Transcript

How Great Teams Ask Better Questions | Daniel Coyle

From Ryan Hawk · Episode page · Watch on YouTube

· 58 min · 11,853 words · 169 timestamped sections

This is the full, timestamped transcript of "How Great Teams Ask Better Questions | Daniel Coyle", an episode of Ryan Hawk published January 31, 2026 (58 min, about 11,853 words). It mentions 11 people, works and ideas, including Dan Coyle, Cleveland Guardians, 33 miners, Princess Jenny, A Swim in the Pond in the Rain.

What this episode is about

The discussion centers around the importance of asking meaningful questions to foster community and collective growth, contrasting the common narrative of individual heroism in personal improvement. Key points highlight how answers can halt conversations and that shared experiences and storytelling are vital for connection and flourishing in a community-oriented society, encouraging a revival of communal ties in an increasingly individualistic culture.

Key takeaways

  • Life isn't a straight line—it's a community quilt, stitched from shared experiences and questions.
  • The true art of storytelling lies in navigating obstacles together, not just individual success stories.
  • Ask not what answers you seek; instead, ponder which questions ignite genuine conversations and connections.
  • Simplicity in craft is the real challenge; greatness often hides behind a facade of noise and complexity.
  • Empathy blooms from vulnerability; shared struggles transform isolated journeys into enriching communal experiences.

Who speaks in this episode?

What is discussed, and when

  1. – 5:00: George Saunders, A Swim in the Pond in the Rain
  2. – 10:00: Dan Coyle, Princess Jenny, Power of the Pen
  3. – 15:00: Princess Jenny, Lisa Miller
  4. – 20:00: Cleveland Guardians
  5. – 35:00: Chile
  6. – 40:00: Chile
  7. – 45:00: Zingerman's Deli
  8. – 50:00: Harvard study of adult development
  9. – 58:18: Dan Coyle

Notable quotes from "How Great Teams Ask Better Questions | Daniel Coyle"

  • You know this guy and it's more in the writing area but George Saunders you bump into his stuff at all?
    about George Saunders · at
  • Communications and yet the stuff that really resonates is quieter for me and is simpler and he George Saunders this writer we're talking about embodies that like he can deliver…
    about A Swim in the Pond in the Rain · at
  • Kind of a relief. I don't really know how she does what she does. but it is it's been, it's been kind of fun. I've had to, lean on her sometimes and she leans on me sometimes.
    about Dan Coyle · at
  • Thousand feet below the surface, happened in 2010, most of us remember it. I think Chile and San Jose mine caves in. There's, 100 million tons of rock on top of them.
    about Chile · at
  • Meaning, of making meaning and creating presence. and I saw that pattern in all the places that I visited. They were able to create meaning cuz you can have all the…
    about 33 miners · at
  • We think of scaling as being this, oh that's good to do. Oh, always good to do. They had an offer. This is this little deli in Ann Arbor that I write about. They were very…
    about Zingerman's Deli · at
  • Studies show us like it's the most important thing to a life relationships right the Harvard study of longevity that we've all read about Harvard study of adult development you…
    about Harvard study of adult development · at
  • Connects back to what we were talking about at the very beginning which is like you get up to the top of these super top learning organizations and you find the most curious…
    about Cleveland Guardians · at

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

  • Dan Coyle — Person · Main guest · 2 mentions · first at
    Primary speaker discussing his book on flourishing, the role of community, and how questions/curiosity shape great teams and meaningful lives.
  • Princess Jenny — Person · Family member / key support figure (spouse/partner) · 2 mentions · first at
    Discussed as Dan Coyle’s essential support system and the person to whom he dedicates his books; used to illustrate the episode’s theme that flourishing is communal, not individual.
    Kind of a relief. I don't really know how she does what she does. but it is it's been, it's been kind of fun. I've had to, lean on her sometimes and she leans on me sometimes.
  • George Saunders — Person · Referenced author / craft exemplar · 2 mentions · first at
    Held up as a model of simplicity and resonance in writing; his work is recommended as both a writing guide and a life guide.
  • Lisa Miller — Person · Referenced expert (psychologist) · 1 mention · first at
    Credited with the “yellow doors” framing (noticing ambiguous opportunities) that anchors a major segment about complexity vs. complicated problems and living into questions.
    To make the most of them? Yeah. No, most of us go through our lives, this is, by the way, it's an idea from a Columbia University psychologist named Lisa Miller. And what she…

Books & papers

  • A Swim in the Pond in the Rain — Book · Primary recommendation · 1 mention · first at
    Recommended as a book about writing and life, embodying simplicity and deep craft.

Companies & orgs

  • Cleveland Guardians — Company · Case study · 2 mentions · first at
    Discussed as an example of a high-performance organization with a culture of curiosity and community.
  • Zingerman's Deli — Company · Case study · 2 mentions · first at
    Highlighted as a business that thrives by not scaling and deeply embedding in its community.

Concepts & topics

Places & events

  • 33 miners — Event · Case study · 4 mentions
    Used as an example of how community and shared suffering can lead to survival and flourishing.
  • Chile — Place · Setting · 2 mentions · first at
    Mentioned as the location where the 33 miners were trapped and subsequently rescued.
  • Power of the Pen — Event · Referenced work · 1 mention · first at
    Mentioned as a unique writing competition in Ohio that turns writing into a varsity sport.
    We used to teach We It was a There's a thing in Ohio that's kind of strange. It should be everywhere. It's called Power of the Pen. It's It's where you take writing and you turn it into.

Full transcript with timestamps

We were fed all these stories about heroic journeys of improvement. We tend to think and perceive things in straight lines and sort of think of life like a big game. I've come to believe that that is absolutely wrong. Life is actually not a game. What is revealed is a community of people. Answers stop conversations. Answers are as cheap as tap water. But do we have the questions?

You're maybe the foremost guy to ask this question to. So, no pressure, huh? What are some of the best questions to ask? What's energizing you right now is a really good question. And what else is a really good question? Storytelling is a craft cuz there always is. There's some desire, there's some obstacle, and there's some transformation. There's a myth in our culture right now that individuals can flourish. I talk about self-improvement. Actually, that's not as powerful as shared improvement. So, how does that play a role into this community and flourishing?

Oh my god. There's a lot of structures in our society that really want to divide our attention and keep us individualized. It's not predetermined that we're going to be in this tech dystopia forever. There really is a possibility for a community revival. The word is community. How simple and human is that?

Who are you reading lately that like you're loving? you know this guy and it's more in the writing area but uh George Saunders you bump into his stuff at all?

