Download - MODULE 4: BELONGING
FACILITATOR’S GUIDE
MODULE 4: BELONGING
Facilitator’s Guide: Belonging - Module 4
Slide: Belonging
Slide Goal: Introduce the module topic
Content Notes: The belonging module focuses on the extent to which a team has a strong
personal bond. This module will help identify ways to form and maintain strong, stable
interpersonal relationships
Adapting to Team’s Needs:
High Medium Low/Mixed
Coach Notes:
Slide: Prior Session Recap
Slide Goal: Revisit goals and commitments to action from last session. If applicable, discuss
facilitators and barriers to goal related to theme.
Content Notes:
Adapting to Team’s Needs:
High Medium Low/Mixed
Coach Notes:
Slide: Team Experience Modules
Slide Goal: Remind the team where they are and where they are going.
Content Notes:
Adapting to Team’s Needs:
High Medium Low/Mixed
Coach Notes:
Slide: Where do we go next?
Slide Goal: Briefly explain how whole self from the previous module sets the foundation for
Belonging and creating improved relationships.
Content Notes:
This module will discuss the ingredients that go into fostering a climate of belonging in which
individuals feel connected to their team members in a unifying manner.
In previous sessions we discussed the ingredients of a psychologically safe team (review these as
a team) (1) conversation equality (2) social sensitivity & empathy (3) humanity & unconditional
respect (4) positive intent & curiosity (5) adopting a growth mindset. The loyalty, cooperation, &
trustworthiness associated with psychological safety have been found to enhance the security of
individual members. This sense of security within a group often facilitates a sense of acceptance,
connectedness, and ultimately belonging. This module will discuss the ingredients that go into
fostering a climate of belonging in which individuals feel connected to their team members in a
unifying manner.
Adapting to Team’s Needs:
High Medium Low/Mixed
Coach Notes:
Slide: Warm Up Activity
Slide Goal: The goal of this activity (“The Mystery of Belonging”) is to explore perceptions and
experiences of inclusion and exclusion as it relates to belonging
• Content Notes: Exercise Title: The Mystery of Belonging
• Exercise Objective/Debrief Points: team members experience the satisfaction of
contributing to the process, decision-making, and outcome of the task (simulating
belongingness). Simultaneously, some team members experience the sense of exclusion
when their contributions are not valued or incorporated in the decision-making or the
final product.
• Goals: The goal of this activity is to explore the perceptions of inclusion and exclusion as
it relates to belonging.
• Instructions:
• Facilitator hands out notecards with facts about the mystery object (e.g., an
elephant, a hot air balloon) –-one fact per notecard
• Each person receives one notecard
• If the team is 4 people or less, each person gets two notecards.
• Within the facts, there are up to 3 notecards with false information that do not
accurately depict the mystery object
• The participants must work together to figure out what the mystery object is, as
well as figure out which notecards have the false facts on them
• Process: The participants are encouraged to collaborate and share their ideas in order to
identify what the mystery object is.
Adapting to Team’s Needs:
High Medium Low/Mixed
Coach Notes:
Slide:
Slide Goal: Facilitate discussion around the warm-up activity
Content Notes: The average workplace can often be a struggle. Work moves at the speed of
light, priorities change constantly, and we must “do more with less.” In addition, each individual
is unique, has different skills to offer, different temperaments, knowledge, and abilities. Humans
are social animals. We are hard-wired with a need for belonging and connection. Most of what
we do and our need to belong drives our behavior. At times, we may define ourselves and
measure our self-worth through our connections to others.
If your fact was not true/relevant, what did it feel like not to have something to contribute?
Adapting to Team’s Needs:
High Medium Low/Mixed
Coach Notes:
Slide: Heat Up
Slide Goal: Transition to module-specific information
Content Notes:
Adapting to Team’s Needs:
High Medium Low/Mixed
Coach Notes:
Slide: Module Objectives
Slide Goal: Introduce learning objectives for Belonging
Content Notes:
• Learn what Belonging is and the components to fulfill the need of Belonging
• Understand the importance of Belonging for creating an inclusive environment.
• Consider our learnings in the context of our current team’s behavior – How is
our level of Belonging?
• Create action plans to apply today’s learnings to our daily individual and team
activities.
