"The need to be needed is often more powerful than the need to survive." - H. Stephen Glenn and Jane Nelsen, Raising Self Reliant Children in a Self Indulgent World
Every workplace resides inside the broader social/political climate. Workplaces are not immune to the toxic fumes and inherit the surrounding atmosphere whether anyone invites it in or not.
Polarization now feels like weaponization, and the caution that produces at work doesn't stay contained to political conversation. It bleeds into how people show up, who they trust, and what they're willing to say out loud. So what precisely are we striving to achieve within our company when the ground outside keeps shifting?
Diagram showing how Identity, Agency, Power and Flow converge into Belonging
In a word: Belonging. People show up authentically when (and where) they feel like they truly belong. As a result, they perform at their highest levels. Conversely, when individuals do not feel a sense of belonging, they hold back and are unable (or unwilling) to contribute at their greatest potential.
A sense of belonging is fundamentally essential to humans. It ranks alongside our need for love, safety, and shelter. Self-actualization and our ability to meet our greatest potential cannot occur until we have a true sense of belonging. As people leaders, understanding this is critical. As organizational leaders, knowing what to do with it is transformational.
To see the Return on Investment (ROI) that comes from a culture of belonging, leaders must first understand how to build, measure, and quantify it. The Percipio Company has identified four key components that leaders must implement to move your organization from bias to belonging. These are the four cornerstones that build the foundation of company culture:
Identity, Agency, Power & Flow = Belonging
IDENTITY
Identity is who you are and how you show up, before any workplace gets a vote in it. Psychologists describe identity as the memories, experiences, relationships, and values that create your sense of self. You don't leave that at the door. Your race, upbringing, language, gender, and values travel with you into every meeting, every decision, every relationship at work.
Identity is the lens through which you view the world, and the one through which the world views you back. When someone is sorted into a category before they're known as an individual, that's identity bias in action, and it's often invisible to the person doing the sorting. Leaders who want to see this pillar move need to create space where people can bring their whole sense of self into work.
One essential step is to ensure that employees feel safe to discuss how their identities impact their work and relationships with their colleagues, clients, boss, and even the company policies.
Dimensions of Diversity and the Bias Ecosystem are useful conceptual models to help leaders understand how Identity functions in the workplace.
AGENCY
Agency is who you are at work: your confidence in your role and whether what you do visibly matters. It's the difference between having a seat at the table and having a voice once you're there. When agency is strong, people disagree without rehearsing it first, raise concerns without running them through a filter, and can see a straight line between their work and the organization's results.
For individuals to exhibit high degrees of agency, the organization must prioritize creating a feeling of psychological safety.
Do your team members feel comfortable asking for feedback or help? Are they encouraged to challenge the status quo? Do they feel safe to try something new and fail? Are they rewarded for actions that require vulnerability?
Building a culture of high psychological safety requires a genuine and sustained commitment from your leaders. But the rewards are indisputable: Companies who build a culture of high psychological safety see increased productivity amongst their people, higher rates of retention, and higher revenues.
POWER
Power is influence that exists beyond the org chart, and whether decisions and boundaries are applied consistently. It's rarely the loudest or highest-ranking person who holds it. Power is often unspoken, tied to proximity or tenure or relationship rather than title, and it shapes outcomes long before anything shows up in a decision memo.
Power dynamics determine how your teams work together and ultimately impact your company's ability to reach its collective goals. But power is often overlooked or taken for granted by those who have it.
Leaders need to understand where different power comes from and how it is used within the organization. Leaders and managers who hold power within your company must know when and how to use it, when to lead and when to hold back. For example, in exercises that require vulnerability, it's important for someone with power to lead the way. This helps those with less power feel safe. However, in exercises of creativity or idea generation, it can be important for leaders to hold back and let others contribute first.
When your employees can contribute to meaningful idea generation without feeling stifled by top-down power dynamics, it can enhance their sense of identity, agency, and power in the workplace.
Inclusive leaders use their positions of power to break down barriers and improve employee performance. As a tool of measurement, leaders can use their power to improve transparency, trust, and respect throughout the organization. This yields, well, powerful results.
FLOW
Flow is Csikszentmihalyi's "in the zone" state: attention going into the work instead of into vigilance. It's the mental state of being fully immersed in energized focus and enjoyment in what you're doing. It's the transcendent state of work: blissful detachment from time and space, and it disappears fast when attention gets diverted into managing perception or worrying about job security.
Flow happens when employees take on meaningful work that is important and challenges their skillsets. When your employees are in a flow state, they have a strong sense of personal control (agency) over the situation or activity and experience the work as deeply rewarding. As a measurement tool, flow enhances creativity, productivity & revenue. Creating flow requires aligning people with their passions and removing obstacles for top performance. When your teams are in a strong flow state, your business is growing and thriving.
Whether the goal of your DE&I work is to attract more talent, improve employee performance, increase retention, or raise revenue, the data is clear: a workforce that feels a strong sense of belonging benefits everyone.
As organizational leaders, wanting a measurable ROI for DE&I initiatives is not too much to ask. At the Percipio Company, using the key concepts of Identity, Agency, Power & Flow, we work with you to measure, build, and ultimately reap the incredible benefits that come from building a culture of belonging inside your organization.