I've heard that. Yeah. What's it what's what's something he's written that you really like?

It's called A Swim in the Pond in the Rain. He teaches a class on writing but it's really kind of about life.

What's What's that book? A Swim. It's a terrible title. A Swim in a Pond in the Rain.

And that's a non-fiction. Non-fiction. It's based on a class he teaches on Russian short stories. So, it's super abstract.

Oh my god. I'm trying to think of something that's more in your in your world. Um or our world rather.

Are you are you So you're you like studying writing? Yeah. Yeah. It's Is that like your favorite thing?

Um it's I'm always looking to deepen that skill set. Yeah. Look at that. Uh dude, that is a

clapper. This is elite. I had no idea. Love you a clapper. [ __ ] hell. It's not the uh $10,000 cameras. It's the It's the $15 slate from uh

You clapped it. You clapped it. It works. It's got the colors on it. Hey, I love it.

Wow. So So you still feel like you're I have an official start, but I'm too curious here. You're still You're still

like deep into learning about being a better 100%. Really? 100%. What do you mean? Right.

Um there are people that you know the sort of mountaintop of craft, right? Like you work your way up it, you learn, you relearn, you have the strange experience of reading something that you wrote and thinking, "Oh, hey, that's actually pretty good. Who wrote that?" You know,

your own stuff. Your own stuff. And you also see how you've decomplicated things over the years. Like I think

in the journey from like the journey of craft always involves getting simpler period, right? And is there an end to that? Um, I know that I could definitely be simpler because simple is not easy, right? And the I think the great ones are always they've got their craft to where it is where there's a simplicity to it. And I feel I feel hungry for more of that. Like especially in this world we live in where we're all trying to communicate and there's so much clutter and noise and it's easy to want to compete with that and bring a lot of um you know um energy and speed to your communications and yet the stuff that really resonates is quieter for me and is simpler and he George Saunders this writer we're talking about embodies that like he can deliver um and he's got and he really deeply has a a beautiful explanation for how he does what he does. So, it's just it's like reading it happens to be about writing, but it sort

of could be about archery or chess or baseball. What about like how does climbing play a role with any of that or does it?

Yeah, I think I think it does. There is Or is that just a challenge like hard do the hard thing with other people, develop relationships, doing hard things? I mean, that's some culture code stuff, right? Like doing hard things together with other people

completely. suffering for instance like suffering together how powerful that is and doing you know untangling things together literally and figuratively is is super powerful and being vulnerable is super powerful for me if there if it is we're talking about this mountaintop of craft with climbing I'm at the very very very bottom like how do I tie that knot and with writing I'm I'm somewhere in the middle so it's it's um it's fun to feel to have a couple of those zones in your life where you're like where you're a beginner again

I mean it's kind freeing, liberating, but it's also develops empathy because it's free. Like

there's some stuff that is really really it looks very simple, but it's not. It's and so it's it it gives you empathy for for people that are learning.

You said one of your daughters wants to be a writer, but she's fiction writer, right? Does she come to you and say, "Dad what

you know, how do I do what you did?" in a little bit different way, but or is she is she old enough now where she's mature to say my dad's actually really really good and legit and great cuz you know in teenage years you're kind of they're going to make fun of you and all that stuff. That's how it works. How was that?

Yeah. No, interesting. We've always had kind of a I think a a good relationship. I've I've learned from her a lot actually. Yeah, she's she's reads really deeply. She's interested in kind of Greek myths and writing fiction off of that. And so that was a total education for me. So, there was it was a kind of a kind of a two-way dialogue. She doesn't ask me my opinion very much, which is kind of a relief. I don't really know how she does what she does. Um, but it is it's been, you know, it's been kind of fun. I've had to, you know, lean on her sometimes and she leans on me sometimes.

But the craft of storytelling is that's that's what that's you're one of the best in the world at that element and then weaving the stories together

to help other people. I would say is to simplify that as much as I could. Yeah,

that What about that part? This craft of storytelling. Yeah, I've I've been I've edited some of her stuff and I've tried to It's funny. We used to teach We It was a There's a thing in Ohio that's kind of strange. It should be everywhere everywhere. It's called Power of the Pen. It's It's where you take writing and you turn it into like a like a high school varsity sport.

You've heard of this, Cory? Okay. Right. It's the thing was in it. Yeah. Oh, wow.

It's a thing. And the way it works is you have a little team from a different schools and they're all middle school kids I think and you get a you all go to a gym and you get a prompt 20 minutes go and then there are judges that rate all the essay all the there's short stories they're like the prompt is you know a tree in spring go right go a prompt is my dog uh is sick go and everybody writes a story based on that prompt and those stories are judged and you write three of them in a day and then the winners get trophies and it's just this crazy fun thing well I happen to coach the middle school team when when my daughter Zoe was there and then Zoe went went on to become the coach of the team when she got older. So I and she was a way better coach than I was. This is what I learned. She was she was cuz she was closer. She was more of a peer of the kids. Um and and you really, you know, storytelling is a craft cuz there

always is there's some desire, there's some obstacle and there's some transformation in every good story, right? There's like I want I want to do I want to get somewhere. there's this thing standing my way and then there's some transformation on that journey and so um teach it's like everything like teaching it teaches you and so being the coach there really helped me being the coach there really helped Zoe and then Zoe ended up coaching me and I end up coaching Zoe a little bit so it was never this like transmit let me teach all my wisdom to my daughter it was much more of a rich two-way dialogue that I think ended up helping both of us a little bit

man I love hearing stories like that I'm going to pepper you forever about you're since you're a little bit ahead of me and so I'm always going to be like, "Oh, this is seems like you figured some things out in this really hard game of being a dad with daughters and it's the most important thing in the world and the coolest thing in the world." Talk about suffering together.

That's why I love skiing together. I don't maybe I'm maybe it's just so I don't know how you feel about this but like this idea of uh skiing with your kids and seeing them fall and then they got to get themselves back up and then keep going and then by the end of the day to see the smile on their face and they've kind of conquered a hard thing and you did it together and you got in the hot tub together afterwards. Like does it get better than that? It's a perfect day.

Does it get better? It does not. I don't know if it does with your kids and your wife. Like I don't know if it gets any better than I don't know. It's a perfect day. And and and they have the the perfect amount of like freedom and togetherness. It's like every run is like freedom and then togetherness. Freedom and then togetherness. There's such a great pulse in that. That is like the pulse of family.

So good. Okay. Flourishing or flourish. So it was so cool to get this this book from your team. I appreciate you sent it to me and they sent me the the PDF too. Um so I was devouring it and taking so many notes. But I I got to start at the actually the very beginning.