Adapting to Team’s Needs:
High Medium Low/Mixed
Coach Notes:
Slide: The Science of Belonging
Slide Goal: Provide brief education about the neuroscience of feeling connected to others
Content Notes: A sense of belonging is a human need, just like the need for food and water.
Findings from social cognitive neuroscience suggests that bringing out the best in people in the
workplace depends at least as much on optimizing a person’s social well-being as it does on
their cognitive processes. Sometimes we think people should simply “get over” their hurt
feelings, despite the face that we would never think someone should “get over” their broken leg.
Evidence suggest strong similarities in the way the brain reacts to social and physical pain.
Adapting to Team’s Needs:
High Medium Low/Mixed
Coach Notes:
Slide: What is belonging?
Slide Goal: We will now start discussing what Belonging means
Content Notes: There is a brief 1:21 minute video, if time permitting. It is titled “Diversity,
Inclusion, and Belonging” that highlights the uniqueness and benefits of a Belonging culture.
https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=how+to+build+belonging+in+the+workplace&docid=
608039355567509485&mid=F9CBA28691F152BBFE26F9CBA28691F152BBFE26&view=detail&F
ORM=VIREHT
Adapting to Team’s Needs:
High Medium Low/Mixed
Coach Notes:
Slide: Marilynn Brewer quote
Slide Goal: Provide definition of Belonging
Content Notes: To satisfy this need, people need to have frequent and affectively pleasant
interactions in a temporally stable group.
A sense of belonging gives us a feeling of being valued and respected within the group.
Adapting to Team’s Needs:
High Medium Low/Mixed
Coach Notes:
Slide: Belonging and Assimilation
Slide Goal: Describe the difference between belonging and assimilation.
Content Notes: You do not need to change who you are to belong.
Adapting to Team’s Needs:
High Medium Low/Mixed
Coach Notes:
Slide: What is Belonging?
Slide Goal: Introduce and explore the two-dimensional model of inclusion that incorporates
Uniqueness and Belongingness
Content Notes: This framework of inclusion suggests that uniqueness will provide
opportunities for improved group performance when a unique individual is an accepted
member of the group AND the group values the particular unique characteristic. We will spend
more time addressing the uniqueness factor in the next module, the Whole Self.
INCLUSION:
There is support in the literature for experiencing belongingness and uniqueness
simultaneously. For instance, minority members (who are unique) with develop networks (thus a
sense of belongingness) report a high level of career optimism.
At the team level, diverse work groups that incorporate uniqueness (viewing diversity as a
resource) and belongingness (members feeling valued and respected) are able to facilitate
effective cross-organizational collaboration, and allow individuals within the group to enhance
their skills (Ely & Thomas, 2001)
EXLCUSION:
When the need for belongingness is attenuated, there can be harmful cognitive, emotional,
behavioral, and health outcomes. Studies have found that exclusion was particularly detrimental
to work attitudes and psychological health (Hitlan et al., 2006)
ASSIMILIATION:
This reflects situations in which an individual who is unique is treated as an insider when he/she
conforms to the dominant norms of culture. Stigma research suggests that people may choose
not to disclose information that highlights a stigmatized characteristic they possess in efforts to
be accepted by others. (i.e., religion, disability, sexual orientation).
Even when a unique characteristic is readily apparent (i.e., race, gender, or age) some individuals
opt to downplay the ways that they may differ from the group. For instance, women attorneys
have been found to adopt more masculine behaviors in order to fit the mold of a successful
attorney (Ely, 1995).
DIFFERENTIATION:
Organizations have increasingly emphasized the unique capabilities of their employees as a
form of human capital and a source of competitive advantage. In some organizational settings,
there may be employees who offer unique and rare capabilities who are not considered or
treated as organizational insiders. For instance, some work groups may value diversity as a way
of reaching particular markers, but minority members were not considered to be part of the
larger culture of the organization and were subject to isolation and race-based stereotypes.
Adapting to Team’s Needs:
High Medium Low/Mixed
Coach Notes:
Slide: What does it mean to us?
Slide Goal: Through open discussion, explore what belonging means to our organization
Content Notes Culture is something LinkedIn takes pride in. For LinkedIn, culture is more than a
set of guiding principles; it is brought to life by the employees who exemplify it on a daily basis.
At LinkedIn, they place a great deal of emphasis on internal relationships. LinkedIn is in the
business of building relationship, and this extends into the relationships created in the
workplace. Part of the culture embedded in LinkedIn is managing compassionately. In other
words, they recognize that people have differing experiences and perspectives and they foster a
place of trust and collaboration where all can succeed.
