The key to creating psychological safety, as Pentland and Edmondson emphasize, is to recognize how deeply obsessed our unconscious brains are with it. A mere hint of belonging is not enough; one or two signals are not enough. We are built to require lots of signaling, over and over. This is why a sense of belonging is easy to destroy and hard to build.” Pg. 12 While you may think that all you need to do is dial Keith in marketing and get him to come up with a catchy slogan, a pithy mission statement, a fancy and memorable logo, this isn't enough to instill a sense of purpose. Any company can get hold of their version of Keith; what you need is a story. When you ask people inside highly successful groups to describe their relationship with one another, they all tend to choose the same word. This word is not friends or team or tribe or any other equally plausible term. The word they use is family. What’s more, they tend to describe the feeling of those relationship in the same way.” Pg. 6-7 the most effective listeners behave like trampolines. They aren’t passive sponges. They are active responders, absorbing what the other person gives, supporting them, and adding energy to help the conversation gain velocity and altitude.” Pg. 163

I’ve been waiting years for someone to write this book—I’ve built it up in my mind into something extraordinary. But it is even better than I imagined. Daniel Coyle has produced a truly brilliant, mesmerizing read that demystifies the magic of great groups. It blows all other books on culture right out of the water. Read it immediately.” —Adam Grant, New York Times bestselling author of Option B, Originals, and Give and Take

If I could get a sense of the way your culture works by meeting just one person, who would that person be?” pg. 148-149 In any interaction, we have a natural tendency to try to hide our weaknesses and appear competent. If you want to create safety, this is exactly the wrong move. Instead, you should open up, show you make mistakes, and invite input with simple phrases like ‘This is just my two cents.’ ‘Of course, I could be wrong here.’ ‘What am I missing?’ ‘What do you think?’” pg. 76 You hear ‘thank-yous’ all the time in highly successful groups. They aren’t only expressions of gratitude; they’re crucial belonging cues that generate a contagious sense of safety, connection, and motivation. Finally, the section on “Establish Purpose” is really fun to read — as he goes to lengths to repeat, a lot of the slogans and catch phrases seem hokey or corny or obvious but the fact is that teams who create compelling, clear goals and articulate them like that are described as “high purpose environments” because they know what they are doing as a team. These catchphrases establish a link between a goal or behavior and “consistently create engagement around it.”

Of vulnerability, Coyle says: “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.” In Conversation, Resist the Temptation to Reflexively Add Value: “The most important part of creating vulnerability often resides not in what you say but in what you do not say. This means having the willpower to forgo easy opportunities to offer solutions and make suggestions. Skilled listeners do not interrupt with phrases like Hey, here’s an idea or Let me tell you what worked for me in a similar situation because they understand that it’s not about them. They use a repertoire of gestures and phrases that keep the other person talking. ‘One of the things I say most often is probably the simplest thing I say,’ says Givechi. ‘Say more about that.’” Pg. 163 An invaluable companion to Dan Coyle’s classic, The Culture Code, The Culture Playbook offers an integrated set of simple, powerful exercises for anyone serious about creating a culture where people can thrive and do their best work. Refreshingly practical, this is really a workbook with a playful bent and taking it seriously will help any group succeed.” Hug ’em and hold’em” is the way Popovich often puts it to his assistant coaches. “We gotta hug’em and hold’em.” Pg. 53-54 Use five questions: 1. What were our intended results? 2. What were our actual results? 3. What caused our results? 4. What will we do the same next time? 5. What will we do differently?He suggests that leaders be mindful of how they build their teams. Leaders should be painstaking in the hiring process—they should hire for cultural fit and ensure all employees become well-versed in the organization’s cultural norms through the onboarding process. He also says they should be painstaking in the retention process by eliminating the “bad apples” before they spoil the barrel and negatively impact the group’s chemistry. Lesson 2: Share Vulnerability Much like the mythical “work” of a romantic relationship or marriage, the author maintains that “Culture is a set of living relationships working toward a shared goal.” Showing vulnerability is hard, but when you can share and exchange vulnerability with others, it’s worth the effort because it builds the trust and belonging that are so important for cohesion, engagement, and motivation. Chapter titles are: Introduction – When Two Plus Two Equals Ten. Skill One: Build Safety 1. The Good Apples 2. The Billion-Dollar Day When Nothing Happened 3. The Christmas Truce, the One-Hour Experiment, and the Missileers 4. How to Build Belonging 5. How to Design for Belonging 6. Ideas for Action Skill Two: Share Vulnerability 7. “Tell Me What You Want, and I’ll Help You” 8. The Vulnerability Loop 9. The Super-Cooperators 10. How to Create Cooperation in Small Groups 11. How to Create Cooperation with Individuals 12. Ideas for Action Skill Three: Establish Purpose 13. Three Hundred and Eleven Words 14. The Hooligans and the Surgeons 15. How to Lead for Proficiency 16. How to Lead for Creativity 17. Ideas for Action Epilogue

Harvard Researcher Amy Edmonson 1998 studied learning a new form of heart surgery. Which team would learn the fastest and most effectively? Five factors or signals rose to the top:Culture can be difficult to define because there isn’t one generally accepted definition or a one-size-fits-all approach to building and managing culture. When all these attributes, codes, and signals present themselves in a positive way, the culture will be positive and support the growth of team members, fostering high levels of engagement and successful collaboration. When these attributes, codes, and signals are negative, culture will turn toxic, team members will experience low morale, performance will suffer, and retention will drop. In a group setting, vulnerability is about sending a clear signal that you have weaknesses and you could use help. When this behaviour becomes a model for others, you can set the insecurities aside, start trusting each other, and get to work. But revealing these shortcomings and sharing these less-than-perfect moments with the group sends the signal that it’s not only okay to make mistakes but also unavoidable, so we should embrace and learn from them to move forward and closer to achieving our goals.

They created a high-purpose environment, flooded the zone with signals that linked the present effort to a meaningful future, and used a single story to orient motivation the way that a magnetic field orients a compass needle to true north: This is why we work. Here is where you should put your energy.” Pg. 187 There's a moment in class where the teacher says, 'I'm going to divide you into groups to work on this project.' For many of us, this is enough to make us break out into a sweat. But, why is this? Humans are social animals, and we're designed to interact with others, so why is group work, and working in teams, so difficult for so many of us?Purpose makes vulnerability and safety possible because it keeps employees united to not only work together toward a vision but also to support each other in the process. It greases the wheels of collaboration by keeping individuals motivated to work together for a positive outcome. Dare to Lead by Brené Brown is the bible for courage-building in the workspace. Leaders and teams alike face serious problems showing up vulnerable at work; instead, they sabotage themselves, killing innovation and creativity. This book is about owning your fears, choosing courage over comfort and whole hearts over armour, and building an organisational culture based on bravery & vulnerability. Creating a sense of purpose is extensive, collaborative, and organic. The process: to continually reflect together about what matters most, and then to translate that meaning into tangible signals. It’s got to be safe to talk,’ Cooper says. ‘Rank switched off, humility switched on. You’re looking for that moment where people can say, ‘I screwed that up.’ In fact, I’d say those might be the most important four words any leader can say: I screwed that up.’” Pg. 140-141 Behaviors– the observable actions that are deemed acceptable or encouraged within a group or organization (accountability, collaboration, respect, etc.).