Yeah. Yeah. We were just talking about Jenny, right? You guys are now empty nesters. You're still figuring it out. Yep.

But you dedicate it to her and just say as for Jenny like the simplicity in that

like how does she help you Dan Coyle flourish? Oh my god. In every possible way. There's not a book uh deep enough or long enough to tell that story. Um, but yeah, it being, you know, one of the lessons of of getting older. Um, and I I just turned 60, so it's like this is like uh this is like

That's hard to believe. It is. It's You think you It's hard to believe. I'm just saying you look great. That's what I said. No, it's one of the things is like I think growing up I always had the idea of kind of individual success, individual greatness. It's like we were fed all these stories about kind of heroic journeys of improvement and um and a lot of the information we get is how we can get better as individuals and over and over again I keep sort of seeing when you scratch one of those individual stories what is revealed as a community of people

and it's a community of people who support in ways that they don't even realize they're supporting but we're all we're all deeply inshed in these kind of ecosystems and so Jenny is like the ecosystem for me to be able to do what I do because what I do um similar to I think a lot of a lot of careers it's like it doesn't actually make that much sense you know going from writing project to writing project hoping stuff works out exploring some of those explorations work out some of them don't it ain't efficient it ain't like getting on the train and going to your work and then coming back and getting on the train and coming home at 5:00 every day it's not that it's I think I need to go to Russia you know it's I think I need to spend some time digging into this.

It's um it's not knowing where the next check is going to come from. It's it's you know hoping that that works out. And so she's been, you know, more than a partner during all that time and being an incredible teammate, incredible support. So all my books are dedicated to her with the exception of one. Um but it's uh it's it's I don't have to think long about who to dedicate books to.

That's cool, man. I love stories like that. And when you look at people who have sustained excellence over time, it seems like that's one of the commonalities is either their their who in general or in your case that plus this rock of a support system at home that you love unconditionally and and have built a life with. The other thing you write about

is yellow doors. Yeah. I loved reading more about yellow doors. C can you explain this idea of what yellow doors are and how you're trying to make the most of them? Yeah. No, I mean, most of us go through our lives, um, this is, by the way, it's an idea from a Columbia University psychologist named Lisa Miller. And what she points out is that most of us go through our lives looking for the green doors that are open. Clear. Go. Let's go. Not to be too mccay. I don't know how he would even say his own name. Green lights. So, it's a good book, especially audio book's really good.

Oh, I bet it is. Yeah. He's he's a he's he's a voice actor. I mean, he's great. Yeah. Most of us go through life looking for the green doors that are open and the red doors that are closed. Like that's clearly a path forward for me. That's clearly a path I should not go. And there's a lot of those in life, right? Um but what the idea of yellow doors is that there's another kind of door, right, that's kind of out of the corner of your eye. It might be something that makes you uncomfortable. It might be something that's brand new. Um but that that's where life like actually happens.

And I I think one of the reasons that that's true is that, you know, we tend to think and perceive things in straight lines. We tend to sort of go from A to B to C to D and sort of think of life as this big,

I don't know, like a big game, right? A big a big game that has rules and you should analyze, follow the rules, make good decisions. Um, but in fact, that's like a misperception. I think I've come to believe that that is absolutely wrong. Life is actually not a game. Games are machines, right? Life is is there are elements of life that are like a game. Parts of it are, but deep deep down it ain't a game. It ain't. It this is something. It is a It is a living thing. It's it's complex. And complex things don't have straight lines. They've got like little doorways and pathways and it's like this jungle trail that keeps shifting and moving and you're moving along with it. Um there's some weird science connected to this that is basically says it's about complexity, right? All of life's problems, there are two kinds of problems in life. Some are complicated and some are complex. And we typically

use those two words like interchangeably, right? They're not like complex is really different than complicated. And I I found this to be really really useful. Complicated things come together the same way every time. A goes to B goes to C. There's cause and effect. It it is it's unchangeable. Like I could if I told you to build a Ford Mustang and gave you all the information and all the materials and a set of instructions that was accurate and you followed those instructions, you would have a Ford Mustang every time, right?

That's that's complicated. It takes you have to analyze. It takes expertise, but it's but it's it's complicated. Complex are problems where when you involve yourself in them, they change. Huh? So the difference is is this more like building a Ford Mustang or is this more like raising a teenager? Like there's no script I can give you as we know. There is no set of instructions. There's no A to B to C to D. It ain't complicated. It's freaking complex. Which means everything I do changes the relationship, right? Complex things live in relationship. And so that's where the yellow door idea really resonates for me because it's like when you think of your life as complicated, you think, "Oh, what's the next good move? I just need to make one good move. It's straight lines. It's I'll I'll be able to figure it out. I need to analyze it more. I need to think about it more. Complexity is like, wait a minute, there's like

something opening up over here. Let me check that out. Like that seems interesting. Let me let me probe and to go back to ground it in the science. If you've got a complicated problem, you need to analyze, find out where are you in that list of instructions. Like get the next best instruction. Find the expert. Follow follow the guide. But if you're in a complex problem, information is not good use. Information is not helpful. If you're in a complex problem, you got to probe. Like you got to test out. Take a step into that yellow door and be like, "Huh, that sucked. I'm going to turn around." Or, "Wo, that's kind of cool. I'm going to keep going and see what the next step is."

And so what I see in highly kind of thriving people, especially in people that I studied for this book, was this willingness to kind of let go of analysis, kind of let go of information and let their experience guide them. Say, "Let's try that. It seems kind of stupid. It I can make all kinds of logical reasons why it won't work, but I'm going to let go of logic for just a second, and I'm going to actually probe and see what happens. I'm going to actually live it." and then I'll get some information by doing that. Right?

So, they're living their way forward into these questions into these yellow doors. Like you're living into the question.

That's the way that there was a poet a long time ago. Roomie I think his name was. Oh, no. I'm sorry I have it wrong. That was a Rilka the poet some somebody asked him. He got older. They asked him it was a young letters to a young poet. So, somebody wrote him how do I live my life? And he wrote back and Rilka said live the question. That's how you should live your life. Live into the question. And that's what I kept seeing in these flourishing groups that I've been spending the last five years visiting. Like they're they're not about the answers. Like, and we live in this day in this age where answers are as cheap as tap water, right? Like AI's we'll give you the answers. Sure,

we have the answers. But do we have the questions? And are we noticing the questions that are just in the corner of our eye? And are we able to live into those questions in ways that that that help us to grow? Like that's what flourishing is.

