The Culture Code by Daniel Coyle (2018)

TL;DR: Great cultures are built on Safety, shared Vulnerability, and an established Purpose


In the self-help space, these things come up again and again: Safety, Purpose, Meaning. Whether in looking at leadership, or to an individual's path to success, happiness, well-being, the literature seems pretty set on what it sees upon as the standards. And this book falls in line with those standards.



This book was great. Daniel Coyle is a great storyteller. When you can blend abstract ideas with concrete examples, and get a good balance, it gets digested much easier. This book reads pretty easily too. It seemed to be built to be simple and structured.


This book opens with a distinction about the topic in hand: Cultures
Culture is a set of living relationships working toward a shared goal. It's not something you are. It's something you do.
DC basically figures that the really good cultures out there are where people feel safe, trust each other, and where the purpose is properly communicated and embodied.

Safety


Psychological Safety to be exact. And this comes from small mundane things, not grand speeches.
The pattern was located not in the big things but in little moments of social connection.
Specifically, Belonging cues
 behaviors that create safe connection in groups. (Energy, Individualization, and Future Orientation)
This creates a subconscious message that:
You are safe here  
Basically, that when people feel they belong, they feel safe. How do you let Belonging rule? Communicate and Create the environment
Belonging needs to be continually refreshed and reinforced
Belonging cues have to do not with character or discipline but with building an environment that answers: Are we connected? Do we share a future? Are we safe?
And these Cultures are not always light and happy. They do not aim for happiness but more on solving tough things together. 


The most effective feedback found in the great cultures. Some call "Magical Feedback"

"I'm giving you these comments because I have very high expectations and I know that you can reach them" 
To create the environment with Belonging in mind. This has to maximize "Collisions" and Connections.
Collisions - defined as serendipitous personal encounters are, he believes, the lifeblood of any organization, the key driver of creativity, community and cohesion. 
Being physically close helps.
Closeness helps create efficiencies of connection. 
And the leaders exhibit Muscular humility,
 a mindset of seeking simple ways to serve the group
ie. picking up trash, keeping the place tidy, treating people well.

Vulnerability


There's a subtle association that to be vulnerable is to be weak. "I don't know." "I screwed up." "I was wrong." And perhaps that's where people miss the strength in it. Because if we think we know everything, we've stopped growing. Things are fixed. To be vulnerable means to see the problem as it is, get help and start doing something about it. One example with pilots are things called Notifications.
A notification is not order or a command. It provides context, telling of something noticed, placing a spotlight on one discrete element of the world. Notifications are the humblest and most primitive form of communication, the equivalent of a child's finger point: I see this.
And in one example a restaurateur tells a new joiner: 
So here's how we'll know if you had a good day, If you ask for help ten times, then we'll know it was good. If you try to do it alone..
So why be vulnerable? Because nothing else facilitates trust and cooperation.
Vulnerability Loop, A shared exchange of openness, it's the most basic building block of cooperation and trust.
Vulnerability doesn't come after trust - it precedes it.
When it comes to creating cooperation, Vulnerability is not a risk but a psychological requirement
And how do you create cooperation in groups? Share Mistakes and Experiences. An example is an AAR done by the SEAL's. After Action Review
The goal of an AAR is not to excavate truth for truth's sake, or to assign credit and blame, but rather build a shared mental model that can be applied to future missions.
And as one of their leaders put it:
Look, nobody can see it all or know it all.. But if you keep getting together and digging out what happened, then after a while everybody can see what's really happening, not just their small piece of it. People can share experiences and mistakes. They can see how what they do affects other, and we start to create a group mind where everybody can work together and perform to the team's potential
The real courage is seeing the truth and speaking the truth to each other.
How do you create cooperation in individuals? Ask and Listen the right way. One set of questions might go: 
The one thing that excites me about this particular opportunity is _____I confess, the one thing I'm not excited about with this particular opportunity is ____On this project, I'd really like to get better at ____
And to really listen, can incite flow.
When you're really listening, you lose time. There's no sense of yourself, because it's not about you. It's all about this task - to connect completely to that person.
Leaders can also ask this set: 
What's the one thing that I currently do that you'd like me to continue to do?What is the one thing that I don't currently do frequently enough that you think I should do more often?What can I do to make you more effective?
And when mistakes happen,
Are we about appearing strong or about exploring the landscape together? Are we about winning interactions or about learning together?

Purpose


As Simon Sinek puts it, Start with the Why. The purpose. What's the purpose of this organization? Why do we do what we do? And DC writes: Let it be known!
Purpose isn't about tapping some mystical internal drive but rather about creating simple beacons that focus attention and engagement on the shared goal
DC notes that Purpose does not hide reality.
The deeper neurological truth is that stories do not cloak reality but create it, triggering cascades of perception and motivation.
And again not on grand events, but on small even mundane things
This is the way high-purpose environments work. They are about sending not so much one big signal as a handful of steady, ultra-clear signals that are aligned with a shared goal. They are less about being inspiring than about being consistent. They are found not within big speeches so much as within everyday moments when people can sense the message: This is why we work; this is what we are aiming for.
The scale with Leadership seems to be about Compliance or Non-Conformity; Proficiency or Creativity. If your goal is Consistency. Make your Purpose be incredibly Salient and Noticeable. Like a Lighthouse.
You have priorities, whether you name them or not, ... If you want to grow, you'd better name them, and you'd better name the behavior that support the priorities.
Creating engagement around a clear, simple set of priorities can function as a lighthouse, orienting behavior and providing a path toward a goal. 
Heuristics: a simple set of rules that drive behavior
If your goal is Novelty, Think Systems. Create the environment where people take ownership, and have the free range to experiment and make a lot of mistakes.
Building purpose in a creative group is not about generating a brilliant moment of breakthrough but rather about building systems that can churn through lots of ideas in order to help unearth the right choices. 
Building creative purpose isn't really about creativity. It's about building ownership, providing support and aligning group energy toward the arduous, error-filled, ultimately fulfilling journey of making something new. 



And awesome actionable idea at the last chapters is somewhat similar to an AAR, but structure the feedback in "What worked well/Even better if"




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