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The Culture Code: The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups Audible Audiobook – Unabridged

Daniel Coyle (Author), Will Damron (Narrator), Random House Audio (Publisher)
4.7 out of 5 stars 8,206 ratings
Editors' pick Best Nonfiction

New York Times best seller

The author of The Talent Code unlocks the secrets of highly successful groups and provides tomorrow’s leaders with the tools to build a cohesive, motivated culture.

Named one of the best books of the year by Bloomberg and Library Journal

Where does great culture come from? How do you build and sustain it in your group, or strengthen a culture that needs fixing? In The Culture Code, Daniel Coyle goes inside some of the world’s most successful organizations - including the US Navy’s SEAL Team Six, IDEO, and the San Antonio Spurs - and reveals what makes them tick. He demystifies the culture-building process by identifying three key skills that generate cohesion and cooperation, and explains how diverse groups learn to function with a single mind. Drawing on examples that range from Internet retailer Zappos to the comedy troupe Upright Citizens Brigade to a daring gang of jewel thieves, Coyle offers specific strategies that trigger learning, spark collaboration, build trust, and drive positive change. Coyle unearths helpful stories of failure that illustrate what not to do, troubleshoots common pitfalls, and shares advice about reforming a toxic culture.

Combining leading-edge science, on-the-ground insights from world-class leaders, and practical ideas for action, The Culture Code offers a roadmap for creating an environment where innovation flourishes, problems get solved, and expectations are exceeded. Culture is not something you are - it’s something you do. The Culture Code puts the power in your hands. No matter the size of your group or your goal, this book can teach you the principles of cultural chemistry that transform individuals into teams that can accomplish amazing things together.

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  1. Listening Length
    7 hours and 13 minutes
  2. Author
    Daniel Coyle
  3. Narrator
    Will Damron
  4. Audible release date
    January 30, 2018
  5. Language
    English
  6. Publisher
    Random House Audio
  7. ASIN
    B077B1WF85
  8. Version
    Unabridged
  9. Program Type
    Audiobook
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Product details

Listening Length 7 hours and 13 minutes
Author Daniel Coyle
Narrator Will Damron
Whispersync for Voice Ready
Audible.com Release Date January 30, 2018
Publisher Random House Audio
Program Type Audiobook
Version Unabridged
Language English
ASIN B077B1WF85
Best Sellers Rank

Customer reviews

4.7 out of 5 stars
8,206 global ratings

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Customers say

Customers find the book highly insightful, with one review noting how establishing a purpose creates shared goals and values. Moreover, the book is easy to understand and entertaining, featuring interesting stories that follow a narrative structure with actionable points. Additionally, they appreciate its focus on vulnerability, with one review highlighting how it leads to achievement and continuous improvement, while another mentions how it breaks down how successful cultures operate. The audiobook version receives positive feedback for its sound quality.

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InsightReadabilityEase of readingStorytellingVulnerabilityEntertainment valueSound qualityCulture code
280 customers mention "Insight"276 positive4 negative

Customers find the book insightful, appreciating its useful concepts and engaging examples. One customer notes how establishing a purpose creates shared goals and values, while another describes it as an in-depth look at high-performance teams.

"An absolutely great team culture book. Really gets to the heart of team dynamics, psychological safety and the culture of challenging the status..." Read more

"...this book covers a set of topics that I've found most effective at delivering a fully functioning, highly functioning team where trust is complete..." Read more

"...There’s a good mix of stories and studies. Coyle chooses his examples carefully and tells their stories well...." Read more

"...from this well-needed book to make the case for building a strong culture within teams to enhance camaraderie and effectiveness...." Read more

201 customers mention "Readability"196 positive5 negative

Customers find the book engaging and fun to read, with one customer noting it's not boring.

"...As such I find value in Strengths Finder, DiSC assessment, Good to Great, Flexible Leadership, and many others...." Read more

"...Chapters 15 and 16 are worth reading, even if you skip everything else...." Read more

"...It’s not easy but worth it. Everyone should read this especially people in leadership role." Read more

"Gleaning more than expected from this well-needed book to make the case for building a strong culture within teams to enhance camaraderie and..." Read more

85 customers mention "Ease of reading"85 positive0 negative

Customers find the book easy to read and understand, with one customer noting how the author uses simple wording to communicate complex ideas.

