In the case of a group, it’s the sum of all beliefs and values among your team, as they relate to achieving your common goal. That goal might be something straightforward, like selling the most phones any company has ever sold, but ideally, it’s about something bigger, like making phone users feel special and that they have good taste. Which one do you think Apple’s built on? Norms– both articulated and unspoken expectations and rules that dictate how group members should behave in the organization (communication styles, dress codes, punctuality, work ethic, etc.).

Coyle reveals that a group leader is usually the first person to admit to vulnerability and flaws. Leaders share their shortcomings and reaffirm the commonly held but often glossed over belief, that nobody is perfect. The point of being a group is that everyone has a crucial role to play, and that everyone has their own strengths and weaknesses. 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 While you may think that all you need to do is dial Keith in marketing and get him to come up with a catchy slogan, a pithy mission statement, a fancy and memorable logo, this isn't enough to instill a sense of purpose. Any company can get hold of their version of Keith; what you need is a story. As with any workout, the key is to understand that the pain is not a problem but the path to building a stronger group. 3. ESTABLISH PURPOSE When all these attributes, codes, and signals present themselves in a positive way, the culture will be positive and support the growth of team members, fostering high levels of engagement and successful collaboration. When these attributes, codes, and signals are negative, culture will turn toxic, team members will experience low morale, performance will suffer, and retention will drop.

Daniel Coyle has a gift for demystifying elite performance and breaking it down into empirical facts. This is indispensable for anyone looking to lead, build, or find an elite culture.” —Rich Diviney, retired Navy SEAL Officer and director of outreach for the Barry-Wehmiller Leadership Institute Actually, if you look more closely at the sentence, it contains three separate cues: 1. You are part of this group. 2. This group is special; we have high standards here. 3. I believe you can reach those standards.” Pg. 56 Where does great culture come from? How do you build and sustain it in your group, or strengthen a culture that needs fixing?

Vulnerability is contagious. It doesn’t come after trust – it precedes it. Like safety, it is a group muscle that is built through repeated interaction. As a result, it gets the static out of the way and lets people combine their strengths to achieve a goal. Culture can be difficult to define because there isn’t one generally accepted definition or a one-size-fits-all approach to building and managing culture. Another researcher, Jeff Polzer, who researches organizational behavior at Harvard, found that when we share our own flaws with others, something amazing happens. He calls it a vulnerability loop, in which other people detect when we signal vulnerability, thus signal vulnerability too, and thus both parties become closer and trust each other more. She gathers the group and asks questions designed to unearth tensions and help the group gain clarity about themselves and the project. The word she uses for this process is surfacing.” Pg. 150I’ve been waiting years for someone to write this book—I’ve built it up in my mind into something extraordinary. But it is even better than I imagined. Daniel Coyle has produced a truly brilliant, mesmerizing read that demystifies the magic of great groups. It blows all other books on culture right out of the water. Read it immediately.” —Adam Grant, New York Times bestselling author of Option B, Originals, and Give and Take At its most basic, workplace culture encompasses the shared attitudes, beliefs, priorities, and values within an organization that guide the behaviors of all employees. Workplace culture provides much-needed context for an organization’s mission, vision, goals, and strategies. It helps employees not just understand the “how” of their jobs, it also helps them understand the “why,” which is essential for building engagement. What Is The Culture Code?

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. Coyle doesn’t just provide an outline for what we should do to keep teams motivated and working together; he also provides some eye-opening examples of behaviors that can sabotage a team’s motivation and offers practical advice and action steps to take to boost collaboration and support a winning culture. What Is Organizational Culture? In other words, the feelings of trust and closeness sparked by the vulnerability loop were transferred in full strength to someone who simply happened to be in the room.” Pg. 107 Pixar’s BrainTrust and Navy SEAL’s AARs (After Action Review) are good places to answer these questions.High purpose environments are filled with small, vivid signals designed to create a link between the present moment and a future ideal. They provide two simple locators that every navigation process requires: Here is where we are and Here is where we want to go.” Pg. 180 Big-picture perspective (larger conversations about politics, history, and culture that translate as ‘life is bigger than our current project’) Summary: A great read that’s super helpful to anyone looking to intentionally build a culture. Coyle has uncovered three keys to culture: 1. Build Safety 2. Share Vulnerability 3. Establish Purpose. He supports these ideas with research that’s laid out in an engaging and interesting manner. For organizational leaders and pastors building a culture is paramount. This book demystifies the process. My only critique is that it does drag on in a spot or two, but overall it doesn’t. If you are working to develop a culture at work or at home, this is a must read!

The groups I studied had extremely low tolerance for bad apple behavior and, perhaps more important, were skilled at naming those behaviors.” Pg. 81 One habit I saw in successful groups was that of sneak-previewing future relationships, making small but telling connections between now and a vision of the future.” Pg. 78 the most effective listeners behave like trampolines. They aren’t passive sponges. They are active responders, absorbing what the other person gives, supporting them, and adding energy to help the conversation gain velocity and altitude.” Pg. 163 Overdo Thank-Yous — that includes “thanks for letting me coach you” — as a way of affirming the relationship and “igniting cooperative behavior.”

If a crystal ball could tell you the truth about yourself, your life, the future, or anything else, what would you want to know?