The Culture Code: The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups
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The Culture Code: The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups Audible Audiobook – Unabridged

Daniel Coyle (Author), Will Damron (Narrator), Random House Audio (Publisher)
4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars 7,701 ratings
Editors' pick Best Nonfiction
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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.

Previous page
  1. Listening Length
    7 hours and 13 minutes
  2. Author
    Daniel Coyle
  3. Narrator
    Will Damron
  4. Audible release date
    January 30, 2018
  5. Language
    English
  6. Publisher
    Random House Audio
  7. ASIN
    B077B1WF85
  8. Version
    Unabridged
  9. Program Type
    Audiobook
  10. See all details
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Product details

Listening Length 7 hours and 13 minutes
Author Daniel Coyle
Narrator Will Damron
Whispersync for Voice Ready
Audible.com Release Date January 30, 2018
Publisher Random House Audio
Program Type Audiobook
Version Unabridged
Language English
ASIN B077B1WF85
Best Sellers Rank #1,355 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals)
#5 in Organizational Behavior (Audible Books & Originals)
#13 in Medical Social Psychology & Interactions
#18 in Business Management (Audible Books & Originals)

Customer reviews

4.7 out of 5 stars
4.7 out of 5
7,701 global ratings
Creating Highly Successful Teams
5 Stars
Creating Highly Successful Teams
Just look at the table of contents and you'll see whether you want to read this book or not. I personally loved it because it was organized and presented in a manner that can be easily remembered. If you like stories mixed with takeaways then you will love The Culture Code: The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups.If you are reading for pleasure, you will like this book. If you are reading to know how to become a better leader and create an inclusive culture, you will love this book. The stories range from how Pixar, led by Ed Catmull, create such a highly successful business culture. You will also hear about the Navy Seals, along with several other enlightening stories mixed with the takeaways that will help you.Not only is it actionable but it is completely enjoyable to read. I wish I would have read this book sooner as it was sitting on my bookshelf for the past 3 years collecting dust. Finally I have opened it up and thoroughly learned a whole lot about creating highly successful groups.
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Top reviews from the United States

Beguiled By Books
5.0 out of 5 stars Short, easy, helpful workplace book!
Reviewed in the United States on July 21, 2023
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Since I do most of my reading on a Kindle, my TBR pile is often misleading. I don’t usually have an order to what I read, and I frequently forget when or why I purchased a book. As I looked at the cover of The Culture Code: The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups by Daniel Coyle on my Kindle, I had no recollection of when or why I bought the book. I was pleasantly surprised.

Coyle begins by talking about culture and what it meant in the early days of human history. He then explains how our brains are still wired to respond to culture in the same ways – emotional, physical, and psychological safety – even though we are now at work instead of in hunter-gatherer nomadic groups.

The Culture Code shares interviews with several people who have built outstanding teams and cultures, from Google to Dave Cooper, the unofficial father of the SEALs. Several conversations with Cooper show how emotional, physical, and psychological safety in groups creates cohesion, action, and adaptability within those groups.

“Make Sure the Leader Is Vulnerable First and Often: As we’ve seen, group cooperation is created by small, frequently repeated moments of vulnerability. Of these, none carries more power than the moment when a leader signals vulnerability. As Dave Cooper says, I screwed that up are the most important words any leader can say.”

Coyle shares Cooper’s program of AARs – After Action Reviews – with his team and how candor is the most crucial part of building a successful culture. It’s not about positivity, cheerleading, or a you-can-do-anything attitude. Creating a culture is about modeling the behavior you want to see and not punishing it when you see it.

There are many helpful tips for leaders within these pages. It’s also worth noting that the subtext of Coyle’s The Culture Code shows that everyone and anyone can be a leader. Leadership isn’t about authority, titles, or deference to another person; it’s about honesty, vulnerability, and consistency.

