Shared values turn “I” and “the others” into a “we.”
A team has a goal – it says where the team wants to go. Identity answers a different question: Who are we, and what do we stand for? Where a team has a shared answer to that, the way individuals see themselves changes. They no longer work alongside the others but as part of something.
The team principle in detail
Four steps through the principle: understand, check, connect, apply. Open any topic to read more.
The explanationThe mechanism: people draw part of their self-image from the groups they belong to.
The mechanism: people draw part of their self-image from the groups they belong to.
Those who identify with their team experience its concerns as their own. This goes hand in hand with greater effort – provided the team sees good performance as part of who “we” are.
Read closelyWhat the principle says – and what it doesn’t
Values are not the same as goals, nor the same as liking one another. Team members can like each other and still not know what the team stands for.
- Strictly speaking
- Values are one route to “we,” not the only one. Even an arbitrary division into groups, a shared fate or a common opponent creates a “we.”
- The causality also runs the other way: success creates cohesion, sometimes even more strongly than cohesion creates success.
- A strong “we” is not only a good thing. It can lead a group to look down on outsiders, block change and cover up misconduct to protect its own.
The signs3 signs that the principle is at work · 3 that it is missing
- Members say “we” when they talk about the work.
- They can say in their own words what the team stands for.
- Decisions are justified by pointing to these values.
- People refer to colleagues on their own team as “them.”
- Everyone optimizes their own area.
- Guiding principles exist but play no part in everyday work.
The research6 sources: 2 theories, 2 meta-analyses, 1 primary study, 1 review · 1979–2017 · with research limitations
- low
- moderate
- high
Moderate – identification and cohesion are moderately related to effort and performance; there is no separate evidence that it is values in particular that create the “we.”
- 1979Henri Tajfel & John C. Turner
Social identity theory: people draw part of their self-image from group membership and favor their own group. The basis of the concept of “we.”
- 2000Daan van Knippenberg
Identification boosts work motivation and performance – but only when the group identity is salient in the moment and high performance is seen as being in the group’s interest.
- 2001Jennifer A. Chatman & Francis J. Flynn
Demographically mixed teams initially develop less cooperative norms; with increasing contact, the difference evens out.
- 2017Samantha A. Conroy et al.
High identification can do harm: unethical behavior for the sake of the group, resistance to change, conflict, lower well-being.
- The core statement is phrased causally; what has been shown is a moderate relationship that runs in both directions.
- Values can create a “we,” but they are not necessary for it.
- The principle applies above all to teams that last and whose work is interdependent; in short-lived project groups, the shared goal tends to carry more weight.
Read more: what the research shows
The foundation is the social identity theory of Henri Tajfel and John C. Turner: people draw part of their self-image from the groups they belong to, and they favor their own group. Daan van Knippenberg applied this to work: identification boosts motivation and performance, but only when the group identity is salient in the moment and high performance is seen as being in the group’s interest. Cohesion – how strongly a group holds together – has been studied in meta-analyses. Daniel J. Beal and colleagues found a link with performance that grows the more interdependent the work is. Brian Mullen and Carolyn Copper found it to be small, with the effect running more from performance to cohesion. Jennifer A. Chatman and Francis J. Flynn showed that cooperative norms emerge later in mixed teams and converge as contact increases.
The originJohn C. Maxwell · “The Law of Identity”
- 2001OriginJohn C. Maxwell
The 17 Indisputable Laws of Teamwork
- The Law of IdentityShared values define the team
- todayExpanded
Added here are the reverse direction – success creates cohesion – and the downsides of strong identification.
The related team principles02 Direction · 16 Effort · 05 Diversity · 15 Dissent
The principle adds the question of who we are to “Direction” and supports “Effort”, because social loafing disappears in groups people value.
It stands in tension with “Diversity”, “Dissent” and “External Relationships”: a strong “we” encourages conformity and insularity.
The action steps5 steps: Name a few values explicitly, and do it together.
- Name a few values explicitly, and do it together. Let the team put into words what it stands for.
- Be the first to commit, and visibly live by that commitment – even when it costs you something.
- Link the values to performance: make it clear that good work is part of who “we” are.
- Give new and mixed teams time and plenty of contact. Cooperative norms grow with shared experience.
- Keep the “we” open: ask regularly whom it shuts out and where loyalty is stifling criticism.
The questions for your team3 questions for your team conversation: What do we stand for – and how would an outsider notice it in our work?
- What do we stand for – and how would an outsider notice it in our work?
- In which decision of the past few months did our values actually tip the balance?
- Whom or what does our “we” shut out, and where does it make dissent difficult?
Take time for one question at your next team meeting. Talk about it openly and note down what you take away from it.
The picture to rememberScattered dots in different colors; a hexagonal crest appears in the center.
- Scattered dots in different colors.
- A hexagonal crest appears in the center.
- The dots take on a golden rim and together form the shape.
What the Team Principle of Identity looks like in practice
From a Divided Village to a Community
In 1727, more than 220 people of very different backgrounds live in the refugee settlement of Herrnhut, and they have split into factions. Count Nikolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf visits them house by house, and on May 12, 1727, they sign a common statute, the “Brotherly Agreement.”
Three Values and the Ticker Symbol LUV
Southwest Airlines names three values – Warrior Spirit, Servant’s Heart and Fun-LUVing Attitude – and, by its own account, hires for attitude first and skills second. Employees have shared in the profits since 1973; Herb Kelleher championed the order: employees first, then customers, then shareholders.
Only Players from the Basque Country – and Never Relegated
For more than a hundred years, Athletic Bilbao has fielded only players who were born in the Basque Country or developed there as soccer players. Even so, the club has never been relegated from Spain’s top division, and in 2024, after forty years of waiting, it won the Copa del Rey.