"...Two easy reads that work extremely easily together." Read more

"...I also appreciate the workflow that was made easy because of the simple explanations for them." Read more

"Easy to read, easy to understand, and valuable insights...." Read more

"The book is beautifully written. Full of anecdotes and memorable quotes from experts...." Read more

52 customers mention "Storytelling"52 positive0 negative

Customers appreciate the storytelling in the book, finding it interesting and well-told, with actionable points woven throughout the narrative.

"...Coyle’s a good storyteller and he makes it a point to try to tell stories you may have heard before from an angle where you haven’t seen them before...." Read more

"Such an inspiring book! All true stories, perfect for any leader" Read more

"The book is beautifully written. Full of anecdotes and memorable quotes from experts...." Read more

"Overall - the book makes great points and tells the story through real life examples...." Read more

21 customers mention "Vulnerability"21 positive0 negative

Customers appreciate the book's emphasis on vulnerability, noting that teams must build safety and be willing to show their true selves. One customer highlights how this approach leads to achievement and continuous improvement, while another points out that trust among group members is critical.

"...Really gets to the heart of team dynamics, psychological safety and the culture of challenging the status quo to get the most out of any projects" Read more

"...As such I find value in Strengths Finder, DiSC assessment, Good to Great, Flexible Leadership, and many others...." Read more

"...respond to culture in the same ways – emotional, physical, and psychological safety – even though we are now at work instead of in hunter-gatherer..." Read more

"...is framed around three skills for building a great group culture: Build Safety, Share Vulnerability, Establish Purpose. Easy enough...." Read more

15 customers mention "Entertainment value"15 positive0 negative

Customers find the book entertaining and engaging, with one customer noting how the author makes dry subjects interesting.

"I enjoyed this book. The author have a flair for making Dry subjects interesting. Drawing you in...." Read more

"...This book on the other hand was entertaining, had great examples of modern leaders and gave actual results of studies!..." Read more

"Author uses fun and interesting stories to demonstrate his points. Would be a fun book to read as a team at work...." Read more

"...This is the best instrument if you want your team productive and fun to be in." Read more

12 customers mention "Sound quality"12 positive0 negative

Customers enjoy the sound quality of the audiobook, finding it engaging and resonant, with one customer noting how it draws them in.

"...The author have a flair for making Dry subjects interesting. Drawing you in. Using teams that he has interviewed and observed in real life scenarios." Read more

"...Great reminder to me about the importance of being a good listener and what can come from it...." Read more

"Great read, informational, heart tugging & life altering...." Read more

"...copies for clients because the book is well written and offers many sound ideas on how to more successfully lead teams...." Read more

10 customers mention "Culture code"10 positive0 negative

Customers find the book to be an extraordinary guide, with one customer noting how it breaks down the code for creating winning culture, and another mentioning how it works well with the talent code.

"The culture code gives 3 key skills that your team needs to have to tribe and move forward...." Read more

"...The Culture Code is the extraordinary guide for those of us willing to build much better organisations...." Read more

"...The Culture Code spells it all out. This is an important book for all teams and groups." Read more

"...It’s a book on generating human excellence. It’s a book on our tribal natures and how to tap into it. I can’t recommend this book enough...." Read more

Among the best leadership/business books I’ve ever read. A real page-turner.
5 out of 5 stars
Among the best leadership/business books I’ve ever read. A real page-turner.
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Top reviews from the United States

  • Daniel Johnson
    5.0 out of 5 stars Great book to positively challenge team culture
    Reviewed in the United States on June 30, 2025
    Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
    An absolutely great team culture book. Really gets to the heart of team dynamics, psychological safety and the culture of challenging the status quo to get the most out of any projects
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  • Amazon Customer
    5.0 out of 5 stars Best Leadership Book out there!
    Reviewed in the United States on April 16, 2025
    Format: KindleVerified Purchase
    I read this book years ago along with dozens and dozens of other books. This one is the leadership style I lean into most often.
    As a leader you have to be flexible to deal with different personality types, different education levels, different strengths, etc. As such I find value in Strengths Finder, DiSC assessment, Good to Great, Flexible Leadership, and many others. But this book covers a set of topics that I've found most effective at delivering a fully functioning, highly functioning team where trust is complete and everybody buys in. I doubt I'll ever stop using the ideas in this book because I know my teams benefit from them and my organization benefits from incredible productivity they achieve. Turnover decreased to the point folks only leave for internal promotions and I feel like Popovich with all my old employees filling up the leadership positions throughout the organization since I started teaching them these principles. I highly recommend using everything this book suggests. I even buy a copy for each of my mentees so they can begin to establish their skills before the next promotional opportunity comes up. It's a must-have in my opinion.

