1: We are given a puzzle. The goal is to arrange colors and shapes on a map. We can work as long as we like.

The instructor exits the room leaving us alone.

Two minutes later, the instructor returns and hands us a handwritten note. We are told it is from Steve, a fellow participant we have never met.

“Steve did the puzzle earlier and wanted to share a tip … continue reading

1: Something surprising was about to happen.

The entrepreneurs had gathered to pitch their business idea to a group of business executives. 

The stakes were high. Each entrepreneur had spent countless hours perfecting what they would say.

Because they knew they would be ranked. Only the very best pitches would earn an invitation to present to a group of angel investors. 

2: There was another observer in the room that … continue reading

1: Sandy Pentland leans closer, raises his bushy eyebrows, and opens his eyes wider. 

“It’s a little disconcerting when I find myself doing it too, almost against my will,” Daniel Coyle writes in The Culture Code: The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups.

Sandy is the Director of the MIT Human Dynamics Lab. He leads a group of scientists “obsessed with understanding the inner workings of group chemistry,” Daniel writes.… continue reading

1: “On May 24, 2002, in Google’s kitchen at 2400 Bayshore Parkway in Mountain View, California, Google founder Larry Page pinned a note to the wall: 

“THESE ADS SUCK.”

Ouch.

“In the early 2000s, some of the best minds in America were competing quietly in a race,” Daniel Coyle writes in The Culture Code: The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups.

“The goal was to build a software engine that … continue reading

1: Our goal as leaders?

To build a high-performing team or teams.

The problem? 

Our assumptions around group culture are mostly wrong, Daniel Coyle writes in The Culture Code: The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups.

“Group culture is one of the most powerful forces on the planet,” he writes. “We sense its presence inside successful businesses, championship teams, and thriving families, and we sense when it’s absent or toxic.”… continue reading

Why psychological safety plays such an important role in team performance

1: 43 out of 44.

That’s the number of groups that behaved the same way in the “Bad Apple Experiment.”

An actor Nick was placed into these four-person groups instructed to create a marketing plan for a start-up.

Will Felps, a professor of organizational behavior at the University of New South Wales in Australia, designed the study. He trained … continue reading

1: Meet Nick.

He’s “a handsome, dark-haired man in his twenties,” Daniel Coyle writes in The Culture Code: The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups.

Nick is sitting in a conference room in Seattle with three other people. “To outward appearances, he is an ordinary participant in an ordinary meeting,” Daniel notes. “This appearance, however, is deceiving. The other people in the room do not know it, but his mission … continue reading

1: “Why do certain groups add up to be greater than the sum of their parts, while others add up to be less?”

Designer and engineer Peter Skillman held a competition to find out, Daniel Coyle writes in The Culture Code: The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups.

Peter put together four-person teams at Stanford, the University of California, the University of Tokyo, and a few other places.

Here was … continue reading