The Culture Code: The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups

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Sentence-Summary: The Culture Code examines the dynamics of groups, large and small, formal and informal, to help you understand how great teams work and what you can do to improve your relationships wherever you cooperate with others. Much of that connection happens around the dinner table. The Spurs eat together approximately as often as they play basketball together.” Pg. 54 If I could get a sense of the way your culture works by meeting just one person, who would that person be?” pg. 148-149 Vulnerability not just increases trust, it’s also a way to show acceptance. If you admit no one’s perfect, people will feel okay even after making mistakes, which are inevitable in accomplishing a shared goal.

When you enter highly successful cultures, the number of thank-yous you hear seems slightly over the top…. it has less to do with thanks than affirming the relationship… response. In other words, a small thank-you caused people to behave far more generously to a completely different person. This is because thank-yous aren’t only expressions of gratitude; they’re crucial belonging cues that generate a contagious sense of safety, connection, and motivation.” Pgs. 79-81 Chapter titles are: Introduction – When Two Plus Two Equals Ten. Skill One: Build Safety 1. The Good Apples 2. The Billion-Dollar Day When Nothing Happened 3. The Christmas Truce, the One-Hour Experiment, and the Missileers 4. How to Build Belonging 5. How to Design for Belonging 6. Ideas for Action Skill Two: Share Vulnerability 7. “Tell Me What You Want, and I’ll Help You” 8. The Vulnerability Loop 9. The Super-Cooperators 10. How to Create Cooperation in Small Groups 11. How to Create Cooperation with Individuals 12. Ideas for Action Skill Three: Establish Purpose 13. Three Hundred and Eleven Words 14. The Hooligans and the Surgeons 15. How to Lead for Proficiency 16. How to Lead for Creativity 17. Ideas for Action EpilogueThe Culture Code is a must-read for anyone who wants to understand or create a shift in group dynamics. There is absolutely no excuse for tolerating or allowing toxic group culture. Dan Coyle shows how with three clear and easy to follow strategies, group dynamics can shift, and culture can be changed. The two discomforts vulnerability makes team members go through are emotional pain and a sense of inefficiency, says Coyle. However, it’s important to understand that pain only makes a group stronger. The result is hard to absorb because it feels like an illusion. We see smart, experienced business school students, and we find it difficult to imagine that they would combine to produce a poor performance. We see unsophisticated, inexperienced kindergartners, and we find it difficult to imagine that they would combine to produce a successful perfor- mance. But this illusion, like every illusion, happens because our instincts have led us to focus on the wrong details. We focus on what we can see—individual skills. But individual skills are not what matters. What matters is the interaction. The business school students appear to be collaborating, but in fact they are engaged in a process psychologists call status management. They are figuring out where they fit into the larger picture: Who is in charge? Is it okay to criticize someone’s idea? What are the rules here? Their interactions appear smooth, but their underlying behavior is riddled with inefficiency, hesitation, and subtle competition. Instead of focusing on the task, they are navigating their uncertainty about one another. They spend so much time managing sta- tus that they fail to grasp the essence of the problem (the marshmallow is relatively heavy, and the spaghetti is hard to secure). As a result, their first efforts often collapse, and they run out of time. All this helps reveal a paradox about the way belonging works. Belonging feels like it happens from the inside out, but in fact it happens from the outside in. Our social brains light up when they receive a steady accumulation of almost-invisible cues: We are close, we are safe, we share a future.” Pg. 25-26

Listening is not only about capturing every single word of the speaker – it also involves non-verbal signals that reflect how exactly a person is perceiving information. Posture and face expressions are very important: they show your counterparts you are synchronized with them. But they succeeded because they understood that being vulnerable together is the only way a team can become invulnerable.” Pg. 145 When Forming New Groups, Focus on Two Critical Moments: “Traces any group’s cooperation norms to two critical moments that happen in a group’s early life. They are: 1. The first vulnerability. 2. The first disagreement.” Pg. 161 Strangely enough, the children did. Because sometimes two plus two equals ten – and this experiment proves it.This place is like a greenhouse,’ Hsieh says. ‘In some greenhouses, the leader plays the role of the plant that every other plant aspires to. But that’s not me. I’m not the plant that everyone aspires to be. My job is to architect the greenhouse.’” Pg. 67

Remote work is on the rise. Already half of all Americans do at least part of their work from home. And while that wouldn’t be possible without modern technology, it’s still remarkable how many people jump on the opportunity if it presents itself. According to Daniel Coyle, it’s simple: our homes are the safest places we know. Instead, when it’s your turn, share one of your flaws. Lesson 2: Share your own shortcomings to show people it’s okay to make mistakes. The difference with successful cultures seems to be that they use the crisis to crystallize their purpose. When leaders of those groups reflect on those failures now, they express gratitude (and sometimes even nostalgic desire) for those moments, as painful as they were, because they were the crucible that helped the group discover what it could be”. As with culture, a sense of belonging and safety aren't magic. They're created through several factors, such as open channels of communication. We've all been in situations where we've felt unheard or ignored. In cases like these, we usually respond with apathy or rebellion. In a workplace with a positive culture, everyone is invited to participate in open communication channels, no matter what seniority level you are. Furthermore, individuals within the group should feel validated and valued for their contributions. However, at the heart of wanting to be inside, rather than outside of a group, comes down to the belonging cues that we're given. Building purpose is not easy – it’s a never-ending process of failing, learning, and trying again. Below are the actions Coyle suggests doing to develop a high-purpose environment. Name and rank your priorities

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Bad apple behavior – any behavior in a group that negatively influences other team members – should not be tolerated. In the successful groups Coyle researched, this type of behavior was not only noticed but also named; this way, it was easier to fight it. Create collision-rich spaces Culture is the primary factor for determining how well an organization executes on every other aspect of organizational performance. It is also the most important competitive advantage an organization can have because it’s what makes an organization stand out from its competitors.

These kind of heuristics “provide guidance by creating if/then scenarios in a vivid, memorable way” and function “as a conceptual beacon.” These kinds of clearly articulated catch phrases make it easier to make decisions in support of specific team goals, such as “You can’t prevent mistakes but you can solve problems graciously” or “If someone is rude make a charitable assumption.” Creating safety is about dialing in to small, subtle moments and delievering targeted signals at key points.” Pg. 75 So what went wrong for the students? According to Skillman, they succumbed to "status management." Whereas the Kindergarteners just dived headfirst into the project and tried to build the highest tower they could, the MBA students fixated on who was in charge, who should occupy what role, and who had what skills to offer. Hence, the MBA students ran out of time, and were ineffective in their problem-solving. If we look at the Kindergarteners, they just merrily began trying and failing, and eventually learned through trial and error. Their process was chaotic and enthusiastic, and perhaps unorthodox, but it was also supportive and collaborative. There were no egos, no jostling for position, and most importantly, no fear. Ensuring that everyone has a voice is easy to talk about but hard to accomplish. This is why many successful groups use simple mechanisms that encourage, spotlight, and value full-group contribution. For example, many groups follow the rule that no meeting can end without everyone sharing something.” Pg. 83Highly cohesive groups are characterized by moments of fluid, trusting cooperation. These groups move and think as one, but, embedded within these fluid movements are less smooth, more awkward moments that can be tense. They reveal shortcomings and missteps.