This idea of being I found you since I don't even know how many years we've been talking now from that first meeting, dinner, breakfast, all of them. But when you asked me to come up and hang out at the time, I think they were the still the Cleveland Indians,

Chris Antinetti, Jay Hennessy, uh you there were some others in the room and I was just

one I thought this is the coolest thing just to be in this room, president of the of a baseball team who's crushed it. you a guy who I I you know idolized as a writer um and met the other Josh Gibson another brilliant guy like and the level of curiosity just blew my mind

cuz those are the guys who should be telling me everything I showed up like trying to learn and learn and all that Chris and you and everybody in the room was doing was peppering me. I couldn't believe guys that had this stature and this level of excellence that they have sustained over time and yet they were as curious as anybody I've ever met. I'd just love to hear you kind of riff on the level of curiosity amongst the leadership with the Cleveland Guardians, the guys that you are an intern for.

I mean, just to hear more like and how how how cool it is to be in an environment like that.

It is. It's totally energizing, right? Like like the I feel like that's a part of this, too, though. like it's kind of like, you know, like a curiosity about life. Like I know I know well I mean if we really you know we can we can dig into the Guardians some more. Um because they for me they really do embody that curiosity and it's really easy especially in sports especially in high performance stuff to focus on those answers. Um but if you if you go the thing that I like about hanging out with them is is that they I think raise everybody's level. um you know answers stop conversations like answers and by stopping conversations they kind of they don't fuel relationships.

Yeah. They they don't questions bring people together, right? And the ability to um really especially as you move up in the world, as we get as you get older, as you have a higher status, it becomes increasingly tempting if you have the model of leadership that a leader is the is the pilot of the boat and the person who's flipping the levers and has the answers. And that's how I grew up thinking of leaders. Sure. Right. They were the ones with the answers.

Um it becomes tempting to become that. and all the other signals you get in the organization reinforce that. So it takes a really special person I think to realize and a really different model for what a business is for what a high performance organization is. Um you know we typically think of them as kind of machines like we're we're you know Indiana football last night looked like a freaking machine right they win the national championship. Um, we think of of the seals as a machine. We think of Pixar as a machine. But actually, when you get close to those organizations, they're not functioning like machines. Machines are controlled from the outside and they're very predictable and they produce a predictable result. That's why they're machines, right? But what we're having here is like more of um an anivening, an animating of energy that's hidden. Those questions, why are they powerful?

Because they bring out people's energy and curiosity. Why is curiosity so powerful? Because it creates these these explorations

and and leaders who are good at at like lobbing that question in and then closing their mouth

it's the most powerful skill because it's cuz it's not a machine because these organizations are actually more like these energy channels that are exploring stuff. They're more like rivers. It's like a river. How do you make a river flow? Well, you give it a horizon to flow toward like where are we going? you set up some river banks is where we're not going to go. We're not going to go to either side of this. But inside the space, I want to create energy and agency and questions do that. Um, yeah, it's it's uh it's it's not an easy and it's a super interesting skill, too, because you know, in the book I write a little bit about Peter Block, um, who's like one of the best ever at answering at asking these these questions and exploring these questions.

And the questions aren't that work in these situations, whether it's at the Guardians or somewhere else. They're not questions that are kind of fact-based. They're more like deep questions like what what makes a great player. You know, what what you know what happens in championship locker rooms? Like it there are questions that are impossible to like simply answer. So what they do is they kind of spark more exploration

and in that exploration something bubbles up usually and the funny thing about those conversations that I've had in the Guardians a million times is like you'll be in a meeting somebody will put in a question like you know what's you know what's what's happening what's how how do how do great hitters recognize pitches whatever it might be and this conversation will happen and some ideas will bubble up and later on no one will know where those ideas came from. It wasn't exactly you. It wasn't exactly me. We were building on ideas.

You threw out an idea and I built on it. Somebody else built on it. Somebody else built on it. And all of a sudden you walk out with not only energy but agency and and a fresh idea. And so the idea it it cracks me up actually to go you still can go to some places and they're still in that old model of leadership where it's like I'm the answer man. I'm the answer woman. I've you know I will I will speak first. I will speak last. I will I will not invite conversation and my role is to deliver the truth. And I can see how that would have worked like that would have worked on Mad Men. That would have worked in the ' 50s, '60s and 70s when we didn't have so many answers around where we didn't have um

the the challenging changing landscape that we're in. Like, but now the landscape's freaking moving

and the idea that one guy can have all the answers is actually kind of insane. Like that doesn't work. So how do we create those conversations?

Team dialogue. I think I learned this like dialogos. Was this from Jay and you probably is it Peter Sanjay? How do you say his last s? So the fifth discipline I've used this a lot that I learned I believe was from you and Jay when I was in that meeting about this the power of I want to get in like the DNA of excellent teams because this is something you're good at to go along with this is is this this team coming together doing exactly what you said but you can't do it if you're not open-minded if you're not curious or not willing to ask questions again you talk about asking good questions and maybe it's context dependent but I am curious to learn from you. What are some of like the best questions to ask when you're in a team environment and you're trying to figure things out? You got complex or uh issues happening. What are some of like your favorite questions to ask in those situations?

Yeah, that's a that's a great question. I think we're doing it, dude. Um I think I think what's energizing you right now

is a really good question. Didn't you ask me that right before we started recording?

I think I think I did. I only got one question. I loved it. I loved it. Well, I mean, it led to like a 10-minute monologue, but Yeah,

it kind of did. Yeah, right. It's great. You know, um, and and what else is a really good question,

I think people tend to, you know, there there's usually like something underneath the surface. Asking the same question again is a really good question cuz sometimes the first time doesn't doesn't go. What are you really curious about right now is is a good one. And and there's always the double header which is like what do you want to do more of? I think that's a really good question like it because what we're talking about here is like you know where your energy is going and where do you where do you see your it's going really well. What do you want more of? I want more of this. I want more of that.

And what do you want to do differently is another good question. Huh. Like what do you want to do differently? because I'm not You're trying to create space here, which is such a groovy phrase, like we're going to create space right now for this, but it kind of captures what it is, which is like I want to make you feel like I'm not interrogating you. Yeah.

That like I'm not judging you. Uh if I say like, what are you doing that you think's going poorly? It's just that's a crappy question. But what do you want to do differently is is not a bad one. It creates space for you to go, yeah, um here's what I want to do differently.

Yeah. Um, so I think those are all those are all those are all good. Um, and then other questions kind of about like the future I think are really are really liberating and good and all these questions like what's you know paint a picture for me describe for me if 5 years from now things go great like give me an average Tuesday like what do you do on that day and you're probably obviously skiing with your daughters.