Having read a fair few books on companies, teams, and organizational culture, I thoroughly enjoyed the book. I appreciate the punchiness of the book. Too many books on team culture highlight tired stories of achievement in the 1950s or focus on one particular success story that is unlikely to be repeatable at another company. Coyle shows real examples and the themes that tie Google and the Navy SEALs together in a flexible, repeatable way. I look forward to instilling some of the techniques where I work.
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5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome
Reviewed in the United States on March 23, 2024
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Great read, informational, heart tugging & life altering. The case studies & indepth detail gave multiple examples on how to change culture in a healthy way.
Thank you
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Wally Bock
4.0 out of 5 stars A Great book with helpful insights, but there's a glitch or two
Reviewed in the United States on April 24, 2018
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There are a lot of books about culture and how to create a strong and healthy one. Daniel Coyle knew that a strong and effective culture is part of the secret sauce of successful organizations. He knew that “A strong culture increases net income 756 percent over 11 years, according to a Harvard study of more than 200 companies.” He thought he could look at strong cultures in a different way and write a book about it. Here’s how he puts it.

“I spent the last four years visiting and researching eight of the world’s most successful groups, including a special-ops military unit, an inner-city school, a professional basketball team, a movie studio, a comedy troupe, a gang of jewel thieves, and others. I found that their cultures are created by a specific set of skills”

Coyle started with a definition of culture that’s a little bit different than the norm. He says, “Culture is a set of living relationships working toward a shared goal. It’s not something you are, it’s something you do.”

So, what is it that you do? What do people in organizations that create strong cultures do that their peers in other organizations don’t do?

Coyle organizes the book into three sections, each one of which relates to a specific skillset. The three skills are: build safety; share vulnerability; and establish purpose.

There are several chapters about each skill. There’s a good mix of stories and studies. Coyle chooses his examples carefully and tells their stories well. He doesn’t use bullet points or frequent summaries, so sometimes you will work to tease out his meaning. You can get a sense of this if you review my highlights from the Culture Code on Goodreads.

Most business authors put summaries of key points or action steps at the end of every chapter. Coyle doesn’t. Instead, he includes a chapter at the end of every section, titled “Ideas for Action.” That chapter functions as a review of the other chapters in the section. I think that’s a good device, but I’d rather he also put his key points at the end of every chapter.

Coyle’s a good storyteller and he makes it a point to try to tell stories you may have heard before from an angle where you haven’t seen them before. One of those stories is the story about Tylenol and its credo. Another is the story of the founding of Pixar.

In telling those stories, Coyle leaves out some interesting and potentially helpful things. For example, he tells us about the meeting where Johnson & Johnson executives reviewed the company’s credo to see if it should be revised. We know there was a meeting. But Coyle never tells us whether they changed the credo or not at that meeting. He simply jumps ahead to the Tylenol crisis, where the credo became guiding principles for one of the most successful disaster recovery examples ever.

Then, there’s the story of Ed Catmull and Pixar. Coyle says, “If you set out to design a life that represented the perfect merger of art and science, you might design one that looks like Catmull’s.” Then, just below, after mentioning a little bit about Catmull’s parents and his early interests, he says “After college, he landed a job with George Lucas…”

Well yes, it was, technically, “after college,” but it was a full five years after Catmull got his PhD. And, after talking about the life as a model for the perfect merger of art and science, Coyle leaves out the fact that in his pre-Lucas and pre-Pixar days, Ed Catmull worked on projects for ARPA during the time he was working as a physicist.

Those are important things to know if you want to learn how Ed Catmull developed into the manager he is today. You can learn more about them in his book, Creativity, Inc, about his life and Pixar.

Special Note

Chapters 15 and 16 are worth reading, even if you skip everything else. Chapter 15 is “How to Lead for Proficiency” while chapter 16 is “How to Lead for Creativity.” The two skills are different and which one you choose as a manager will determine what values you treasure and what kinds of performance you optimize.