Adapting to Team’s Needs:
High Medium Low/Mixed
Coach Notes:
Slide: Indicators of Belonging
Slide Goal: Specify the indicators that suggest belonging in the workplace is present
Content Notes: Employee perception of inclusion-exclusion is conceptualized as a continuum
of the degree to which individuals feel a part of critical organizational processes (in our case, the
thermometer!). These processes include: access to information and resources, connectedness to
supervisor and co-workers, and the ability to participate in and influence the decision-making
process. (Mor Barak, 2000).
Adapting to Team’s Needs:
High Medium Low/Mixed
Coach Notes:
Slide: Why is belonging important?
Slide Goal: Transition into discussing why Belonging is important
Content Notes:
Adapting to Team’s Needs:
High Medium Low/Mixed
Coach Notes:
Slide: The Benefits of Belonging
Slide Goal: Review the research findings associated with Belonging
Content Notes: As a result of social identification, people become attached to one another
through their common connection to the social group. It is suggested that people choose social
identities with particular groups and acceptance into those groups. Acceptance, and the sense
of connection with others it creates (BELONGINGNESS), prevents the isolation that may occur if
one becomes highly individuated.
There are many advantages associated with being an accepted member of a group. Individuals
opt to socially identify with a particular group when it allows for satisfaction of needs for
both belongingness and uniqueness. The balance between belongingness and uniqueness is a
critical component to building social inclusion in the workplace.
Adapting to Team’s Needs:
High Medium Low/Mixed
Coach Notes:
Slide: Verna Myers quote
Slide Goal: Some minor differences between diversity and inclusion.
Content Notes:
Adapting to Team’s Needs:
High Medium Low/Mixed
Coach Notes:
Slide: Fostering a Sense of Belongingness
Slide Goal: Begin exploring what needs to happen/change in order to facilitate Belongingness
Content Notes: The research indicates there are many positive effects from having inclusive
teams that foster a sense of belongingness. Yet, there is less known information about how to
do so.
What do you think needs to happen in order to establish a sense of belonging?
Adapting to Team’s Needs:
High Medium Low/Mixed
Coach Notes:
Slide:
Slide Goal: Before discussing our Belonging score and how we work towards creating that
environment, we must revisit the concepts of psychological safety and implement those skills
into our conversation around belonging.
Content Notes: Before we dive into where we think we are in terms of creating a sense of
Belonging, lets brief review the importance of vulnerability and psychological safety.
(1) Conversational turn-taking and empathy create psych safety.
• They are also part of the same unwritten rules we turn to when we want to
establish a bond.
• We should encourage equal speaking time (don’t monopolize the conversation
AND speak up) and be sensitive to one another’s moods and share personal
stories and emotions. This is how we make the whole greater than the sum of its
parts.
(2) Establish a starting point.
• Any group can create psych safety by encouraging emotional conversations and
discussions of norms among people who might otherwise be uncomfortable
talking about how they feel.
• By putting things like empathy and sensitivity into charts and data reports, it
makes them easier to talk about. It’s easier to talk about our feelings when we
can point to a number.
• When it’s tangible and described in common language, it’s easier to interact with.
Adapting to Team’s Needs:
High Medium Low/Mixed
Coach Notes:
Slide: Let’s have the conversation: Our starting point
Slide Goal: Discuss reactions related to our team’s IHI score for Belonging
Content Notes: Having data and language around something makes it easer to discuss
Practice on ourselves! What is our belonging number? What do you think about that?
Get initial reactions first, then talk about the behaviors.
Adapting to Team’s Needs:
High Medium Low/Mixed
Coach Notes:
Slide: Practicing Belonging
Slide Goal: Shifting into practicing skills related to Belonging
Content Notes: To build a sense of belonging requires active effort and practice.
Adapting to Team’s Needs:
High Medium Low/Mixed
Coach Notes:
Slide: Activity
Slide Goal: Start with an activity
Content Notes: Activity details on next slide
Adapting to Team’s Needs:
High Medium Low/Mixed
Coach Notes:
Slide: Building Connections
Slide Goal: One way to work on increasing your sense of belonging is to look for ways you are
similar with others instead of focusing on ways you are different.
