The Culture Code: The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups

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Why do certain groups add up to be greater than the sum of their parts, while others add up to be less? The point is it won't matter who you have in your group; it's how you work together that's important. Many businesses and groups have failed because they've emphasized individuals, individual performance, and micromanagement. Coyle says we need to rethink this, and uses the superb example of Kindergarteners vs. MBA students. Great teams work, not because they have the magical ingredient of chemistry, instead this chemistry has been nurtured and developed. Performance comes from developing cohesion and trust through safety, vulnerability, and purpose.

Their interactions appear smooth, but their underlying behavior is riddled with inefficiency, hesitation, and subtle competition.” Pg. xvii 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

Skill 3. Establish Purpose

A great example of these practices is AAR – After Action Review. Originally, AARs were created for the military environment, but they can be applied in other areas. The main structural components of an AAR are built around the following questions: what was supposed to happen? What actually happened? What can be improved in the future? What should we continue doing? Niklas Göke is an author and writer whose work has attracted tens of millions of readers to date. He is also the founder and CEO of Four Minute Books, a collection of over 1,000 free book summaries teaching readers 3 valuable lessons in just 4 minutes each.

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 For the vast majority of human history, sustained proximity has been an indicator of belonging—after all, we don’t get consistently close to someone unless it’s mutually safe.” Pg. 72

Skill 2. Share Vulnerability

Purpose unites teams to work well together toward a common goal. It is essential for successful collaboration.

The contest had one rule: The marshmallow had to endup on top. The fascinating part of the experiment, however, had less to do with the task than with the participants. Some of the teams consisted of business school students. The oth- ers consisted of kindergartners. The final tips include: Name and rank your priorities; Be 10x as clear about these priorities as you think you ought, determine where your team aims for proficiency (and for creativity); Embrace the use of catchphrases; Measure what really matters; Use artifacts; Focus on bar-setting behaviors — and go read this book if you want to learn more about what all those things mean! Performance concerns the work you actually get paid for, and if it’s not good enough, that will have an impact on your salary; while development is about growth, which is more personal. Use flash mentoring 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 I chose groups using the following qualifications: (1) they had performed in the top 1 percent of their domain for at least a decade (where applicable);Coyle also dives into the neuroscience that has been on my radar for much of 2018 — and emphasizes that the amygdala is not just about perceiving threats but also plays “a vital role in building social connections.” Those “belonging cues” are all transformed in your brain to help “set the stage for meaningful engagement.”