That would be one of them. my family's right alongside you. But that some, you know, something and and all of those what you're, I think, trying to do is get people out of kind of their narrow bore attention.

Yeah. And and and let go a little bit, surrender a little bit and and and open up and point out things that are maybe in the corner of their eye.

Yeah. So Dan, I was recently asked to give two talks to the same company. One was just the salespeople and they asked me to talk about excellence and habits and routines and rituals of high performance, right? Stuff I learned about on the show. The second was with the entire company and they said, "We want you to title it, and I don't usually do this. You I'm sure you don't either, where they tell you what they want you to talk about."

They say, "It needs to be titled the DNA of great teams." Interesting. And I said,

initially, I said, "No, like I I don't know if I have that talk in me or whatever." And then I thought, "Well, it might be kind of a fun topic." Yeah. Yeah. So anyway, so I did that a couple like a month ago now. And I would be curious if you were asked to give a talk titled the DNA of great teams. What are some of the I don't you don't need to give the talk right now, but what are some of the bullet points that would immediately start popping up in your mind of oh this is Yeah. This great team is great. I mean you're maybe the foremost guy to ask this question to. So

no pressure, huh? Yeah. Right. Yeah. So this better be good. Freaking great. Expect perfection.

No. Yeah. No, it's good. Um, you know, part of my mind there goes right to kind of these core things of of deep deep belonging, sort of sacrifice. Um, but I'll get a little notch. So, you got the big principles there that I think are true in every great team, but I'll go like since Indiana football's fresh in our minds after seeing that. I think there is there is something really really you know if we notch a little bit deeper it's like peer leaders who sacrifice for the team for me is like is like really big um seeing that

you see Mendoza got smoked smoked I mean he was battered and he just kept going

that guy he was getting hammered and he didn't complain and interview talks about his teammates

I mean yeah how do you respond And that and so that leads to the second one which is like that moment of of of terrible adversity. What is the instinct? Do we do are we turning toward each other or are we turning away from each other? To me that is like such a litmus test. You could actually see it last night. You could see the contrast between the two teams. Um when things went bad they responded very differently. Right. So what is that that response is just is just so so important to DNA of great teams. Um, and I don't actually don't think the coach is that important like like in a in a way. Uh,

really with No, I think I think he he obviously sets the tone and everything, but when we and and it's part of the DNA, but it's not as big a part as people think. I think great, you know, coaches can create the conditions for the team to emerge, but the thing with the great teams have sometimes pit themselves against the coach.

Yes. You know, they can sometimes see the coach as we're going to come together against this guy. the US Olympic hockey team of 1980 would be an example of that. Um, so I would I would put that on there. And I would also put a shout out to uh to this this curiosity is is at the at the very very very core of it because that that keeps you going, you know, and and it's really hard to to consistently succeed. And I think the teams that I've seen do that um are ones that do not get gassed up on their own stuff. Do not

drink their own Kool-Aid. Do not believe in in in their success actually in a way sort of in a it's not skeptical exactly, but they're not buying into it in a like, oh, now I'm at the top of the mountain, everything's fine. Um they get curious about that next mountain and they get curious about each other and they get curious about the situation and they're willing to, you know, let go of stuff that that didn't work. OKC is really good at this. um the basketball team. I mean, they they are um incredibly intentional about how they evolve and how they lead. And I they were they were here last year and I had a um a coffee with uh with their coach and their shooting coach, Chip England, who's a brilliant, brilliant shooting coach, and Mark Dino. And um they told me something that was kind of cool that I hadn't appreciated. You know, when someone gets traded in pro sports, it's like a death. Like this is

locker room. Everybody knows each other. Trade deadlines coming. somebody got traded that and then their locker's empty. It's like a It's like a gravestone. Yeah.

Um and what the coach at OKC does is on the day after somebody gets traded, he spends a minute of practice expressing his appreciation for that person who's gone.

Takes like 10 seconds, 30 seconds, whatever. But it like what how simple and human is that?

Yeah. How powerful is that? And and it really I think what I'm seeing in these places, it's the same thing that I see in these flourishing groups that I wrote about. The word is community.

Yeah. Like the thing that makes people flourish is community. It's not a bunch of individuals that are individuallying together. It's like can they connect? Can they? And this would be like I mean the the way that some people would say it would be like love your neighbor. Are they loving their neighbor and supporting their neighbor? And that is that's just magical when that does happen.

One of the groups that I was blown away reading about these Chilean miners. Oh yeah,

man. I didn't know and understand the full story until reading about it in your book. Tell me about how they somehow after what seems like one of the worst things that could ever happened to you.

Yeah. Flourished. Yeah. Together. No. And survived all of them together. Incredible. I mean, yeah. If you had to trade places with anybody in the history of the world, these guys would not be in the top uh list. Like they're a couple thousand feet below the surface, happened in 2010, most of us remember it. I think um you know, Chile and San Jose mine caves in. There's, you know, 100 million tons of rock on top of them. They're in a a room called a refu and there's probably no escape. They're probably thinking this is it. And there's a little cabinet uh with some tuna fish, cookies, spoiled milk, like not much not much food. 33 people um down there and for the first couple hours it went as bad as it could have gone. Like people are eating the food, people are running around scrambling, yelling at each other and then they they sort of tire out, they circle up. And it's funny and you know, we all know

that they survived. We all know that they they ended up kind of creating a little civilization down there. And the original thought when they came out was like, oh, they had great leaders. they had like these two guys that seem to be leaders and those leaders had a plan and they had a strategy and they they did it and they were like steering the ship and it turns out um that that wasn't the case. What happened was that they they sort of circled up and they stopped and they kind of paused. They just stopped and and they said, "Look, we're probably one of them spoke. He said, "Look, we're we're we're how did he put it? He said like we're we're we're in the [ __ ] Like this is it. We're not we're not getting out of here." And then the boss stepped forward. It was the boss everyone was kind of afraid of. He wore a white helmet. His name was Luis Orzua and he took off his white helmet and he said,

"There are no bosses and no employees. There's no bosses and no employees. Um, we're all we're all one here." And then there's another pause and somebody else pointed out that there were 33 of them, which is the same age Christ was when he died. And so they saw that as being they're mostly Catholics saw that as being a symbolic. And from those pauses, like they weren't actually trying to do anything. But what happened in those moments is their attention shifted from this terror and this task of survival to this larger connection that they had, this relationship they had with each other and with this moment. And they started to kind of self-organize at that time like just let's build a little sleeping area. Let's let's get the food sorted. Let's figure out how much lamp uh battery power we have. And they started this set of rituals. Rituals.

