The Culture Code - The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups - Daniel Coyle
This is a recommended read by one of our group members. We have shared some extracts we particularly liked below:
' I have 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.
There cultures created a specific set of skills. these skills, which tap into the power of our social brains to create interactions...........
Skill 1 build safety - generate a bond of belonging and identity. Skill 2 - Share Vulnerability - explain how habits of mutual risk drive trust and cooperation. Skill 3 - Establish Purpose - tells how narratives create shared goal and values. The three skills work from the bottom up, first building group connections.....
When I visited these groups there was a distinct pattern of interaction. The pattern was located not in the big things but in little moments of social connection. these interactions were consistent whether the group was a military unit or a movie studio or an inner city school. I made a list:
Close physical proximity, often in circles,
Profuse amounts of eye contact
Physical touch (handshakes, fist bumps, hugs)
Lots of short energetic exchanges (no long speeches)
High levels of mixing; everyone talks to everyone
Few interruptions
Inventive active listening
Humour, laughter
Small, attentive courtesies (thank you, opening doors etc.)'.