Question

On page 11 of the chapter (The Culture Code by Daniel Coyle), Coyle discusses basic qualities that BELONGINGNESS CUES possess (Energy, Individualization, and Future Orientation). How can these belongingness cues be created in your teams for this course (Teambuilding)? (PLEASE CITE SOURCES)

Answer 1

In his book ‘ the Culture Code’, Daniel Coyl Traces the positive effects of culture on individual’s everyday behaviour. According to him, cultures provide what is known as ‘ belongingness cues’ or a feeling of strong identification and allegiance to the group ideals which influence an individual’s feeling of security and safety with living in a collectivity. They include, proximity, eye contact, energy, mimicry, turn taking, attention, body language, vocal pitch, consistency of emphasis, and whether everyone talks to everyone else in the group.

inclusive cultures create a grater feeling of security and intrinsic motivation in the individual members to work as a team towards attainment of the group goals. These belongingness cues create a feeling in the members that anything can be accomplished if they continue to identify and uphold the group norms and behaviour. Thus, belongingness cues trigger the idea of ‘ all in or all out’ where th eindividual either completely gives in to team effort or completely works independently of any group association.

Coyle lays out that these belongingness cues work towards building and sustaining a culture that creates teams which perform beyond the sum of their parts or individual members. Thus, belongingness cues may lead to team building in situations such as a sports team or a theatre production group, both of which motivate the individual members to persistently function at higher levels of performance and attain the group goals through collective action as a team. Following the example of a sports team, it can be seen that belongingness cues can be created by adopting certain practices which create conditions for greater communication and opportunities to interaction between the members. One such approach entails organising and designing the physical spaces we occupy as teams in order to maximizing belonging cues such as by bringing the players to share their locker rooms, cafeteria or refreshment space, trvaelling together after practice in the field , etc. so as to increase socila and eventually positve emotional interaction among the members.

Another way of building belongingness cues is to provide internal rewards for sharing their personal vulnerability. When members are encouraged to share about their difficulty or weaknesses turn by turn in an equalitarian way, then they may a show a greater tendency to accept each other and proactive offer thier help to each other. Such shared communications such as the fear of losing, difficulty in controlling anger outbursts on the field, the increasing anxiety about balancing between sports and academics , etc., between the members 'aserves an additional advantage of building connection within the team.