The Talent Code Greatness isn't born. It's grown

Embrace the messenger. Show vulnerability. 🥪 method. Vulnerability loops. Systems.

The book follows the author in the most surprising talent hotbeds like a tennis court in Moscow, a soccer field in São Paolo, a vocal studio in Dallas, or a baseball-mad island in the Caribbean. We learn about the "secrets" behind the top performers like the best soccer players, bank robbers, violinists, or fighter pilots. We meet scientists, coaches, and teachers that are explaining their discoveries concerning the acquisition of skills. If "Peak" by Anders Ericson is the best book to learn about the path to expertise, "The Talent Code" is the best supplement to understand the role of deep practice (aka deliberate practice) from a low-level viewpoint. You will learn about myelin, the substance that wraps the neural circuits you trigger through practice and that increases signal strength, speed, and accuracy. The more you practice, the more myelin you build. Myelin is for sure promising and represents the core argument of this book. I read a lot about learning. It's one of the best books on the subject of excellence. It can replace advantageously an often-cited book, "Outliers", which fails short in comparison.

Group culture is one of the most powerful forces on the planet. If you want to go fast, go alone, if you want to go far, go together (African Proverb). Companies know the impact of having a strong culture but we just don't know how it works. Culture is kind of mysterious. The common solution for companies is to document values that describe who they want to be and rarely who they really are. Following the recipe of the excellent "The Talent Code", Daniel Coyle spend four years visiting eight successful groups, including a special-ops military unit, a professional basketball team, a movie studio, a comedy troupe, and a gang of jewel thieves. This book decodes the key ingredients behind these successful cultures. The book consists of three parts focusing on these three ingredients — build safety, share vulnerability, and establish purpose. Each chapter presents one or two stories. It means there are relatively few examples, but each story is presented with enough details to grasp the subtleties of each context. Each part ends with concrete suggestions to experiment in your own context. In the end, successful cultures are still hard to define. There is no easy path toward a culture that works. The book is probably the most comprehensive study and the best resource to find ideas for actions.

This book provided a good insight on how to practice. It really distills the idea of "talent" to something that is manageable.

As a sport psychologist I fully appreciate this boom and the work that has gone into it. The whole aspect of skill and talent is very broad and fascinating and I have to say that the approaches in this book make so much sense. Daniel Doyle has created a spectacular book full of valuable information and he has kept it all so interesting and not once did I get bored with the book and trust me, I've read my fare share of textbooks, academic articles and other books similar to this.

O livro "The Culture Code" (2017) de Daniel Coyle fez-me lembrar "Blink" (2005) de Gladwell, pelo modo como discute algo tão presente na nossa realidade mas que temos imensa dificuldade em especificar e enunciar. Se Gladwell tentava definir o que torna o olhar de um especialista diferente, o modo como a sua capacidade percetiva imbuída de saber e experiência vai além do que é evidente. Coyle, procura definir aquilo que emerge da cola entre humanos quando interagem e faz com que juntos sejam mais do que a mera soma dos indivíduos. Ambas à superfície parecem dotadas de alguma magia, por não serem facilmente explanáveis nem racionalizáveis. O que é também interessante é o facto de Coyle ter feito anteriormente um trabalho soberbo na análise do talento individual, em “The Talent Code” (2009), e ter-se visto aqui obrigado a concluir que o talento dos indivíduos não é a força motriz do talento dos grupos. ... ... continua no Virtual Illusion: https://virtual-illusion.blogspot.com...

Brilliant short book on the origins of human talent and skill development. This is a book that anyone working with creativity will want to read. Also it makes a kind of obligatory read for any teacher. For parents, if you're of the type that makes kids go through piano, ballet, football, etc. courses because you're worried about opening new possibilities for them, please read this book. Coyle spent years researching talent hotbeds, and what he found and demonstrates throughout this book is at sometimes jaw-dropping. Central ideias area not new, but when presented with clear and real examples from all over the world, it becomes really hard to not believe in it. Complete review in my Blog, in Portuguese: https://virtual-illusion.blogspot.com...

Such a easy reading book. It helps you move from a culture of command and conquer and watch micro interactions as a way to help personal growth and bonding.

A good reminder of the ‘ingredients ‘ of successful groups put together. Quite a bit of it recycled stories that have been circulating for a while. A lot of it very male sporty North-American centric - it is about time we started hearing from other cultures and contexts on this topic....

Yellow highlight | Location: 425 Cohesion happens not when members of a group are smarter but when they are lit up by clear, steady signals of safe connection. Blue highlight | Location: 801 I’m giving you these comments because I have very high expectations and I know that you can reach them. Blue highlight | Location: 893 It is easier to get into Harvard than to get a job at Zappos. Note:Why do people equal acceptance rate with how easy it is to get something? Harvard only gets apllicants that pay a fee to apply, are college seniors, and where some level of self selection has already happened. Anyone can apply to a job at Zappos. Blue highlight | Location: 1,920 When I visited groups for this book, I met a lot of people who possessed traits of warmth and curiosity—so many, in fact, that I began to think of them as Nyquists. They were polite, reserved, and skilled listeners. They radiated a safe, nurturing vibe. They possessed deep knowledge that spanned domains and had a knack for asking questions that ignited motivation and ideas. (The best way to find the Nyquist is usually to ask people: If I could get a sense of the way your culture works by meeting just one person, who would that person be?) If we think of successful cultures as engines of human cooperation, then the Nyquists are the spark plugs. Yellow highlight | Location: 2,121 In Conversation, Resist the Temptation to Reflexively Add Value: The most important part of creating vulnerability often resides not in what you say but in what you do not say. This means having the willpower to forgo easy opportunities to offer solutions and make suggestions. Skilled listeners do not interrupt with phrases like Hey, here’s an idea or Let me tell you what worked for me in a similar situation because they understand that it’s not about them. They use a repertoire of gestures and phrases that keep the other person talking. “One of the things I say most often is probably the simplest thing I say,” says Givechi. “ ‘Say more about that.’ ” It’s not that suggestions are off limits; rather they should be made only after you establish what Givechi calls “a scaffold of thoughtfulness.” The scaffold underlies the conversation, supporting the risks and vulnerabilities. With the scaffold, people will be supported in taking the risks that cooperation requires. Without it, the conversation collapses. Pink highlight | Location: 2,166 Performance evaluation tends to be a high-risk, inevitably judgmental interaction, often with salary-related consequences. Development, on the other hand, is about identifying strengths and providing support and opportunities for growth. Linking them into one conversation muddies the waters. Pink highlight | Location: 2,740 There is no blame or judgment in his gaze, only a quiet satisfaction born of clarity. We made some mistakes with this building, and now we know that, and we are slightly better because we know that. Yellow highlight | Location: 2,857 We put in some new systems, and they learned new ways of interacting. It’s strange to think that a wave of creativity and innovation can be unleashed by something as mundane as changing systems and learning new ways of interacting. But it’s true, because building creative purpose isn’t really about creativity. It’s about building ownership, providing support, and aligning group energy toward the arduous, error-filled, ultimately fulfilling journey of making something new.