This book review is slightly different. There are two components. First, a review of the book, and second a list of talking points for anyone wanting to dig further into the messages in the book.

It’s important to note that this book doesn’t just discuss principles for business – it applies to anybody who aspires to cooperate with anybody else.

Review

The book is built around the idea that by mastering 3 critical skills, any organisational culture can become world-class.

The skills are:

  • Build Safety
  • Share Vulnerability
  • Establish Purpose

The book is split into 3 core sections, each dealing with one of the above ideas. Much of the base material is borrowed from other authors, making this a good roll-up of many other management concepts.

Build Safety

To build safety is accomplished by creating belonging, says Daniel Coyle. This is done in a variety of ways, and the author stresses 2 methods. You can either facilitate it in your communication, or you can design/architect a social system that biases in the direction of belonging. Or you could do both, of course.

The author also notes that since safety, security and belonging are critical for a high performing culture, this explains why bad apples can have such a strong negative influence on a group. It’s very easy to create an unsafe and uncertain environment, and much harder to re-balance it into a safe one.

The chapter is finished off with some ideas for working with building belonging.

There are many, I have selected two of special interest.

Gratitude – The author visits many high-performing teams, and has noted that the amount of thank-yous going around is unnerving. He argues that there is strong scientific evidence that indicating gratitude is a driver of cooperation.

Pick up trash – This point is basic, but seems rather reflective of Simon Sinek’s Leaders Eat Last, and of the servant-leader attitude at large. By going first, and adopting the attitude that you are there to serve your team, in big things and small, you show that you’ve got everyone’s back, every time.

Share Vulnerability

This chapter deals with the natural extension of safety. Sharing vulnerability is the second component of the 2-part glue that sticks a team together.

The author brings up 3 detailed examples: United Airlines Flight 232 in 1989, The Pink Panthers, and Seal Team Six. For detailed stories, you’ll have to go do some research or buy the book.

On UA 232, the moral of the story is to ask for help. By asking for help, and/or facilitating the request by offering your help, a vulnerability is shared, and an opportunity to build trust is created.

With the Pink Panthers, the moral is that teams bound to each other by high stakes vulnerability, completely open to each other, completely interdependent, will perform at a high level.

With the Navy Seals there are many morals. Read Jocko Willink’s “Extreme Ownership” for more golden nuggets from the Seals.

Three lessons that stood out to me are as follows:

  • Log PT is not about getting strong. It’s about vulnerability, trust, and team. Just like almost every other part of Seal training. Dave Cooper (Seal) says – paraphrased: one of the best things you can do for team cohesion is go do some very hard training. Hang of a cliff together, wet cold and miserable together. It makes a team come together.
  • Leaders have a responsibility to fight against the default human reaction to accept authority. There is no authority. There is right and wrong. Constantly let the team know that they need to challenge things to make sure the right decisions are made.
  • Considering at which points things might go south, and preparing for those moments, applies to all kinds of teams. Where might this idea break? What do we do then? Contingency for when the stakes are high.

Establish Purpose

This final section of the book presents several big ideas.

First, it highlights the story of how Johnson and Johnson reacted to a crisis by falling back on their company credo, and how that document informed reactions up and down the organisation to present a unified front, a consistent story, and a complete turnaround of a terrible situation into a positive outcome. The takeaway is that purpose aligns. Purpose creates consistency – and that creates trust externally.

In unpacking the specifics on how to create purpose, the author suggests that purpose (at scale in the organisation) is not about some internal drive. It’s about telling and retelling the story, and providing constant little signals in the organisation. If it’s possible to create tension at the same time, contrasting the difference between how things are, and how they should be, the signals become all the more powerful.

A lot of the power here lies in understanding how to tell the story. How to sell the story internally. How to inspire and motivate constantly towards making change.

It’s not about big speeches. It’s about thousands of little signals about what the team is working towards.

Second, the author highlights two different purpose-driven leadership end goals – with the strong suggestion that the requirements are different, and that a choice should be made between trying to create consistency vs innovation.

