“Where does culture come from? How do you build and sustain it in your group, or strengthen a culture that needs fixing?”

This is the question that Daniel Coyle sets out to answer in “The Culture Code”, which is truly one of the best books on the market regarding culture (at least until mine comes out 😊). Daniel Coyle goes inside a variety of the world’s most successful organizations to reveal what makes them tick. The book is full of fun stories, interesting revelations, and ideas that any organization can choose to follow.

What I love the most about this book is his ability to suspend ‘moral judgement’ and look at teams that really, truly work. Of course, he studies the US Navy Seals, but he also studies a group of Serbian jewel thieves that have successfully evaded Interpol for years and pulled off incredible heists. Looking at what works and what doesn’t, regardless of how you feel about the team members or their activity, is, in my humble opinion, a very important part of understanding culture. It’s the reason I spend so much of my time-sharing stories and insights from the religious cult that I was unfortunate enough to be born and raised in. Once you understand that we can learn as much from ‘bad’ groups as from ‘good’ ones—and not only things to avoid, but also things to emulate—we come a long way to understanding group behavior, human nature, and how culture is built and shaped.

Coyle outlines three essential skills in the book:

1. Build Safety

“When you ask people inside highly successful groups to describe their relationship with one another, they all tend to choose the same word. This word is not friends or team or tribe or any other equally plausible term. The word they use is family.” (The Culture Code, page 7). He discusses legit psychology concepts like mirroring, phraseology, and how to actually make sure that values are understood and implemented throughout the team. It all boils down to one thing: leaders, creating a sense of belonging is an absolute MUST. The section comes to a close with how to design for belonging and ideas for action.

2. Share Vulnerability

Vulnerability is in its heyday right now, at least the term, but how many leaders actually do it? Starting with the story of a near catastrophic plane crash, and jumping right into how Navy SEALS brutally rip apart and critique their own operations in After Action Reviews, (AARs), the importance of vulnerability that goes deeper than lip service is underscored and mapped out. “The fascinating thing is, however, these awkward, painful interactions generate the highly cohesive, trusting behavior necessary for smooth cooperation”. There really is something to the ability for a team to honestly outline all of their mistakes, learn from the lessons, and then move forward together. Tactical advice on how to create a vulnerability loop, how to create cooperation with individuals and ideas for action round out this section.

3. Establish Purpose

Establishing a sense of purpose may be one of the hardest things that leaders have to do, and they have to do it well if they want the culture benefits. It’s easier said than done, and it takes work and reinforcement. From stories of how Tylenol lived up to their values, to the messaging that the Portuguese police engaged in in order to prevent a riot, Coyle explains how learning velocity and word choice go hand in hand towards creating high-purpose environments. This section covers how to lead for productivity, balanced against how to lead for creativity—as both are equally important to any organization, or should be.

At the end of the day is the fact that, “small efforts are powerful because they transmit, amplify and celebrate the purpose of the whole group.

And if you don’t have purpose, what are you really doing?

DANIELLA YOUNG IS A TEDX SPEAKER, AN AUTHOR, COMBAT VETERAN, BOARD MEMBER OF OPERATION CODE, & THE CO-FOUNDER OF CAVNESSHR—AN HR-TECH COMPANY WHO’S MISSION IS TO MAKE BIG-BUSINESS HR AVAILABLE TO SMALL BUSINESSES, THROUGH INNOVATIVE SAAS AND VIRTUAL CONSULTING. DANIELLA SPECIALIZES IN HELPING BUSINESSES CREATE CULTURE ROADMAPS, LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT PLANS & EFFECT TEAM TRANSFORMATION. WANT TO LEARN MORE? VISIT OUR WEBSITE AT cavnesshr.com.

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