team. I will be using this as a reference from time-to-time to help cultivate my own team's growth.

Each of the three main sections has an 'Action Point' list which is great for practical implementation of Coyle's ideas.I also liked the chapter on the main differences between Proficient Teams and Creative Teams.I work with many start-ups designing team profiling tools (Rob Williams Assessment Ltd) so know a credible team productivity model when I see one!