    Along with this add "Start with why" by Simon Sinek. Two easy reads that work extremely easily together.
    2 people found this helpful
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  • Wally Bock
    4.0 out of 5 stars A Great book with helpful insights, but there's a glitch or two
    Reviewed in the United States on April 24, 2018
    Format: KindleVerified Purchase
    There are a lot of books about culture and how to create a strong and healthy one. Daniel Coyle knew that a strong and effective culture is part of the secret sauce of successful organizations. He knew that “A strong culture increases net income 756 percent over 11 years, according to a Harvard study of more than 200 companies.” He thought he could look at strong cultures in a different way and write a book about it. Here’s how he puts it.

    “I spent the last four years visiting and researching eight of the world’s most successful groups, including a special-ops military unit, an inner-city school, a professional basketball team, a movie studio, a comedy troupe, a gang of jewel thieves, and others. I found that their cultures are created by a specific set of skills”

    Coyle started with a definition of culture that’s a little bit different than the norm. He says, “Culture is a set of living relationships working toward a shared goal. It’s not something you are, it’s something you do.”

    So, what is it that you do? What do people in organizations that create strong cultures do that their peers in other organizations don’t do?

    Coyle organizes the book into three sections, each one of which relates to a specific skillset. The three skills are: build safety; share vulnerability; and establish purpose.

    There are several chapters about each skill. There’s a good mix of stories and studies. Coyle chooses his examples carefully and tells their stories well. He doesn’t use bullet points or frequent summaries, so sometimes you will work to tease out his meaning. You can get a sense of this if you review my highlights from the Culture Code on Goodreads.

    Most business authors put summaries of key points or action steps at the end of every chapter. Coyle doesn’t. Instead, he includes a chapter at the end of every section, titled “Ideas for Action.” That chapter functions as a review of the other chapters in the section. I think that’s a good device, but I’d rather he also put his key points at the end of every chapter.

    Coyle’s a good storyteller and he makes it a point to try to tell stories you may have heard before from an angle where you haven’t seen them before. One of those stories is the story about Tylenol and its credo. Another is the story of the founding of Pixar.

    In telling those stories, Coyle leaves out some interesting and potentially helpful things. For example, he tells us about the meeting where Johnson & Johnson executives reviewed the company’s credo to see if it should be revised. We know there was a meeting. But Coyle never tells us whether they changed the credo or not at that meeting. He simply jumps ahead to the Tylenol crisis, where the credo became guiding principles for one of the most successful disaster recovery examples ever.

    Then, there’s the story of Ed Catmull and Pixar. Coyle says, “If you set out to design a life that represented the perfect merger of art and science, you might design one that looks like Catmull’s.” Then, just below, after mentioning a little bit about Catmull’s parents and his early interests, he says “After college, he landed a job with George Lucas…”

    Well yes, it was, technically, “after college,” but it was a full five years after Catmull got his PhD. And, after talking about the life as a model for the perfect merger of art and science, Coyle leaves out the fact that in his pre-Lucas and pre-Pixar days, Ed Catmull worked on projects for ARPA during the time he was working as a physicist.

    Those are important things to know if you want to learn how Ed Catmull developed into the manager he is today. You can learn more about them in his book, Creativity, Inc, about his life and Pixar.

    Special Note

    Chapters 15 and 16 are worth reading, even if you skip everything else. Chapter 15 is “How to Lead for Proficiency” while chapter 16 is “How to Lead for Creativity.” The two skills are different and which one you choose as a manager will determine what values you treasure and what kinds of performance you optimize.

    In A Nutshell

    This is a book that will help you create a strong and supportive culture where you are. There are problems with the book, but they’re not big enough or consistent enough to really detract from the value. If you want to learn about how to create and maintain a positive and strong culture in your team or organization, buy and read The Culture Code: The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups by Daniel Coyle.
    337 people found this helpful
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  • Ashlee'
    5.0 out of 5 stars Powerful
    Reviewed in the United States on June 30, 2025
    Format: KindleVerified Purchase
    Anything great you want to achieve, you must be willing to do it with vulnerability and truth. It’s not easy but worth it. Everyone should read this especially people in leadership role.
    Helpful
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  • TAL South Africa
    5.0 out of 5 stars must read for leaders
    Reviewed in the United States on June 7, 2025
    Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase
    Gleaning more than expected from this well-needed book to make the case for building a strong culture within teams to enhance camaraderie and effectiveness. I am inspired by some of the stories and examples of leaders the author writes about in the book.
    Helpful
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  • Ellen
    5.0 out of 5 stars Perfect for any aspiring leader
    Reviewed in the United States on May 28, 2025
    Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase
    Such an inspiring book! All true stories, perfect for any leader
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Top reviews from other countries

