Top Ten Quotes: The Culture Code
One of the most surprisingly-good books I read this year was The Culture Code: The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups. Like many of my favorite authors, Daniel Coyle has the ability to weave deep research with fascinating stories. From Johnson & Johnson to Pixar’s braintrust to a flock of starlings, Coyle helps us understand what makes for a good, cohesive, and nearly-unbreakable group.
Here are my top ten favorite quotes:
- Group culture is one of the most powerful forces on the planet. We sense its presence inside successful businesses, championship teams, and thriving families, and we sense when it’s absent or toxic.
- Culture is a set of living relationships working toward a shared goal. It’s not something you are. It’s something you do.
- “Just hearing something said rarely results in a change in behavior. They’re just words. When we see people in our peer group play with an idea, our behavior changes. That’s how intelligence is created. That’s how culture is created.” (Alex Pentland)
- 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.
- When you enter highly successful cultures, the number of thank-yous you hear seems slightly over the top.
- Vulnerability doesn’t come after trust—it precedes it. Leaping into the unknown, when done alongside others, causes the solid ground of trust to materialize beneath our feet.
- “…I’d say those might be the most important four words any leader can say: I screwed that up.” (Dave Cooper)
- …the most important moments in conversation happen when one person is actively, intently listening.
- Creating engagement around a clear, simple set of priorities can function as a lighthouse, orienting behavior and providing a path toward a goal.
- Their greatest project is building and sustaining the group itself. If they get their own relationships right, everything else will follow.
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