And they almost like each meal they would get out a certain flake of tuna and they would all share it and eat it at the same time. They built small games out of little reflectors and they would play these games with their limited light. Um, and it didn't like it didn't it wasn't easy. Um, and it was there was an incredible amount of shared suffering down there, but it was shared. And when they finally got contact with the surface, one of the things that they did that kind of blew everybody away was they they sung the Chilean national anthem together. So they're down there, no food, you know, very little supplies, dark infection, it's super hot, and you know, they end up kind of creating this little model civilization that functioned incredibly well for the situation that they were in. And what let them do that was not information. It wasn't analysis. It was it was letting go. It was having this moment of

meaning, of making meaning and creating presence. Um, and I I saw that pattern in all the places that I visited. They were able to create meaning cuz you can have all the information, you can have all the success, you can have all the productivity, but if you don't have the ability to like stop and create relationships and create community, um, all that stuff is we say it's meaningless because it's meaningless. Um, and community is how we do that. And so they were just a beautiful example of like, all right, they don't have anything. How did they create community?

Well, they did it by stopping and looking to something bigger than themselves. Stopping and looking. And and that moment of stopping and looking is something that I saw in all the groups that I visited. They had the ability in all the busyiness of this world to be like, "Wait a minute. Stop. What are we really about? What matters here? What is our community? why are we here? What is bigger than us that we're connected to right now? And they grounded themselves in those moments over and over and over again. Um, and that's what creates growth and that's what creates connection. That's what creates community.

So, that's an extreme story. What about for the person who has a pretty good life and they're a mid-level VPish leader at a Fortune 100 company trying to hit an aggressive goal, hire well, fire when needed, you know?

Yeah. Different than being stuck way down there with 30 32 other people. Well, yeah.

How what would you take from that experience and all of these stories of flourishing groups and people that could help the person who doesn't have it terrible? In fact, they have it pretty good right?

Maybe not excellent or great, but they're doing fine, right? What could they learn from those guys, the Chilean miners, to implement into either their place of work or their life at home to flourish, to do really, really well from a team perspective, from a family perspective, and as individuals.

Yeah. I think the thing though, there's a lot of lessons to learn and and one of them is getting smart. Being smarts will only get you so far.

Yeah. is kind of one one big one to really have this this sense of fulfillment. We only flourish I think there's a myth in our culture right now that individuals can flourish like you think of oh that person you see them as a as a single person as a as a as an individual and you hear about their success and the appearance by all appearances like that individual is flourishing but underneath them invisibly they're part of a larger community. Flourishing is only pos we only become our best through other people. So we have this pronoun problem basically I, me, when actually it's we and us, right? Self-improvement. We talk about self-improvement. Actually, that's not as powerful as shared improvement,

right? So this idea that we're actually pre-wired to flourish through community pre-wired. And one way to access that, I think, is to think about times in your life, moments in your life when you have felt the most alive, the most connected, the most growing, that have challenged you, and that have made you who you are. I'm going to say those moments didn't happen when you were by yourself in a sauna, when you were um training alone. Those were relationships. Those were moments when you're in community. Those are moments when community was lighting you up in some new way and challenging you to grow and creating conditions where you could grow. And so the challenge to somebody in a in a in a Fortune 100 as a mid-level um is who's your community?

Yeah. How are you nurturing it? You life looks like a game every day. Guess what? Sorry, it's not a game. It's a garden. And long term growing the garden of your career is going to benefit you. It's in your self-interest way more than playing the game of your career.

Mhm. Growing the garden of your career. So, the question to ask every day is like, who's in my garden? Who can I learn from? What relationship do I need to feed and nurture? And who can I feed? Who can I help? Right? There was a we had Craig Council in to interview for the Guardians manager position a few years ago and somebody asked him what he did when he was feeling down. like hard job, lonely job, like a lot of jobs. Talk about a sort of the loneliness of the manager.

Yeah. He goes, his answer was, I go find somebody I can help. Go find a rookie I can help. Go find a clubhouse person I can help. I that's my cure. It's like that really stayed with me because it's his problem, right? You'd think he'd want to sort of self-gratify and I need to fix myself. It's like no, it's it's community comes down to like serve thy neighbor. Like, you know, it comes down to helping other people. And that instinct, which is kind of the opposite of what we really want to do in some ways, right? It's hard to do that. It's freaking hard to get out of your own head.

But that instinct to flip it and say, "Wait, who can I go help?" is a really powerful question. Talk about powerful questions.

It's like when Jeff asked you to go rock climbing. Oh, yeah. Right. It's kind of a yellow door, isn't it? Because initially from what I read at least you're thinking I don't I don't think I want to do that.

No. No. But but now since you said yes to that invitation, how has it changed your life?

Yeah. No, it's given me this whole new whole new community. Really? Really? You know, and just uh you know Yeah. I didn't want to go indoor rock climbing. That is a stupid sport. Like let's be frank. It is a you put on these stupid shoes and you go some indoor thing with painful grips and chalk and all these bags and this stupid harness that I put on backwards when I first put it on and it just you feel like an idiot. Um but my friend who had you know he was looking to to create some new friends and friendships. He recently been through some changes in his personal life and I wanted to show up for him, right? And so I ended up getting involved in this and now, you know, five, six years later, here we are doing trips and playing music and going skiing. It's a whole new group of whole new community of friends. So that yellow door and reaching out, I mean, through that yellow door is really what

has that changed for you? Cuz I'm with you. There are days I I you probably have introverted tendencies as a writer. I definitely do. Especially if you go on stage, you need to recharge and it's usually by yourself. But

yep, that Craig counsel which I'm going to borrow forever now too of you know what when I'm feeling down or when something happens like let's say your daughter gets temporarily hurt on the soccer field like it's the worst feeling in the world. What makes that better? like having a conversation with you, trying to help somebody else, trying to do something I think is going to make a positive dent in the world. Help someone one-on-one that that that's seems like it seems obvious, but it's almost harder now than ever because we have devices, these incredible computers that we all carry in our pockets and if we can take it out and look at it forever and and and always have an unlimited supply of things to look at, but what are you doing when you're doing that? You're completely by yourself.

Yes. In fact, it's worse because you might be watching videos or pictures of people who are together and you're not.

I know. You know what I mean? So, how does that play a role into this community and flourishing?

