Talent doesn’t make the team. The team makes the talent. All assert that the culture of the team is more important than who is on it. Team culture—the collective values, beliefs, behaviors, and ways of working member’s share—has an outsized effect on the results a team achieves. You can’t recruit your way out of a lousy culture. Talent doesn’t make

“Life becomes easier when there is one set of rules followed by everyone.”

Cole has a simple explanation: the culture. Players are having fun and playing for the fans. Unlike a lot of college and minor league teams, Bananas aren’t focused

After each question has a suitable answer, capture each answer in a collaborative document that can be shared team-wide. Then agree on a time to reexamine how well these guidelines are working and what changes need to be made (or if the guidelines were even

High-performing teams share wins much more frequently. In fact, many teams try to close out every day with a chance for each member to share a small win.

But teams with empathy look out for each other. Teammates with empathy put the needs of the team and the perspective of others first when discussing ideas or planning projects. They don’t finalize commitments until everyone understands the plan and agrees with it—and until the plan perfectly leverages the strengths and ideas of

What Garry Ridge did at The WD-40 Company is actually how culture transformation works on most teams. Throughout this book, we’ve discussed the three elements of a high-performing team culture as just that: elements. We’ve reviewed common understanding, psychological safety, and prosocial purpose as separate characteristics. We broke each one down

Wooley and her team found that the largest predictor of whether a team could reach the level of empathy necessary for optimal performance was how much social sensitivity existed on the team.22 In other words, how sensitive the team was to the differences of others was a significant determinant of their success. (Interestingly, the strongest

Making priorities clear is crucial, but so is making a plan for keeping focused on those priorities. As the principle of commander’s intent demonstrates, chaos happens. When clarity turns to confusion, many individuals