How culture drives team performance 

6 Communication Challenges in the Age of AI and Hybrid Work

How to Build an AI-Ready Foundation

Does culture drive team performance?

Instead of a vague, “Oh, I'd say so - yes” (!!) let’s look at the data that could prove this either way. 

The [Sulls’ Culture500 project](https://sloanreview.mit.edu/culture500/) is the first large scale quantitative analysis of corporate cultures that uses employees’ views. It names 21 culture champions – and all 21 are also high performers (such as Nvidia, Accenture, Toyota, [Netflix](https://thegrowthfaculty.com/articles/erin-meyer-explains-the-netflix-reinvention-framework?campaign_id=701RG00000kwtsrYAA&promo=Blog&type=Affiliate)).

Andrew McAfee, author of [_“The Geek Way”_](https://thegrowthfaculty.com/articles/the-geek-way-to-success) says some of the _most_ successful companies are the wildly successful tech giants, who rank highly on:

·        **Execution**

·        **Agility**

·        **Innovation**.

As he says, “If you polled my community of business academics about the drivers of corporate performance, the trio of agility, execution, and innovation would all be right at the top of the list of results.”

Champions of culture are champion performers

**High Performance Cultures** will be one of two key learning tracks (the other is **Culture Health**) at Australia's Workplace Culture Conference [CultureCon™ 2025](https://thegrowthfaculty.com/events/a02RG00000BEbXpYAL/overview?campaign_id=701RG00000kwtsrYAA&promo=Blog&type=Affiliate) at the ICC Sydney on September 18.  

Speakers will share real business cases and include experts in AI, change management, adaptability/agility, organisational behaviour, and collaboration.

Ahead of the conference, let’s continue the theme of culture as a driver of team performance.

Build a high-performance culture

The Culture500 project shows that tech giants enormously outperform other industries on agility, execution, and innovation. That’s not to say every great culture is a tech company culture, and not every tech company has a great culture.

But, as [Adam Grant](https://thegrowthfaculty.com/articles/adamgrantunlockpotential) says, “Tech companies have raised the bar on what it means to be a great place to work: not just free food and ping pong tables, but a chance to do creative work on important problems, collaborate with highly motivated, talented colleagues, learn from world-class experts, and have a real voice.”

And, turns out, having “a real voice” is a key indicator of a good culture – and key to high performance.

What makes a great place to work?

_“The Culture Code”_ author Daniel Coyle cites research by Alex (Sandy) Pentland at The MIT Human Dynamics Lab on “collective intelligence.”

The studies show that team performance is driven by five measurable factors:

*   Everyone in the group _talks and listens_ in roughly equal measure, keeping contributions short
*   Members maintain _high levels of eye contact_, and their conversations and gestures are _energetic_
*   Members communicate directly _with one another_, not just with the team leader
*   Members carry on back-channel or side _conversations_ within the team
*   Members periodically break, go exploring outside the team, and _bring information back_ to share with the others

Coyle concludes that team performance depends on behaviour that communicates one powerful overarching idea: _“We are safe and connected.”_

Collective intelligence the key to high performance

This is the premise of [psychological safety](https://thegrowthfaculty.com/articles/whatispsychologicalsafety) , a topic to be highlighted at [CultureCon™ 2025](https://thegrowthfaculty.com/events/a02RG00000BEbXpYAL/overview?campaign_id=701RG00000kwtsrYAA&promo=Blog&type=Affiliate). Harvard professor Amy Edmondson, who wrote [_“The Fearless Organisation”_](https://thegrowthfaculty.com/articles/psychologicalsafetyedmondsonfearlessworkplace) and is a world authority on psychological safety defines the term as:

A belief that you can speak up at work with

·        Questions

·        Concerns

·        Ideas, even those that you're **not terribly confident** about

This type of safety promotes a [culture of accountability](https://www.thegrowthfaculty.com/blog/accountabilityproductivity) and learning from failures – both of which are ideal for high performance.

Psychological safety imperative for high performance

Richard de Crespigny, the Qantas captain who safely landed the badly damaged QF32 in 2010, says in [his book _“Fly”_](https://thegrowthfaculty.com/articles/GREATIDEASFlybyRicharddeCrespigny) that “errors are opportunity to improve.”

“We must accept that experiencing failure – as a consequence of consciously deciding to take a risk – as being necessary in life.”

He says that teams pool their resources to detect, block, fix, and mitigate errors before damage occurs.

“Perfect teams comprise humble people who put their egos aside, accept and forgive human frailty, then come together to raise concerns and fix mistakes.”

Again, this is how culture drives team performance.

Learning from failure – so you can take risks

All Black rugby great Dan Carter, author of [_“The Art of Winning”,_ ](https://thegrowthfaculty.com/articles/dancartertheartofwinningsummary) reinforces the message spelled out in James Kerr’s book on the All Blacks [_“Legacy”_](https://thegrowthfaculty.com/articles/summaryLegacyAllBlacksJamesKerrbook) of  the importance of colleagues driving the culture if there’s to be high performance.

“Instead of your manager, it’s your colleague delivering the demand to pick up your standard. It’s you delivering some difficult feedback to your peers,” he says.  

Dan explains the leader’s role is akin to a moderator, ensuring that peer-to-peer feedback is being delivered in a manner that isn’t personal or petty.

Colleagues drive the culture and, with it, high performance

How to build such cultures will be discussed by top speakers at [CultureCon™ 2025](https://thegrowthfaculty.com/events/a02RG00000BEbXpYAL/overview?campaign_id=701RG00000kwtsrYAA&promo=Blog&type=Affiliate) at the ICC Sydney on September 18.

The program includes Harvard Law School's Distinguished Fellow [Heidi K. Gardner](https://hls.harvard.edu/heidi-k-gardner/), author of _"Smarter Collaboration,"_ who will address collaboration in the age of AI. Michael Bungay Stanier, [MBS.works](https://www.mbs.works/) founder and bestselling author of _"The Coaching Habit,"_ will present new approaches to change management.

Some other speakers in the packed line-up include EY's [Jenelle McMaster](https://www.ey.com/en_au/people/jenelle-mcmaster) and [Katherine Boiciuc](https://www.ey.com/en_au/people/katherine-boiciuc) on the human side of AI implementation, workplace psychodynamics expert [Alicia Stephenson](https://www.workforcedynamics.com.au/) on behavioural guidance for modern workplaces, and former Premiers [Jay Weatherill](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jay_Weatherill) and [Mike Baird](https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-baird/?originalSubdomain=au) on cultural leadership lessons from politics.  
  
Photo by [Thriday](https://unsplash.com/@thriday?utm_content=creditCopyText&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=unsplash) on [Unsplash](https://unsplash.com/photos/a-group-of-people-standing-in-a-room-03ve_4Ug0Ow?utm_content=creditCopyText&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=unsplash)

How culture drives team performance

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How culture drives team performance

Limited tickets left for CultureCon™ 2025

Keep informedStay Inspired

Keep informed
Stay Inspired