Belonging: The Ancient Code of Togetherness: The International No. 1 Bestseller

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Abraham Maslow’s ‘Hierarchy of Needs’ model says the base need for humans is physiological survival. The next level is safety, then our need for belonging. These are the three base needs. Once they are met, we move to the psychological need for esteem and then self-actualisation. Our cognitive decision-making, problem-solving in real time is much better when our stress is under control because our anxiety is reduced. And most of all, when we feel we belong and our anxiety is reduced, if we don’t understand something, then we will put our hand up and are much more likely to say: ‘I’m sorry, I didn’t quite understand what you’re asking me to do’. You can’t call it a high-performance environment if you can’t put your hand up and say if you’re not clear on the gameplan.’ The most important question every leader must answer: What is the optimal environment for this group to perform to their best? The answer always contains a component of belonging. The challenge. To create an environment where everyone feels like they belong, regardless of who they are and what they believe. Control and Autonomy: Eastwood refers two of his own ancestral concepts: tapu and noa. Tapu describes aspects of life that are sacred, prescribed or non-negotiable – in a workplace, these could be values, or even protocols that everyone must abide by. By contrast, noa are areas of life that do not share these rules and allow more self expression. The idea is that to create true belonging, we should clearly understand what in our lives is tapu, and what is noa – the balance is important, as too far one way could be demotivating, controlling, or chaotic. At this stage a paradox plays out. We enter self-preservation mode as our mind begins to think about surviving rather than succeeding.

English Institute of Sport– 70& of behaviour based on environment you’re in – https://www.eis2win.co.uk/ We often share the good moments and results with our teams. We nailed this. We succeeded in that. So and so is doing great work in this. But do we discuss the bad? Do we share pain and learn from it?

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Connecting to the future requires asking what the team’s vision is - what they are working towards and what the environment needs to enable and drive towards.

Studies show how storytelling ability enhances a leader’s influence and power through shifting the hormonal state of the group. —> I should find powerful storytellers like Orran and work closely with them. The sentiment above says: we are a team, we have high expectations of each other, how can we improve together?

In building teams, leaders need to understand that people are highly tuned to receive the story of Us. Herein lies an opportunity for leaders to connect with and influence teams at a deeper level. Great leaders widen the Us story so that every person in their group feels a genuine sense of belonging. Beyond kin, this concept of Whakapapa frames our connection to any group we belong to. It is a universal idea and one that Eastwood has coached on around the world. In Māori culture, the principle of Whakapapa places oneself in a wider context that links to land and tribal groupings and heritage. It offers a sense of immortality, attaching ourselves to something permanent in this impermanent world. A visual, shared vision: Eastwood proposes that visualisation can be a powerful tool; imaginging a successful future and believing in it. This can also become a literal vision, with displays, videos, and other visuals being utilised to constantly remind the team of how they belong, and the story they are part of. It’s vital to get input from others so that the vision is genuinely shared. This culminates in his description of a beautiful project he worked on with Ford as part of their desire to galvanise their Le Mans 24 team.