Content Notes: For instance, someone is much older than you? Maybe they have wonderful
stories to tell and you love to listen to their experiences. Maybe you value making a difference
and can contribute to their lives with your youthful strength.
[introduce activity]
Purpose: provide a simple introductory activity that helps members identify commonalities
Procedures:
• Pair up with someone, preferably someone you don’t know well (or as well as
someone else).
• Take turns interviewing each other. Find out what interests the other individual,
what their values are, what preferences they have, what they enjoy doing in their
free time. Interview each other for five minutes.
• Take the next ten minutes identifying connections. What did you learn about
each other? What similarities do you have?
• Reconvene in the larger group and discuss 4 main questions listed above.
Adapting to Team’s Needs:
High Medium Low/Mixed
Coach Notes:
Slide: Yes, but… Yes, and…
Slide Goal: One way to foster a sense of belonging is to build on each other’s ideas to create
something – like a story – together.
Content Notes:
The principle of Yes And is the basis of all collaborative teamwork and group creativity. It is a
fun exercise and allows team members to experience each other in a light, creative way. Players
sit In a circle and build a story one sentence at a time. Each sentence must begin with "Yes,
And..." Each sentence must refer to one statement from the previous sentence. For example, if I
say "Once upon a time there was a blue rhinoceros", then the next person might say "Yes, and
the blue rhinoceros liked to drink tea (or wore reading glasses, or whatever)”. And the person
after that could say something like "Yes, and that tea contained persimmons" and so on. Since
you don't know what the person ahead of you will say, you can't plan ahead. If someone forgets
to start their sentence with "Yes, and..." then the group functions as a friendly human buzzer,
saying "Buzzzz" The person then just tries again this time beginning his/her sentence with "Yes,
and..." At any time, a participant has the choice to say “pass” if they get too stuck.
Because this is an exercise on accepting offers and building on them, these behaviors are
to be avoided. It is best to alert the group to these No Nos up front:
• Do not argue with the what was just added to the story. Example: "Yes, and it
wasn't really a blue rhinoceros, it was a green fly."
• Arguers may actually say “Yes, And…” but they do not add, but instead block or
deny the previous story addition.
• The group should be encouraged to Buzz an arguer to encourage them to try
again with a true Yes, And…. Statement.
Do not question what was just added to the story: "Yes, and what kind of blue rhinoceros was
it?". Questioning in this game is really a kind of argument because the action stops cold and
nothing is added. The moderator should encourage people to say the first thing on their
minds, the sillier the better.
Do not hesitate. The moderator should encourage people not to hesitate by trying to find the
perfect thing to say. Jump in by saying Yes and... then repeat an element and let the first thing
that comes to mind come out to add to the story.
The moderator begins the story by saying "Once upon a time there was a (talking truck tire, or
whatever). For best results, stay in the imaginary realm, not the business realm. The moderator
can also assist by pointing at who is next and by encouraging people to speak up so others can
hear. The moderator ends the story by saying "The End."
Adapting to Team’s Needs:
High Medium Low/Mixed
Coach Notes:
Slide: Activity Debrief
Slide Goal: Reconvene in the larger group and discuss 4 main questions listed above.
Content Notes: Emphasize the importance of shared interests in developing new ideas, not on
our conflicting positions
Adapting to Team’s Needs:
High Medium Low/Mixed
Coach Notes:
Slide: David Steindl Rast quote
Slide Goal: Introduce the importance of gratitude in belonging
Content Notes:
Adapting to Team’s Needs:
High Medium Low/Mixed
Coach Notes:
Slide: Express Gratitude
Slide Goal: Identify ways to improve, enhance, and demonstrate gratitude
Content Notes: Gratefulness is rooted in “beholding,” taking time stop, consider, and
appreciate experience, if even another breath, a lesson, another possibility, recognition of
strength and resilience. Gratitude is also a key to both connection and to belonging—the
moment one feels gratitude, one is often pointing to someone or something else. For example,
grateful for food on one’s plate and for the people who provide it. In other words, gratefulness
can group people in an appreciation of connection and interdependence.
• Individuals who have a higher gratitude quotient or a regular practice of expressing
gratitude have stronger social bonds and tend to be more generous and generative
• Gratitude is shown to boost people’s willingness to reach out and connect with
others
• Gratitude can be contagious
Adapting to Team’s Needs:
High Medium Low/Mixed
Coach Notes:
Slide: Activity
Slide Goal: Gratitude activity (Snap Jar)
Content Notes: Everyone write down three things (either about the team as a whole, or three
different people on the team) they are grateful for on a notecard.
