Belonging: The Ancient Code of Togetherness: The International No. 1 Bestseller

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What we don’t do is try and build some so-called performance environment and then clean it up afterwards.” An Us story tends to connect a team to their identity. A major part of the identity story may be the way they responded at a time of adversity - for instance an emotive story from one of the World Wars. It all helps to create a deep sense of belonging and consequently a deep focus on the legacy of the current team. One of the wisest books about winning you'll ever read...Powerful lessons beautifully expressed.' - James Kerr

A copy of Eastwood's new book, Belonging , was given to every England player when they reported for duty at the European Championships' - TelegraphWorking with the NATO Command Group, Eastwood invoked whakapapa to reflect on previous NATO Command Groups, looking at the challenges they faced when the sun shone on them and the legacies they ultimately left. They then previewed their own legacy as the sixteenth leadership team and articulated this in writing with a whakapapa legacy statement. Once more, the more emotional weight attached to a vision, the stronger these neural pathways will be. In his work, Eastwood has found that producing bespoke films of the team’s identity and vision particularly effective in creating this emotional weight. Humans need to belong, it is an element of performance. “We try to signal to players that this is a place where you belong. You are respected, this is a safe place, we want you to be yourself and express yourself.” Belonging is a vital book for our disconnected and leaderless times. It’s one whose lessons should be taught in schools across the world, because the power of creating a sense of togetherness could help heal our fractured society. Initially a navigator’s strength came from their ability to simultaneously carry in their hands both a grand vision and an intimate understanding of the detail. For Eastwood’s ancestors the grand vision was new land, and the intimate understanding of the detail was the sun, the stars, and the constellations - all of which were used to navigate at the time.

This reliance on groups is evidenced by the fact we now know that after a cardiac arrest that strength of a social network is a greater predictor of survivability than exercise, nutrition or medication. We do not want our leaders’ personal beliefs forced upon us - we want our tribe’s authentic values articulated. And we don’t want rules - we want values to aspire to that define what it means to be part of our tribe.An understanding of the environment and its impact on people is more important than charisma and passion. Plus clarity of thinking. “Humans flourish in environments where the leadership is consistent and composed; they don’t tend to thrive in environments where there are wild mood swings and inconsistency of behaviour.” For Eastwood, that crosses a red line. “I’d hope that people would see Gareth Southgate and Luke Donald and people like that and go: ‘I’d like myself or someone I care about to be in that environment. I think it would be a healthy place for them.”’ But there is another world. Where the hormone soup recipe is wrong and doesn’t allow us to be at our best. Clearly here is no performance benefit in this.

The sun rose in the east and shone on our first ancestor. Here is our origin story. Just as happens with each passing day, the sun slowly moves down this unbreakable chain of people. Each of us will have our time in the sun. But the sun is always moving. Moving towards the west, where it will finally settle. When the sun shines on us we are alive, we are strong. For we have had passed down to us a culture that immerses us in deep belonging. We feel safe and respected. We share beliefs and a sense of identity with those around us and this anchors us. We share a purpose with them. We share a vision of the future. We fit in here. Rituals and traditions tie us together. The experiences and wisdom of those who walked in the light before our time are passed on to us. Eastwood was intrigued by the belonging cues that occur during a Royal Marines Commando Green Beret ceremony when new Commandos are inducted into the Marines. It was conducted in a deeply personal manner, with the Royal Marines understanding that the ceremony provided a critical opportunity to instil a deep sense of belonging. Slowly we have lost touch with our primal instincts as a creeping shift has taken place from ‘our’ purpose to ‘my’ purpose with individualistic societies in the Western world. These values - getting ahead of everyone else - work against our need to belong. They push a mindset of seeing ourselves against rather than with others. In building teams, leaders need to understand that people are highly tuned to receive the story of Us. Herein lies an opportunity for leaders to connect with and influence teams at a deeper level. Great leaders widen the Us story so that every person in their group feels a genuine sense of belonging.On the early grasslands, we carried obvious physiological disadvantages over other animals but from this brutal reality the super strength of Homo sapiens emerged: the ability to form strongly-bonded and highly effective groups. We may become more aggressive, though we are likely to target that at those people who owe perceive as having lowered status than us. In whakapapa terms, as the sun arrives on each generation their high purpose is passed on to them and they ask the question: what do we need to do to promote the wellbeing of our people? Therein lies their mission.

Our cognitive decision-making, problem-solving in real time is much better when our stress is under control because our anxiety is reduced. And most of all, when we feel we belong and our anxiety is reduced, if we don’t understand something, then we will put our hand up and are much more likely to say: ‘I’m sorry, I didn’t quite understand what you’re asking me to do’. You can’t call it a high-performance environment if you can’t put your hand up and say if you’re not clear on the gameplan.’ For small business, their tribe may be defined at the start as the founders. Their mission is survival. Once their viability is established they then move on to making the enterprise sustainable over the medium term. As the business evolves, their definition of their tribe widens to include employees and customers. Owen's work and outlook really resonate with me. His philosophy has real depth and value. [It's] so of the moment - at just the right time, at just the right place, with just the right message' - Simon Mundie Players for a team, for example, may be given their national team shirts and asked to write on them what it personally meant to play for that team. This visual activity is effective.

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When our Us story is weak, we are weak. We should talk about how to do tasks, but it’s integral not to forget the what and why too. Because I’ve not got any baggage about how I was educated or prepared for it, I’ve just had completely fresh eyes, looking carefully at what shifts things and what doesn’t.”