In A Nutshell

This is a book that will help you create a strong and supportive culture where you are. There are problems with the book, but they’re not big enough or consistent enough to really detract from the value. If you want to learn about how to create and maintain a positive and strong culture in your team or organization, buy and read The Culture Code: The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups by Daniel Coyle.
326 people found this helpful
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C. Smith
5.0 out of 5 stars Extremely Practical
Reviewed in the United States on December 30, 2023
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Often, books of this nature tend to overflow with clichéd sayings and lofty aspirations that lack practicality. However, I discovered this particular book to be relatable, brimming with actionable ideas and material that I could readily implement in my life. Its content transcended mere ideals, offering tangible steps I could apply immediately.
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars The best book on teams
Reviewed in the United States on March 15, 2024
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If you have a team you are leading, get this book. You’ll be better (equipped) to manage the job and understand what good teams do and don’t do. Implementing is the hard part!
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L Hamlet
5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating stories and analysis!
Reviewed in the United States on March 13, 2024
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I dug into this with a book club at work (tech company.) It was an enjoyable read, even more so at a measured pace, as I could take it all in. The author analyzed leaders, groups, and companies that have collaborated to attain at least momentary cultural greatness. I hope this enables future leaders to better aim at the sustainability of that greatness.
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Must read for any leader
Reviewed in the United States on March 9, 2024
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This is one of just a couple books I highly recommend for leaders. A compelling case for some simple ideas.
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Top reviews from other countries

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bruna
5.0 out of 5 stars Excelente abordagem e comparações!
Reviewed in Brazil on December 28, 2023
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O autor compara grupos de bebês, com executivos de uma maneira impressionante e nos mostra que as vezes, ter títulos é menos importante do que fazer o básico.
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Ruben López
5.0 out of 5 stars Llegó en tiempo y en excelentes condiciones.
Reviewed in Mexico on March 12, 2023
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Libro muy agradable e interesante.
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Krutik
5.0 out of 5 stars This book taught how we to grow any group of people so that they achieve their goal
Reviewed in India on April 17, 2024
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Krutik
5.0 out of 5 stars This book taught how we to grow any group of people so that they achieve their goal
Reviewed in India on April 17, 2024
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Bronwyn Townsend
5.0 out of 5 stars A must read!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 29, 2023
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An amazing collection of stories illustrating the power of culture.
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Nicola Sfondrini
5.0 out of 5 stars Unlocking the Secrets to Highly Successful Groups and Transforming Your Team Dynamics
Reviewed in Italy on May 8, 2023
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📘 Introduction: "The Culture Code: The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups" is a thought-provoking and insightful book by Daniel Coyle that delves deep into the characteristics and behaviors that define highly successful groups and teams. Drawing from extensive research and real-life examples, Coyle provides actionable insights and strategies that readers can use to create a strong, cohesive, and high-performing team culture. This book is a must-read for leaders, managers, and anyone who wants to build and maintain a thriving group dynamic in any context.

🎯 Key strengths of the book:

🔬 Well-researched and evidence-based: Coyle's book is grounded in rigorous research, featuring numerous case studies and examples from various industries and domains to demonstrate the effectiveness of the principles and strategies he presents.

💡 Actionable insights and strategies: "The Culture Code" provides readers with practical and actionable insights that can be applied to create a strong and cohesive team culture, regardless of the specific context or industry.

🌟 Engaging and relatable storytelling: The book is filled with engaging and relatable stories that illustrate the key principles and strategies, making the content both enjoyable to read and easy to understand.

📚 Comprehensive and well-organized: Coyle covers a wide range of topics related to team culture and group dynamics, organizing the content into clear and concise sections that make the book easy to navigate and reference.

🌍 Applicability to various contexts: The principles and strategies presented in "The Culture Code" can be applied to a wide range of contexts, from small teams and startups to large corporations and non-profit organizations.

📌 Notable highlights of the book:

• The three key elements of highly successful group cultures: building safety, sharing vulnerability, and establishing purpose.
• Strategies for creating psychological safety within teams, fostering trust, and encouraging open communication and collaboration.
• The importance of embracing vulnerability and promoting a culture of learning from mistakes and failures.
• Techniques for crafting a shared sense of purpose and aligning team members around common goals and values.
• Real-world examples and case studies of successful group cultures, including the San Antonio Spurs, Pixar Animation Studios, and the Navy SEALs.
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