The Team Code

Your team keeps failing at the same improvements. Here's why.

You've clarified roles. Documented processes. Run alignment sessions. Brought in coaches. Three months later, you're right back where you started.

Same problems. Different slide deck.

Here's what nobody's telling you: You're fixing the wrong layer.

Most leaders spend 100% of their energy on the visible layer; RACI matrices, documented values. But your team operates on an invisible layer: unwritten rules that govern real behavior.

Until you surface those invisible rules and replace them, every visible improvement will struggle to succeed.

The Two-Layer Operating System

Your team has two layers:

·  Visible codes (20-40%): Purpose, role and decision clarity, balancing results with respect, clear processes, and communication protocols.

·  Invisible rules (60-80%): The unwritten norms that actually determine who speaks up, when decisions get made, what's really in bounds, and whether dissent is safe

Most improvements fail because they only address the visible layer while invisible rules sabotage execution.

You clarify decision rights on paper, but the invisible rule persists: "Everything gets escalated to leadership." So, nobody uses their authority.

You establish "speak truth to power" as a value, but the invisible rule persists: "Disagreement equals disloyalty." So people nod in meetings and complain in parking lots.

You're pulling on a push door.

What This Book Delivers

After working with hundreds of teams across every industry, from tech startups to military units, Quinn Price has identified exactly why team improvements fail and how to fix both layers together.

You'll learn:

✓ The 6 dimensions of invisible rules (WHO, WHEN, WHERE, HOW, WHAT, WHY) and how to surface them using proven diagnostics

✓ The 9 toxic culture patterns that cascade dysfunction through your entire system—and the specific frameworks to eliminate each one

✓ The 5 visible codes elite teams run on: Purpose & Goals, Role Clarity, Process Intelligence, Respect-Results Balance, Communication Architecture

✓ The 7-step process for replacing destructive invisible rules with evidence-based principles that actually stick

✓ Real failure autopsies: Boeing 737 MAX, Theranos, NASA Challenger, diagnosed through both layers to show you what invisible dysfunction looks like at scale

✓ Implementation roadmaps for 30 days, 90 days, and 1 year, so you know exactly what to fix first