Human beings are social animals. People want to be part of something.
In the late 1970s, psychologist Henri Tajfel conducted research that produced a fascinating discovery. He divided random strangers into two meaningless groups and asked them to assign rewards. Even without any real meaning to the categorization, people still favored members of their own group.
These people had just met. They were not part of a group with any history.
This mere categorization effect showed that simply dividing people into groups, even arbitrary ones, leads to increased favoring of one’s own group (i.e. in-group bias).
Tajfel’s findings became the basis of Social Identity Theory; the idea that we define ourselves through the groups we belong to. Once we identify with a tribe, we begin to adopt its values, language and behaviors. That’s what belonging does inside organizations. It turns abstract strategies into shared identities.
Driving Change
Research shows that organizational change can lead to negative or positive responses based on how people’s social identity is impacted. If people feel their identity is lost or threatened by the change, they may resist it.
In contrast, they will be more accepting of change if they can maintain a sense of continuity with their previous identity or perceive the change as creating a new, positive identity.
There are two ways to lead transformation:
- Forcing Compliance: means pressuring people to participate, paying them to act, endless presentations, rational arguments, and “change management.” It’s trying to control behavior through rules and supervision.
- Building Community: means creating the conditions where people want to participate. People identify with the companies they work for. They also identify with the sub-groups, divisions or departments they work in. The goal is to create a shared language and stories that make people feel that; this is who we are now.
How To Make Create Buy-In Through Identity
We can leverage social identity to create momentum for transformation. If you want belief to spread, design for belonging. Here’s how:
- Frame the change as “us” – Don’t talk about what the company wants, talk about who we are becoming. Belonging turns change into identity.
- Create symbols and rituals – Create a shared language, new rituals and visible celebrations that make the transformation tangible. Such rituals remind people that; this is what people like us do.
- Find and amplify early adopters – Every transformation begins with small groups who already believe. Make them visible. Celebrate their success stories and let that attract new people to participate.
- Tell stories of belonging, not just success – Metrics prove progress. Stories add meaning. Make your early adopters the heroes in your stories. Celebrate the people who are just like others in the organization and are succeeding by adopting the new behaviors.
Belonging beats compliance because when people feel they’re part of something bigger than themselves, they stop waiting to be told what to do.
They start building the future as if it’s already theirs.