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  • bruna
    5.0 out of 5 stars Excelente abordagem e comparações!
    Reviewed in Brazil on December 28, 2023
    Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase
    O autor compara grupos de bebês, com executivos de uma maneira impressionante e nos mostra que as vezes, ter títulos é menos importante do que fazer o básico.
    Report
  • C
    3.0 out of 5 stars Mediocre book
    Reviewed in South Africa on August 29, 2024
    Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
    If you read a lot of business books this book is definitely not for you. I have read most of the "lessons" in this book in other books. I found it extremely boring.

    Most of the things in this book are almost speculative and hearsay.
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  • Krutik
    5.0 out of 5 stars This book taught how we to grow any group of people so that they achieve their goal
    Reviewed in India on April 17, 2024
    Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
     
    Customer image
    Krutik
    5.0 out of 5 stars
    This book taught how we to grow any group of people so that they achieve their goal

    Reviewed in India on April 17, 2024

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  • Dominique Arrighi de Casanova
    5.0 out of 5 stars Sur quelles manières de faire se fonde la réussite des équipes les plus performantes
    Reviewed in France on February 23, 2018
    Verified Purchase
    Daniel Coyle avait déjà mené l'enquête dans Le petit livre du talent, ouvrage dans lequel il cherchait à comprendre comment se cultivaient les talents.
    C'est à une autre enquête qu'il nous invite dans "The Culture Code". Il tente de répondre à cette question : qu'est-ce qui fait que certains groupes s'avèrent plus performants que ne le serait la somme de leurs membres là où d'autres le sont moins.
    Pour cela, il nous emmène explorer différents environnements capables de générer des performances exceptionnelles : IDEO, PIXAR ou Johnson & Johnson mais aussi l'équipe de Basket des San Antonio Spurs ou l'unité d'élite de la Marine américaine (SEAL Team 6). Il nous plonge également dans des recherches universitaires sur lesquelles il s'appuie pour expliquer ce qu'il a observé.
    Il met en évidence 3 caractéristiques majeures :
    - Créer un cadre de sécurité où l'on peut s'exprimer sans crainte de représailles.
    - Ne pas hésiter à parler des vulnérabilités de chacun car ce niveau d'échange fonde la confiance et la solidarité entre les membres de l'équipe,
    - Définir, faire vivre et sans cesse se référer à une noble cause (high purpose) qui fédère et inspire l'ensemble des membres de l'équipe, en particulier dans des situations critiques pour lesquelles aucune procédure n'existe et qui exigent des décisions rapides.
    Le choix des termes pour exprimer ces 3 caractéristiques est contestable : le cadre de sécurité agrège des pratiques d'écoute, de reconnaissance, de partage d'expérience, mais aussi de sélection drastique des membres ; les vulnérabilités, qu'on pourrait également appeler humilité, symbolisent toutes les pratiques qui permettent de construire une atmosphère de confiance et de solidarité; la noble cause vise tout ce qui va permettre de partager les critères de discernement dans la conduite des opérations au quotidien.
    L'intérêt de ce livre, agréable à lire, grâce à son style narratif, réside également dans son souci pratique. Pour chaque thème, l'auteur le développe selon une structure ternaire :
    - présentation du thème
    - étude de plusieurs cas pratiques d'organisations l'ayant mis en oeuvre
    - idées pour aider le lecteur à le mettre en oeuvre.
    Ce livre s'inscrit dans ce courant du management contemporain (voir par exemple Principles: Life and Work, Reinventing Organizations: Vers des communautés de travail inspirées., La Révolution Holacracy : Le système de management des entreprises performantes, An Everyone Culture: Becoming a Deliberately Developmental Organization), qui pointe que l'obstacle principal à la performance réside dans une culture qui fait primer la hiérarchie et la régulation par la norme écrite là où l'enjeu clé se situe dans un rapport juste à la réalité et une recherche permanente de la vérité.
    C'est une bonne synthèse pour comprendre que certains schémas de pensée encore très présents dans le monde professionnel sont obsolètes et causent les difficultés qui ne peuvent résoudre qu'en en changeant.
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  • DAN
    5.0 out of 5 stars Thought Provoking
    Reviewed in Australia on January 9, 2025
    Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
    I love this book. It's easy to read, it's actionable, and it creates opportunities to find parallels between your workplace and some of the most successful companies in the world. I bought a copy for each of my team.
    Report