The Culture Code by Daniel Coyle. 2018

I picked up The Culture Code when I was selected to be a member of my company's Inclusion & Diversity Committee.  There are not many books about about creating diversity in the workplace, but Culture Code did turn up in one of my Google searches.

What I gleaned from The Culture Code impacted how I thought about my team.  Comprised of seven  people, my team was made up of people from different business units, different locations and different experiences at the parent company.

Team members had gone through multiple reorganization and changing roles, when I realized my team did not have a clearly defined role.  We were moving so fast to get things done and in my head, I had an idea of what my team would look like, but I realized I had never clearly or consistently communicated the vision to my team.

In April, I scheduled my first Quarterly Operations Leadership meeting with my three direct reports.  I had drafted a Mission Statement and refined with my team:

Mission Statement:
Our mission is to support Technology Department in achieving strategic corporate objectives by adding value through processes and solutions to improve team efficiencies and effectiveness in running a high performing organization.

Catch Phrases/Themes:

* Support and lead strategic initiatives

* Simplify, standardize, operationalize, scale -> well-oiled machine

* Promote transparency within Technology and across organization

* Data and process driven

* Accountable

* Change agents

Notes from The Culture Code:

• Priorities - Be ten times as clear about priorities as you think you should be

• Teams are better at solving problems than CEO/lone person.  Ed Catmuil turned around Pixar by changing [culture] not bringing in new people].  Put in place systems to support.\

• Create purpose by creating simple beacons that focus on attention and engagement to a shared goal.  Tell and retell the story.  Upright Citizen's Brigade -> pictures of famous alum on wall
  
  
• High purpose environment -> create a link between present moment and future ideal

• Define Bar-Setting Behaviors & Catch Phrases -> people understand behaviors to model & what is important/key messages

• Identify which tasks should be done with Creativity v Proficiency

In retrospect, I should have looked up books on unconscious bias and conscious inclusion but am glad I ended up reading The Culture Code.