Oh my god. I mean, I sort of think of these places I visited as being the cure for this kind of AI dystopia that we are we're moving toward. I mean, we are clearly moving toward that. And there's a lot of structures in our society that really want to want to divide our attention and keep us individualized and keep us apart from community or provide a fake artificial friend for us to talk to, which is absolutely hilarious and dark and wrong. Um, but the idea that this the cure is we're pre-wired for this stuff. Like, you know, there's there are these huge meta studies that show are you happier when you get a gift or give a gift. Guess what? You're happier when you give one. Like we all know that already, right?

Um we know that uh that when we know we're increasingly learning, it feels like there is this sort of humanist revival. I maybe maybe I maybe I'm gassed up on my own on my own research, but in visiting these places, these communities that have kind of come back to life, um these businesses that have, you know, like like Zingermanman's Deli for example, like that have that have absolutely thrived by not scaling. Like we think of scaling as being this, oh that's good to do. Oh, always good to do. They had an offer. This is this little deli in Ann Arbor that I write about. They were very successful. um you know just the best Reuben you've ever had and a lot of your listeners may have even been there. It's very it's very famous. They started in 1982. Um they've grown and grown and grown and at one point Walt Disney came up to them and part of their values is to be in Ann Arbor. That's where they are. That's

where they do their business. And Walt Disney came up to them with a $50 million offer to say we want you in our park. Like you guys are a great deli. We want you in our park. And for most businesses that's a no-brainer. Like we're going to do it. And for Zingermanmans it took like 20 minutes and they're like nope we're not interested. If you ever come to Ann Arbor, if you ever have a Walt Disney World in Ann Arbor, we will be in it. But short of that, this is where we get our meaning. This is where we get our purpose. This is the the ground in which we grow our roots. And they have got this community of businesses there.

There's a crearyy, there's a travel business, there's a wedding planning business, there's a Korean barbecue. Um there's all these connected business, this family of businesses that is deep in an arbor and has all kinds of deep connections with that community. So not to say every business has to follow that model, but there are models for um creating those kinds of relationships that that can actually lead to a much deeper sense of thriving than simply the present model we're given where it's like go go go and be narrow and scale.

And I I like the question too. What do you uh James Clear has said this. I had a dinner with him recently and he said, "What are you optimizing for?" He asked that all the time and

and Cory and I were talking about this before we start before you got here and I said I'm optimizing for this.

Oh yeah. For amazing experiences with great great high character people who've put a positive dent in the world and being with them.

Yeah. We had this scheduled on Zoom. I remember and I emailed like the day before or maybe it was the day of you and your team and said, "Wait a second. Dan might be in Cleveland. I'm just going to go up there and see him or Clark Lee's down in in Nashville. I'm going to go see him or Will's down there too.

And to me, like this is the community building that is hard to do. You can do it a little bit on Zoom. Like, you can still feel some of it, but there's nothing like meeting you down in the lobby, hanging out for a little bit, talking

to I think that that brings me so much joy in like this flourishing is being with people, being together, connecting, developing friendships and relationships.

That's what I'm optimizing for. And and you hope, you know, you got to make money, right? I got a family. I mean, we all have to do that. But that's what I feel like. Is there anything better than optimizing for for those big relationships that that can be transformative over the course of your life? I to me that's that's been the number one thing that I'm shooting for.

I love it. I love it. It's so good. And optimizing is a is is kind of a good word. It because it kind of implies too that you have to leave some space. It's not it's imperfect.

Right. Right. It's definitely not efficient. I'm not aiming for it. It's not efficient. like you had you had a better way to spend you had a more efficient way to spend your morning driving up here and I had a I probably do too but that's not where the you know the value is not even evenly distributed here like there's you're aiming and that's the thing that the flourishing groups have they're kind of it's about moments. Yeah,

it's not about it's not about like a measurable it's not measurable in conventional ways, right? It's measurable in terms of value or in terms of joy or in terms of feeling connected or in terms of relationship and like relationship is so mysterious like it's the you know these these all these studies show us like it's the most important thing to a life relationships right the Harvard study of longevity that we've all read about Harvard study of adult development you know what is it it's relationships full stop like that's it that's that distinguishes health and happiness more than nutrition more than exercise more than IQ, more than genes, like it's relationships. And yet there's not a playbook for it.

Like like what and and what is the playbook for relationships? It involves curiosity. It involves risk. It involves looking at people who are good at it and learning from them. It involves community. And you could even you could probably make a case that communities are where we learn how to play that sport.

Mhm. And that's why they're so important and that's why isolation is so so detrimental. Like communities teach us how to be in relationship. And and that's the cool that's the cool part of it. And as dystopian as the world can feel sometimes, like that's just part of us. Like we're pre-wired for community. When it when some of these places that I visited, they were inspiring because they were kind of able to flip the switch. It wasn't like a lot of work to get people to click on that way. And you know, when you walked into the Guardians office and people start asking questions, it clicks on. Like people have that quality in them. It's not um it's not predetermined that we're going to be in this like tech dystopia forever. It's like there really is a possibility for kind of a community revival. One of your the things I love about your style of research is you can learn a ton by using AI tools, by doing

re by reading books online. You just go there though. You you go there. You you you kind of embed yourself with these groups of people. You've done it for multiple books now.

I just love to hear your decision-m of okay, I should go see those people or I should go there. or I should what the Navy Seals, you know, who Pixar like what can you can you just walk me through like the way you think about, okay, I should go study them or study that. I'm going to go there and I got to imagine there are times when you go study somebody and and Whoops.

Yeah. It's not a waste of time, right? It's part of the deal. But like I am curious how you think about that.

Totally. No, I I used to think I had to go someplace where I already knew the answers, right? I need to I would go like, "Oh, it's definitely there. It's definitely I I know." But I as as I got older and as I made mistakes um I end up going to places that are most mysterious. Like it's the mystery that draws me. For example, for the talent code, I somebody had told me about a Russian tennis club in Moscow called Spar Talk that had produced more top 20 women players than the entire United States over a span of time. And I called a filmmaker who had been there and he just made a sound over the phone. He was just like, "Dude, like you won't believe this place." And right at that moment, I'm like,

I'm going. I'm going. Like, there's no question. My curiosity gets the best of me. And it's like, what? So, I'm I'm looking for places that have got like that are credibly unique. Like, they stand out. They are they're different for some reason and often. It's a performance difference. Like, what is going on? Like, Zingermanman's Deli, like I've heard about that a lot. Um but like not every deli grows into a $90 million community of businesses. What is going on there? And then you have your first you probe to go back to our earlier idea like it's complex. So

you have a call, you make an you have a couple interactions. If that is still resonating for you, it's like a guitar string, right? Can you still hear it? Is that mystery still there? Um, and then you go and like for the for the Spartac thing, I it was not an easy thing to fly to Russia and it was not an easy thing to sort of get a translator and get there and you know it was dead of winter. Um, it was in and it was in a very strange place. It was the middle of this giant park. Um, and it was an old old kind of quanset hut building with a little narrow door and you just kind of keep you keep exploring and you keep going in and there's an old lady in there moving in slow motion teaching kids how to hit and she had been teaching there for 50 years and you start asking questions and you know and you give enough time to where people will open up a little bit. But what I found is that when people come up to you

and say, "Hey, I'm I find what you do kind of fascinating, like can we can you tell me about that?" Like most people are like thrilled.

