Belonging

Over the last week I listened to the audiobook Belonging by Owen Eastwood. For anyone interested in how to influence a sense of belonging for a particular team or community, this is the best book I have come across.

The author uses the word mood alongside mindset on a number of occasions. His perspective on how to help teams unlock excellence is built on decades of doing exactly that for international sports teams and organisations. It resonated with my perspective, my purpose, and my aspiration.

One of the teams that Eastwood helped over the last few decades is the South African Protea Cricket Team. The Proteas were a team of phenomenal players who seldom sustained high performance as a phenomenal TEAM. Eastwood described two retreats he was involved in where extraordinary facilitation created a space for the players to plant the seeds of genuine transformation.

Using his Maori word “whakapapa” (meaning foundation) to explain, he described how the facilitators helped the team reconnect with their origins, their “us” story. In South Africa that is a very diverse and difficult history with very different perspectives depending on your ethnicity, religion, and education. Transformation was not going to be easy. But truth and reconciliation had healed a troubled nation in the ’90s, so truth and reconciliation could help a troubled team in the new South Africa.

Two hooks stick with me from his recollection of the retreats.

Firstly, the Protea flower – the symbol of the national cricket side – is an incredibly resilient plant. It can withstand the worst conditions such as wind and fire, only to re-emerge more beautiful than before! It is also extremely diverse with hundreds of variations in colour and shape found within the genus. The Protea literally represents renewal, transformation, courage and hope. It is as strong a brand as any sports team could hope to have.

Secondly, Ubuntu – meaning “I am because we are” – was explored and referenced. The epiphany that the team experienced was that the cricket team existed for and from the people of South Africa. More than that, the cricketers wanted the Proteas to be a “mirror” such that when supporters looked at the team, they saw themselves.

These two ideas are built on a sense of belonging, a sense of where a community comes from, a patriotic pride in the special essence of what makes the team unique.

After both retreats, the Proteas achieved the world number one rank within the next year.

This example is a great reminder that setting the right mood for a world-class team climate, and a world-class team performance, requires deliberate effort and a reconnection with our foundations, our roots, our “whakapapa”.

A unique identity with a strong sense of history is a great place to start if you want a moodset for mastery in 2022.