These are intended to be anonymous so do not write your name on the note card. Everyone
adds their notecard to the jar. Team leader reads off all of the gratitude notes from the snap jar.
• Reflection Questions:
• What was it like to hear the things others are grateful for?
• What was it like to be thanked for your contributions?
• What was it like to write down/deliver expressions of gratitude?
• How are we currently doing at expressing gratitude to one another?
Adapting to Team’s Needs:
High Medium Low/Mixed
Coach Notes:
Slide: Use Empathy
Slide Goal: Explore mechanisms which facilitate empathy
Content Notes: Feeling understood and not judged really allows a person to feel like they
belong. This doesn’t have to be a constant state; just a touch point. A moment in each
interaction where you ask yourself, what does this feel like for them? What would it be like to be
standing in their shoes?
When empathy is improved, we become better humans. Empathy is associated with stronger,
more meaningful relationships; increased success in the workplace; and better health and quality
of life.
Adapting to Team’s Needs:
High Medium Low/Mixed
Coach Notes:
Slide: Video
Slide Goal: Share a video that highlights the difference between empathy and sympathy
Content Notes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Evwgu369Jw
Adapting to Team’s Needs:
High Medium Low/Mixed
Coach Notes:
Slide: Treat others’ as insiders
Slide Goal: Discuss opportunities that allow others’ to feel like insiders (i.e., involved in
decision-making, informed of relevant issues).
Content Notes:
Adapting to Team’s Needs:
High Medium Low/Mixed
Coach Notes:
Slide: Influence in Decision-Making
Slide Goal: Explore different thinking styles
Content Notes: When we are constantly butting heads with a co-worker it can interfere with
our feeling of belonging. The issue could be due to different thinking styles influenced by each
of our unique perspectives. To better understand our own style of thinking and that of our
colleagues, we must look at two dimensions.
First, focus. Focus refers to the factors that we pay most attention to-- Ideas, process, actions,
relationships.
Next, orientation refers to the scale at which you approach the situation—do you like lots of
details? Or the big picture?
By combining these dimensions, we can begin to identify the thinking styles that influence the
way we work and make decisions.
Explorers—all about generating creative ideas
Experts—all about achieving objectivity and insight
Planners—design effective systems
Optimizers—focus on productivity and efficiency
Energizers—like to mobilize people into action
Producers—prefer to achieve completion and momentum themselves
Connector—think about building and strengthening relationships and networks
Coach—prefer to work one on one and cultivate individual potential
Once you understand which style feels more natural to you, it will get easier to see other
peoples’ strengths and weaknesses, including your own.
By understanding your teams’ thinking styles, you can better see where communication breaks
down, and how team members compliment each other.
Adapting to Team’s Needs:
High Medium Low/Mixed
Coach Notes:
Slide: Thinking Styles Reflection
Slide Goal: Reflect on the thinking styles to facilitate self-awareness
Content Notes: Write down responses in your workbook.
Adapting to Team’s Needs:
High Medium Low/Mixed
Coach Notes:
Slide: Peter Block quote
Slide Goal: Emphasize the importance of building relationships and rapport before being able
to effectively work with one another.
Content Notes:
Adapting to Team’s Needs:
High Medium Low/Mixed
Coach Notes:
Slide: Fire Up
Slide Goal: Transition into commitment to action
Content Notes: Plan: Write down three things you’d like to try before our next module and
share with an accountability partner
Adapting to Team’s Needs:
High Medium Low/Mixed
Coach Notes:
Slide: TAG Check-In
Slide Goal: TAG Check-In
Content Notes:
Adapting to Team’s Needs:
High Medium Low/Mixed
Coach Notes:
Slide: TAG Check-In
Slide Goal: Discuss current state, desired future, and immediate action to take.
Content Notes:
How does whole self currently affect our team action goal?
How would increased whole self improve our ability to reach our TAG?
What can we do TODAY to improve the whole self of our team?
High Medium Low/Mixed
Coach Notes:
Slide:
Slide Goal:
Content Notes:
Adapting to Team’s Needs:
High Medium Low/Mixed
Coach Notes: