Creating an Inspired Workplace: Putting Everyone on the In-Team

Feb 2

Ever had that experience in which you brought up a really good idea and the group or leader ignored it, only to have someone else bring up that exact same idea and the group met it with excitement?

Turns out, new research has shown that the brain hears things differently based on whether the person saying them is in the “in” group” or the  “out” group.

Like it or not, the unconscious brain makes many judgments because it has to distill millions of inputs into what’s relevant in a way that makes sense to it.   In groups, we have higher trust and lower trust relationships, whether we’re conscious of it or not, and when the unconscious has decided that someone is in the “out” group much more of what gets said gets filtered.

This affects the social pecking order in your group.  If you have a customer in the “out” group, it may impact the service you provide to them.  Having members of your team in the “out” group will eventually lead to those members feeling less valued (trust me, they know something’s off), and that can lead to all sorts of less than productive behaviors in response, such as disengagement, mediocre work or active sabotage.

Many times, we know who’s in the “out” group and the “in” group because it’s as simple as dislike and like.  (Back to my premise that respect isn’t enough… it is better to like your colleagues.)  Other times, we have to pay a more attention to our intuition to clearly see who’s “in” and who’s “out.”

The beauty of being a human is that we have pre-frontal cortexes that handle logical thought and are connected to every system of the brain.  So, we can consciously override that system when we decide that we want to be more inclusive.  This take more energy and effort, and sometimes our intuition is on to something.  There are some people who don’t belong in our “in” group, and that is a different issue to be addressed.

The better approach for when we don’t have a decent reason for banishing a colleague or customer for the out group is to build relationship.  We work better with people we know, like and trust.

Today, be the objective observer.  Who’s in your “in” group and who’s in the “out” group?  What changes to you want to make?

Be Your Best You Today,

Carolann Jacobs

Tags: Action Coach, Brain-based Coaching, business coach, Carolann Jacobs, coach, Corporate Coach, DFW, Executive Coach, Executive Coaching, Extraordinary Results, facilitation, Inimitable Leadership, Inspired Workplace, Leadership, Leadership Coach, Legacy Leadership, Life Coach, managewhich, Middle Management, Neuroleadership, vivid epiphany