That's my Kind of 'Culture Code'

I heartily recommend reading The Culture Code by Daniel Coyle. He explores three skills that are necessary for highly successful groups, backing them up with relevant academic research and entertaining real-life stories. What makes a successful group is a question that has been studied by many for a long time now and this book gives a nice overview.

The first skill is building #safety. You may be nodding your head and saying 'duh', thinking about a piece of research that you have read that also found this, or even scratching your head and thinking 'what's this hippy crap about then?'. In this context think of safety as meaning that people feel safe to experiment in their group without fear of being judged or facing strongly negative consequences if their experiment fails. Actively listen to others in the group and don't let the bad apples sour the mix. Thank others for helping you and contribute to looking after the group. Also, embrace fun. If you're doing your job and not having fun then that's a big red flag for me. I'm not saying that I need to be rolling around laughing all day but I do need to enjoy the challenges put in front of me, even if they are tough and need really hard work to tackle them.

The second skill is sharing #vulnerability. That's right, it's not a problem to let your guard down and show others that you're not perfect! In fact, it's one of the skills that has been shown to help develop trust between people in groups. Admitting that you don't know how to do something and asking for help allows others the opportunity to help you and will make it more likely for them to ask you for help too in the future. Successful groups help one another. Successful groups are not a bunch of individuals who sit next to one another doing their own thing, only stopping once in a while for pleasantries or forced social events. Successful groups put the group before the individual. Many of us suffer from imposter syndrome, making it tough to admit weaknesses. Try a little vulnerability though and see what happens.

The third skill is establishing #purpose. You cannot possibly over-communicate the purpose of your group. From running service in a restaurant, to making drugs in a pharmaceuticals company, or leading a global entertainment company, you need to make sure that everyone in your group not only knows what their purpose is but buys into it and shares it. Flood the workplace with reminders so that it the purpose becomes instinctive for everyone. Then, we start to see some beautiful coordinated complex behaviours emerging from the relatively simple heuristics given as purpose. One of the very good tips that I took out of the book was to make sure of sayings in order to establish a shared purpose. I have started creating a list of sayings and will share them with you at some time. Communicate purpose over and over even if it seems obvious. Although, I guess there are limits, like wet floor signs on a sea bed...

This isn't just one of those inspirational books that has you thinking about for days on end after reading it, but it also has useful ideas for actions that you can take to put the lessons into practice. For me, that's a good blend between an entertaining story and a reference textbook. I can feel a cheatsheet in the making...