I wanted to take a moment to recommend a book that has been making waves in the world of leadership, teamwork, and organisational culture: “The Culture Code” by Daniel Coyle. It truly is useful – even for people like us at Leadership Space who live and breathe culture!
Whether you’re a leader, manager, board director or simply someone passionate about creating positive change, this book offers valuable insights into the secrets behind successful teams and organisations.
I was struck by how beautifully it mirrors so many of our own thoughts, practices and experiences in this domain. By shedding light on the intangible aspects of teamwork and culture, Coyle does us all the very great service of making the invisible visible.
So, what exactly is good culture?
Much like leadership, great culture has a reflective thoughtfulness about it, except it is at scale across an organisational system. It’s about bringing clarity to what we’re doing, why we’re doing it and, most importantly, how we’re doing it (the science). The ‘art’ aspect of this, is that we are bringing to life a coherent experience that is uniquely our own which is inspired by and shaped by our organisational purpose – the work we’re doing in the world.
Leadership Space is dedicated to the craft of shaping culture alongside leaders and teams. We start with the executive team, co-designing the work so it meaningfully and usefully engages the rest of the staff. Unlike traditional culture work which stops at uncovering values and translating them into behaviours, we coach teams beyond the words on paper, breathing life into these values, weaving them into the fabric of leadership interactions, learning to showcase them where it matters.
The values work is like a web that connects directly to other cornerstones of culture, like psychological safety, the art of effective feedback, fostering robust conversations that spark growth and building an environment where every voice is heard. If you’re doing it well, you will feel the team uplift as candour thrives, ideas flow, and a new kind of team and individual resilience blooms.
Wrapping our arms around culture means understanding the dynamic interplay of leadership behaviours, team practice, and organisational impact. It’s not enough to have a vague sense of the finished painting you are hoping will emerge. When you’re going through change and growth organisations need to understand the brushstrokes that craft their unique masterpiece and allow everyone to hold the paintbrush.
In a world where effective teamwork and culture are paramount, every organisation deserves to have all the lights turned on around their culture.
“The Culture Code” will absolutely inspire and inform you. If you haven’t had a chance to read it, I recommend grabbing a copy today!
If you’d like to chat further about how we can help your organisation craft an authentic and lived narrative that takes your culture to the next level, we’d love to hear from you!