Leading for proficiency

  • Feed the group clear, accessible models of excellence
  • High rep, high feedback training
  • Memorable rules of thumb to support processes (if this, then that)
  • Spotlight and applaud mastery of the fundamentals

Leading for creativity

  • Focus on team composition and dynamics
  • Define, reinforce and protect the team’s creative autonomy
  • Make it safe to fail, and give feedback
  • Celebrate hugely when the team takes initiative

Talking Points

Page 56
Feedback Model:
I’m giving you this feedback because I have very high expectations, and I know that you can reach them.

  1. You are part of this group
  2. This group is special; we have high standards here
  3. I believe you can reach those standards

Chapter 5 (Hsieh)

  • Collision architecture
  • Do we adequately allow for collisions?
  • Scrums effect on this.
  • Collision vs production.

Page 76
Spotlight your fallibility
The author indicates some key phrases to use to spotlight your own fallibility. The key here though, seems to be a humble attitude. The statements don’t work if you just throw them out there. You have to mean them.

Page 81
Give new hires a $2000 bonus for quitting.
What stories does that let a person tell about themselves if they stay?

Chapter 7 (UA 232)
Do we sufficiently allow for enough requests for help and assistance to occur?

Chapter 8 (vulnerability loop) Page 104

  • Person A sends a signal of vulnerability
  • Person B detects the signal
  • Person B responds by signalling back their own vulnerability
  • Person A detects the signal
  • Mutual Trust is created.
  • Note how there is nothing here about solving, fixing, helping. Discuss.

Harolds (125-127)
Does the recipe work for business? How can we expose ourselves, constantly at risk, constantly vulnerable, constantly saving each other?

Team Building
Anything one-off isn’t likely to be last enough, or provide a great enough lift. So what do you do to stay safe, vulnerable, and switched on?

Page 158
Make sure the leader is vulnerable first and often
Laszlo Bock:

  1. What is one thing that I currently do that you’d like me to continue to do?
  2. What is one thing that I don’t currently do frequently enough that you think I should do more often?
  3. What can I do to make you more effective?

Page 161

  • Are we about appearing strong or about exploring the landscape together?
  • Are we about winning interactions or about learning together? (Dalio, establish what is true)

Page 162
Listen like a trampoline:

  • Make your partner feel safe and supported
  • Take a helping, cooperative stance
  • Occasionally ask questions to gently and constructively challenge old assumptions
  • Make occasional suggestions to open alternative paths
  • A good listener is about absorbing what is given, supporting them, and adding energy to help the conversation gain velocity and altitude.
  • So is it possible to be a good Asana communicator following the same principles?

Page 163:
Don’t reflexively add “value”

  • It closes the vulnerability loop
  • It closes conversation Instead, one powerful phrase is “say more about that”. Build a strong conversation, make sure you understand, before you even think of making suggestions. But when you have that foundation, do make suggestions.

Page 164
Candor-generating practices
We have several:
Sprint reviews, Briefs, Ad kill logs
Direct leader intervention.

Page 166
Embrace Discomfort
If we are comfortable often (which I think we are) it probably means we’re not confronting some hard truths often enough.

Page 167
Flash mentoring
Who wants to learn from who? Can it be done fairly simply, any time, anyone, up to 1 flash mentoring per month?

Page 186
A letter of thanks
Seeing the impact they were making lifted success rate a lot.

Page 229
Name and rank priorities in the team. First priority is often (not coincidentally) to each other in the team.

Page 229
Be 10x clearer about priorities than you think you should be.
Create conversation frequently about the vision and values. Where are we going and why?

Page 230
Figure out what we want to be good at, and what we want to be creative at. It’s not the same.

Page 232
Zappos company record, 10hrs and 29mins on the phone. Sold 1 pair of uggs.

Page 232
Use artefacts. Could/should we try harder to provide physical evidence that creates reminders and conversation about the vision?

Page 233
Focus on bar setting behaviour.
What can we consistently do with excellence to reinforce the idea of doing excellent things?