Aesop

Who am I?

Who do I want to become?

These are existential questions that almost everyone asks themselves at some point in their lives. The gravity and profoundness placed on these questions is driven by a deep desire for clarity in the sense of self. In one’s Identity.

Identity is complex, multi-dimensional and intersectional - informed by our experiences, our environment, our relationships, and our moral beliefs, to name a few.

Identity is the mirror to who we are, magnified by what we do.

It is our internal system of values and beliefs reinforced by the behaviours we give the highest value to. More specifically, the behaviours we repeat over and over again.

Behaviour after all is a verb. Defined as an observable action. It is what we do. Our choices, our decisions, our actions.

The more we repeat the behaviours that we value the most, the faster they travel from our conscious mind to our unconscious mind. And it’s those unconscious behaviours - the ones we do without thinking about - that become our habits, which in turn form our norms, and ultimately inform and represent our identity.

As the Greek philosopher Aristotle famously said ‘we are what we repeatedly do.’ Our identities therefore are a reflection of what we repeatedly do.

It is in our human nature to seek out people and environments that accept us for who we are. That's what gives us a sense of belonging. And there are fewer human needs and desires than feeling like you belong. It’s that wonderful experience of feeling heard, feeling seen, being recognised for our contributions, and celebrated for the unique person that we are.

In the world of work, we are subconsciously seeking out belonging cues that signal to us whether our identities - the unique essence of who we are - and the repeatable behaviours that inform our identity - will be accepted or rejected, celebrated or criticised, allow us to thrive or simply survive.

Organisations that recognise and act on this deep fundamental human desire, are the ones with the most engaged colleagues and the highest performing teams. They recognise that in the same way individuals have personal identities, companies too have cultural identities.

And it’s these cultural identities that send powerful direct and subliminal queues on who belongs here, who thrives here and who is recognised and celebrated here.

Similar to individual identities, cultural identities too have an internal system of values and beliefs reinforced by the behaviours that are given the highest value.

They are the sum total of the observable and repeatable behaviours that are assigned the greatest value within the organisation. However the key difference being the observable and repeatable behaviours of the collective, the majority.

“Culture is the ‘invisible hand’ that protects repeatedly accepted behaviours. Repeatedly accepted behaviours are the ‘visible hands’ that feed the company culture. Protect toxic behaviours and you feed a toxic culture. Protect healthy behaviours and you feed a healthy culture.”

These collective behaviours repeated and rewarded over time shift from the conscious to the unconscious DNA of the organisation - eventually become habits.

Those habits repeated over time eventually become norms and deepen within the very fabric of the organisation.

Those norms repeated over time ultimately define the cultural identity of the organisation.

That's the compounding effect of collective repeatable behaviours over time.

The closer the alignment between our personal identities and that of the organisation - the greater the experiences of belonging, joy and fulfilment in our work and the levels of individual, team and organisational performance.

The further the distance between our personal identities and the cultural identity of the organisation, the more we are faced with the choice of spending the energy required to repeat (and conform) to the behaviours that are not aligned to what we truly value - and to hide or mask the essence of who we are. This only serves the outcome of moving us further away from becoming the truest and highest expressions of ourselves - and therefore move us further away from experiencing belonging.

So as individuals...

Pay close attention to the observable repeatable behaviours deemed acceptable and rewarded within organisations

As James Clear (author of Atomic Habits) says,

‘One of the most effective things you can do is to join a culture where the desired behaviour is your normal behaviour’.

As organisations...

Reward and celebrate the desired repeatable behaviours that align to the aspiration of the cultural identity you are looking to achieve.