The Culture Code

The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups

By: Daniel Coyle

Narrated by: Will Damron

New York Times best seller

The author of The Talent Code unlocks the secrets of highly successful groups and provides tomorrow’s leaders with the tools to build a cohesive, motivated culture.

Named one of the best books of the year by Bloomberg and Library Journal

Where does great culture come from? How do you build and sustain it in your group, or strengthen a culture that needs fixing? In The Culture Code, Daniel Coyle goes inside some of the world’s most successful organizations - including the US Navy’s SEAL Team Six, IDEO, and the San Antonio Spurs - and reveals what makes them tick. He demystifies the culture-building process by identifying three key skills that generate cohesion and cooperation, and explains how diverse groups learn to function with a single mind. Drawing on examples that range from Internet retailer Zappos to the comedy troupe Upright Citizens Brigade to a daring gang of jewel thieves, Coyle offers specific strategies that trigger learning, spark collaboration, build trust, and drive positive change. Coyle unearths helpful stories of failure that illustrate what not to do, troubleshoots common pitfalls, and shares advice about reforming a toxic culture.

Combining leading-edge science, on-the-ground insights from world-class leaders, and practical ideas for action, The Culture Code offers a roadmap for creating an environment where innovation flourishes, problems get solved, and expectations are exceeded. Culture is not something you are - it’s something you do. The Culture Code puts the power in your hands. No matter the size of your group or your goal, this book can teach you the principles of cultural chemistry that transform individuals into teams that can accomplish amazing things together.

©2018 Daniel Coyle (P)2018 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

"If you want to understand how successful groups work - the signals they transmit, the language they speak, the cues that foster creativity - you won't find a more essential guide than The Culture Code. This is a marvel of insight and practicality." (Charles Duhigg, New York Times best-selling author of The Power of Habit and Smarter Faster Better)

"I'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 best-selling author of Option B, Originals, and Give and Take)

Shockingly simple; Coyle delivers excellence

What did you love best about The Culture Code?

Like Joseph Campbell defined the mono-myth, Daniel Coyle delivers with a cyclorama of examples outlining the same concepts in different costumes. The examples are diverse, the stories are compelling and the emotional pitch is spot on. Will Damron also nailed the delivery and the performance was great.

Who was your favorite character and why?

N/A; a toss-up between the Navy Seal interviewee and Coach Popovich.

What about Will Damron’s performance did you like?

His diverse delivery of various interviewees and the hesitant, the brash and downright bullhorn delivery of some of the examples. "Futty's backcheck".

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

The Spurs crusher and the J&J crisis.

Any additional comments?

You must listen if you want to understand what a great culture is and what you can do to make a great culture. The challenge will be convincing people that the simple changes are enough.

Not very unique ideas

This book contains no unique ideas yet it is well focused, beautifully written and straight to the point.

Importance of Culture

Really enjoyed the content and thought that there were many actionable items within. Knowing how cultures work within a company is very important for my day-to-day whether I realize it or not. I experience first hand what a bad culture feels like and it's refreshing to see what other companies with constructive cultures are doing right. I recommend pairing Power of Moments with this book for deeper dive in human interactions.

Not To Be Missed!

Great insights and practical tips! Wonderful stories to demonstrate the concepts and highlight the teachings.

Great book! For all leaders.

The book puts together a series of life lessons, enconpassing all tribal / connected environments. A good way to understand people and group dybamics with powerful examples.

Insightful read on highly successful groups

Culture Code focuses on what makes the worlds most successful teams so successful. My biggest takeaways are make your team feel safe and define a shared purpose.

A must for all in leadership

Loved it. Great insights about culture and what it takes to create a good one. The stories brought the points to life and made the listen entertaining.

Awesome book for leaders!

This an awesome book for anyone trying to build a culture or improve one. Highly recommend this book.

A lower level of granularity than others

The term psychological safety has been buzzing in business dialogue, and for good reason as it is imperative to a well functioning egalitarian and meritocratic organization. Coyle takes it to a next, more pragmatic level, through the term 'belonging cues,' which are small behaviors that create a sense of belonging with individuals, that together and overtime lead to psychological safety. Belonging cues can often be subtractive, getting rid of behaviors like cutting others off, having a hostile tone, aversion of eye contact, etc. They are also often embedded in heuristics, or rules of thumb or catchphrases, which can be very effective at driving cultural change. An example of this is Danny Meyer's multi-restaurant success in the New York restaurant space through the dissemination of catchphrases such as 'make the charitable assumption,' 'collecting and connecting the dots', and 'one size fits one'.

The metric of collisions is a critical determinant of the strength of social networks, or the number of people you bump into over a period of time and space, and this is one that Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh has used to design their work space. On top of psychological safety, Coyle brings up the need for all members of an organization to be vulnerability by showing and acknowledging fallibility to create a vulnerability loop, and have a shared purpose, both required to create a strong bond between individuals.

On top of the material, this book flows smoothly, is enjoying to read, easy to digest, and includes lots of case studies.

Solid concepts and insight

really interesting look at the culture and framework of some of the most elite teams in business military and sports I really enjoy the behind the scene look