Yeah. To to share that. Now, there are some where they're not like the San Antonio Spurs famously closed culture. They don't like people to write about them because they're a great culture. And part of what makes a great culture is they don't brag and they don't sort of spotlight their own greatness. Um, so in approaching them, um, I ended up having to take sort of a sort of a side door and appeal to their curiosity about learning RCU for the GM wants. He's he's like one of the most curious people I've ever met and he was I sort of explained what I was doing and that kind of opened a door cuz he wants to learn about the Seals. He wants to learn about the Guardians. He wants to learn about the US Olympic hockey team of 1980. Like so I end up sort of serving as a bridge a little bit so that those conversations can happen.

It's a back and forth. Yeah. And you know and then it sort of connects back to what we were talking about at the very beginning which is like you get up to the top of these super top learning organizations and you find the most curious people you've ever met. Like RC Buford picked me up in his car at the airport and I I didn't stay at his house but I spent vast amounts of like 3 days with him. Um, and I I think I asked him like five questions the whole time and he asked me like 5,000 questions. It was it was

I was I was rung out when I left. I was like, I don't think I have anything else to talk about. Um, and it ended up being a great a wonderful experience. I got to, you know, watch pop work and meet Chip England and and meet all these other people. So, it was a great kind of embedding. But um what's it really reinforced to me what's driving those places is that they do not think they have it figured out and they are delighted to find where they make mistakes and they are super curious about other people that do it well and and it's it's fun to be around them.

Man, that's that is absolutely a commonality of the elite, the best of the best. I mean Jay's this way as well with the guardians and the seals that this just oh inherent curiosity is so inspiring man I think that's it. I know we got to go soon but I I um I have one more question that I'm curious about you personally. So

I learned this question called the champagne question from my friend Jason Gayard. I've asked it a million times since then.

It's exactly a year from now. Okay. And you and I are popping bottles. We're celebrating.

Yeah. What are we celebrating? Ooh, that's really good. That's really good. Uh, we just arrived at the ski resort with our nine combined girls.

Let's go. Cuz what? You've got five? I've got four. We have nine girls. Just a whole football team of girls.

We just got there, right? We just got there and we're about to spend like like four.

Can you hang on the blues with me though? Like I can blues. You can ski backwards maybe or just make it harder.

Absolutely. No, that kind of stuff where like the something new um new relationships but also connected to old like that to me is very super appealing. Um and I think you've got this community that you've built. Um and to a certain extent, you know, I think we all do and and seeing those communities kind of meld and merge and and grow is exciting.

I love it, man. The book Flourish: The Art of Building Meaning, Joy, and Fulfillment. Um how fun was it to write this thing?

Super fun. And I'm still learning about it, too. Like, is there going to be a part two?

We're going to change Well, we're going to what what I'm what we're realizing, we'll try this out, but we're we're going to we're going to shift the subtitle on the book, actually. Um, right now is wrong.

It's we're going to shift it at some point and maybe with the paperback or maybe in in a little bit, but we've we've got to sell the copies we have now with this subtitle. But what we've realized in these conversations is that this is actually about the transformative power of creating community. M

that's what the book's about. And that gives you fulfillment. That gives you joy. That gives you meaning. But that's what people are craving right now, I think, and that is what I'm craving right now. And that's that's what the each story in the book is about. The power of creating community

and and that's what's exciting. So all those things will be true. Both those subtitles will be true. But we're kind of real. It's funny. I mean, you a book is a is is kind of an exploration into the world and there's the book you write and then there's you get to see what people respond to and you get to see where the conversation's going to go and so that's been really thrilling to go like wait a minute

this is about something that I wasn't quite appreciating a year ago and now I really

I mean do you even think about the next thing or is are you just all in on this because I know some authors are already working on the next thing before this one comes out. and other ones are I'm going to go on in this for years. Like how does that work for you?

Yeah, I'm kind of I'm kind of in between those two. On the one hand, like I it is it is really fun to kind of see this land, see people connect to it, see it resonate, see what c what emerges from it.

Yeah. Um and in a larger way, I've been doing that. You know, the talent code was about what what's making that individual so cool. Culture code's about what's making those groups perform so well. And now it's like what's making these communities so thriving? Like what is going on in that group? What is that joy coming from? So each one is kind of led to the next. So I what's the next one like beyond the grave? I don't I don't know. I don't know what it is, but there's um you know there's a lot of life is really big and deep. So we'll see where it goes. But it has a way of leading to the next thing.

I appreciate you, man. and thank you for uh taking so much time off air listening to me ask you stupid questions about everything and anything and writing and sports and everything. It uh yeah, it's funny. Your name comes up all the time in a lot of the work we do um when it comes to like great teams and culture code type stuff, talent code, all of it. And now I know this will this will is going to inject its way into everything we do. So super grateful for me. Thank you man.

Thank you for what you do. Appreciate it.

Questions about this episode

Who speaks in "How Great Teams Ask Better Questions | Daniel Coyle"?

Ryan Hawk (Host), Daniel Coyle (Guest).

What is "How Great Teams Ask Better Questions | Daniel Coyle" about?

The discussion centers around the importance of asking meaningful questions to foster community and collective growth, contrasting the common narrative of individual heroism in personal improvement. Key points highlight how answers can halt conversations and that shared experiences and storytelling are vital for connection and flourishing in a community-oriented society, encouraging a revival of…

What is mentioned in this Ryan Hawk episode?

11 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including Dan Coyle, Cleveland Guardians, 33 miners, Princess Jenny, A Swim in the Pond in the Rain, George Saunders. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "How Great Teams Ask Better Questions | Daniel Coyle"?

The episode runs 58 min; the transcript is about 11,853 words in 169 timestamped sections.

More from Ryan Hawk

About this transcript: the episode's spoken words as captioned on YouTube, split into timestamped sections. Reclip.Me locates every person, work and idea in the text, keeps the time it is first named, and quotes the words around it verbatim. Last updated February 1, 2026.