See the rules beneath the rules
Learn to recognise the unspoken expectations that shape what people really do, especially when nobody is watching.
A new book for leaders who shape culture
The rules nobody wrote are the rules everyone follows.
Every workplace has unwritten ground rules. They decide who speaks honestly, which standards genuinely matter and what leaders are allowed to ignore. This book shows you how to see them and what to do next.
True storiesThree decades of practiceBuilt for leaders
CULTURE•LEADERSHIP•TRUST•COURAGE•PERFORMANCE•UGRs
What this book reveals
The values on the wall matter less than the rules in the room.
Culture is often described in polished statements. But it is experienced in small moments: what happens when someone makes a mistake, challenges a decision, misses a target or tells an uncomfortable truth.
Through compelling stories from boardrooms, mine sites, hotels, warehouses and one of the world’s most exacting automotive companies, Steve Simpson and Stef du Plessis reveal how invisible rules take hold and how leaders can change them.
From the book
The rules that really run the room
More specifically, it is about a concept we call Unwritten Ground Rules, or UGRs®: the unspoken, undocumented, almost never openly discussed rules that genuinely govern how people behave in any group of human beings, from a waiting room to a boardroom to a five-person team that has been together for six months.
In most cases, nobody designs them. Nobody votes on them. And yet they are, in every workplace either of us has ever encountered, considerably more powerful than anything printed in a values statement, a staff handbook, or a mission poster mounted somewhere near reception.
Understand how leaders create culture
Discover how everyday leadership moments reinforce, challenge or quietly overturn the culture already in the room.
Turn insight into action
Use a practical way of seeing culture that helps leaders begin changing it without another abstract transformation programme.
“Because when the values on the wall and the rules in the room disagree, the room always wins.”
THE CENTRAL IDEA BEHIND UNWRITTEN GROUND RULES
The blind spot that comes with authority
A rule that appears only after the boss leaves is invisible to the boss.
From the book
Here is the uncomfortable truth: those with the most authority to change a culture are often least able to see its real shape, because their presence changes what others will say and do.
Leadership does not automatically confer clear sight. In some very real ways, it does the opposite: it changes the room the moment a leader enters it. What is happening in your meetings the moment you leave them? And who, right now, without your realising it, have you already decided does not need to know?
How cultures actually change
Not through one enormous confrontation.
From the book
Culture actually changes through hundreds of small, honest, mildly uncomfortable admissions that gradually make honesty less dangerous. Sustainable change asks for repeated moments of manageable discomfort.
You need both the system and the courage. A standing agenda item without honest moments beneath it is theatre. Individual courage without leadership support eventually burns out the people brave enough to show it.
What leaders are saying
Praised by leaders who understand culture from the inside.
“The concept of UGRs is a simple and brilliant way to understand what is actually happening in your business, how it is functioning and what your culture really is. Simply understanding our UGRs has had an immediate impact on our success. Anyone in business needs to read this book!”
“An engaging and refreshingly practical leadership book, The Rules Nobody Wrote makes organisational culture tangible rather than theoretical.”
“The examples and stories in this book bring culture to life, along with questions for self-reflection in leading and shaping culture for success.”
About the authors
Steve Simpson
Steve is the creator of the UGRs® framework, an international keynote speaker, author and workplace culture specialist. For more than 35 years, he has helped CEOs, boards and leadership teams across four continents make invisible cultural barriers discussable and turn insight into practical action.
Visit Steve’s website ↗
Stef du Plessis
Stef is a world-renowned speaker and culture transformation expert whose work has reached organisations across more than 50 countries. He helps leaders create trust, honest conversation, shared accountability and workplace cultures that support sustained performance.
Visit Stef’s website ↗For leadership teams
Bring the book into the room.
Ask about bulk orders, signed copies, facilitated discussions and UGRs® workshops for leadership teams, conferences and development programmes.
Discuss a bulk orderSee your culture clearly
Take the UGRs® Stock Take.
Move from reading about unwritten rules to identifying the cultural patterns operating inside your own organisation.
Explore the UGRs® Stock TakeA final question for every leader
Culture by luck, or culture by design?
For most workplaces, the honest answer is luck. Leaders inherit a culture and spend their careers reacting to it, grateful when it is good, resigned when it is not, rarely asking whether either outcome was inevitable.
It was not. A culture formed by accident can be reformed on purpose. It is neither quick nor comfortable, but it is possible; I have spent much of my working life watching it happen in rooms like yours.
Where is the rule that says it can’t be yours?
Start seeing culture differently
The rules are already there. Now you can do something about them.
Choose your preferred edition of The Rules Nobody Wrote and discover a clearer, more practical way to understand the culture your leadership creates every day.
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Questions about an order, shipping, bulk purchases or the book can be sent to steve@ugrs.net.