The Culture Code

While successful culture can look and feel like magic, the truth is that it’s not. Culture is a set of living relationships working toward a shared goal. It’s not something you are. It’s something you do.

Give a mediocre idea to a good team, and they’ll find a way to make it better. The goal needs to be to get the team right, get them moving in the right direction, and get them to see where they are making mistakes and where they are succeeding.

Belonging cues are behaviors that create safe connection in groups. They include, among others, proximity, eye contact, energy, mimicry, turn taking, attention, body language, vocal pitch, consistency of emphasis, and whether everyone talks to everyone else in the group.

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.

We are all paid to solve problems. Make sure to pick fun people to solve problems with.

The road to success is paved with mistakes well handled.

One challenge of building purpose is to translate abstract ideas (values, mission) into concrete terms. One way successful groups do this is by spotlighting a single task and using it to define their identity and set the bar for their expectations.

Being smart is overrated… showing fallibility is crucial… being nice is not nearly as important as you might think.

Building habits of group vulnerability is like building a muscle. It takes time, repetition, and the willingness to feel pain in order to achieve gains. And, as with building muscle, the first key is to approach the process with a plan.

Building safety isn’t the kind of skill you can learn in a robotic, paint-by-numbers sort of way. It’s a fluid, improvisational skill. It requires you to recognize patterns, react quickly, and deliver the right signal at the right time.

Group performance depends on behavior that communicates one powerful overarching idea: We are safe and connected.

Jonathan’s group succeeds not because its members are smarter but because they are safer.

Cohesion happens not when members of a group are smarter but when they are lit up by clear, steady signals of safe connection.

I’m giving you these comments because I have very high expectations and I know that you can reach them.