The powerful metaphor it introduces to explain the meaning of ‘whakapapa’ (a concept held by Aotearoa New Zealand Māori) is so clear and meaningful, it surely can be used to make a difference. This concept is universal but in many cultures undervalued or even obscured by modern life. A lot of credible research supports Eastwood’s points. The research is woven together with stories. Some of the stories are from Owen Eastwood’s own experience as a performance coach. Others are historical examples or stories other people have told him. The result is an engaging, easy to read book. 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.

Belonging by Owen Eastwood | Book Summary - Toby Sinclair Belonging by Owen Eastwood | Book Summary - Toby Sinclair

If you want to understand what makes great teams great, Belonging: The Ancient Code of Togetherness will give you another piece of the puzzle. You’ll also learn techniques to put Eastwood’s principles into practice. When you do that, you’ll become one with the great teams of the past.

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We reconnect to the past which requires understanding the heritage of a team and the tribe they represent. A whakapapa is moulded featuring key ancestors, moments and legacies of the team but also studied is the wider story of the tribe the team represents. The most important thing to me is that we go through the experience of joy or disappointment together. And the thing that will break my heart and make me look at myself and think I have failed is that, if either of those scenarios play out and we become a bunch of individuals. And we either become heroes and look at ourselves as some form of celebrity because we’re successful or alternatively, we splinter apart and go and suffer alone either of those situations. His cherished framework Management speak" and "business speak" prevail in today's sports coaching and tend to over complicate the idea of team culture, Owen says.

Belonging: The Ancient Code of Togetherness: The Belonging: The Ancient Code of Togetherness: The

There are some incredible insights and some wonderful ancient wisdoms that we have stopped listening to and Owen’s mission is to re-introduce people to those ideas.We look to our leaders to be the storyteller-in-chief and expect them to personify our tribal identity. We do not want our Us story to be replaced with a leader’s Me story - a cult of personality with the rest of us as a supporting cast. Sustaining success is very difficult from a hormonal point-of-view. Our dopamine system is anticipatory. We receive bursts in the pursuit of a goal rather than on the attainment of it. These bursts increase when the outcome is uncertain as opposed to guaranteed. 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 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.”

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Belonging before performance: in our high-accountability working culture, sometimes workplaces don’t accept people until they have proved themselves. But this is a false economy: people will only thrive when they feel accepted and safe from the outset; we must offer true belonging before we have ‘proof’ of someone’s work or output. I’ll call myself a performance coach and my particular focus is around building team culture and leading that culture. So I don’t like to tell people what to do, I like to coach them. What makes him different than other coaches? We talked about Whakapapa, when we talked about the sun shining on us. And when we come into a specific team that is set up to pursue a specific purpose we understand that it is conditional on performing, and therefore the sun might not be on us for very long, or it might be on us for 12 years. We don’t know. Time will tell what’s important is that when the sun is on us, is that we are full in. We are part of this team. We feel belonging and we can trust those people around us. And that is the environment that is being created. But we fully understand that we have been put together for a purpose, and if our performance isn’t good enough, then I’ll tell him we’ll move on. So there’s no contradiction there. The right way to treat people Some highly-regarded sports coaches are obsessed with tactics and selection but don't put enough emphasis on how to get the best out of people once they've brought the team together, Owen says. Constantly people who exhibit talent are told they're amazing, they're great, they are given celebrity status, they're given lots of money… so everything is telling them 'you are important, it's all about you' and we know if we want to get the best out of a team that is potentially dangerous for us.

Belonging

The author interweaves his own story and heritage into the book, and introduces us to the important idea of ‘whakapapa’. Eastwood defines this as, “When the sun is shining on us, we must be guardians of our tribe and of each other. This is how I have come to understand whakapapa.” Finally, a huge thanks to my sponsors, Puresport. Their range of CBD and Nootropics supplements have had a significant impact on how I sleep, manage stress, and focus throughout the day. I can’t recommend them enough. We often share the good moments and results with our teams. We nailed this. We succeeded in that. So and so is doing great work in this. But do we discuss the bad? Do we share pain and learn from it? Gareth Southgate’s England Football Team– https://www.theguardian.com/football/2021/jul/09/whakapapa-maori-belief-helping-england-find-team-spirit 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.