"If culture eats strategy for breakfast, then belonging is what serves it up." In today’s competitive landscape, businesses must prioritize creating a culture of belonging to ensure the success of their strategies. A workforce that feels valued and included is the key to achieving strategic goals and driving long-term success.
In every business, there is a time of year when the corporate strategy takes center stage. Teams get together to discuss how to improve, transform and grow their business and what strategies are going to achieve them. However, despite our best efforts and collective brain power, the unsung hero that ensures strategy’s success is culture—and more specifically, a sense of belonging. Peter Drucker famously said, "Culture eats strategy for breakfast," but I think, belonging is what serves it up. Fostering an environment where every individual feels they belong can amplify the success of strategy creation, implementation, and long-term sustainability.
Why Belonging is More Than a Buzzword
While much attention has been given to the equity, diversity and inclusion portion of EDIB, belonging is the crucial piece that often gets overlooked. It’s not enough to just have diverse perspectives in the room; people need to feel welcomed, valued, and empowered to contribute. Without this sense of belonging, even the best strategies can fall flat.
A study published in Harvard Business Review found that workplaces with a high sense of belonging experience a 56% increase in job performance, a 50% drop in turnover risk, and a 75% reduction in sick days. This underscores how belonging directly contributes to an organization's ability to innovate and execute its strategy effectively. When team members feel safe and included, they’re more likely to take risks, voice new ideas, and challenge the status quo—all critical components for strategic success.
Belonging’s Role in Strategy Creation
Strategy development requires a wide range of insights and perspectives. When employees feel like they belong, they are more likely to bring their full selves to work, contributing ideas and solutions that might otherwise go unspoken.
Liane Davey, a leading expert in team dynamics and strategy creation, emphasizes the importance of having a diversity of experience, styles and perspectives around the strategy table, not just executives, when creating the strategic plan. When everyone feels a sense of belonging, their contributions towards these goals become richer and more aligned with the broader strategic objectives. For instance, in a technology firm, ensuring a culture of belonging can lead to a strategy that reflects a wider range of user needs, creating more comprehensive solutions, services, and optimization of internal processes.
How Belonging Fuels Strategy Implementation
Creating a strategy is only half the battle—successful implementation is where many organizations struggle. Belonging is critical here too. A strategy, no matter how well-crafted, will falter if employees don’t feel engaged and motivated to execute it. A culture of belonging fosters this engagement by encouraging employees to take ownership of their roles within the strategy – especially if they’ve been included early on.
When team members feel they belong, they’re not just completing tasks—they’re contributing to a collective goal. This heightened sense of purpose can lead to better collaboration, increased accountability, and ultimately, a more seamless implementation of strategic initiatives.
Belonging and Long-Term Strategic Success
The long-term success of any strategy depends on an organization’s ability to adapt and grow. A sense of belonging ensures that this adaptability is baked into the fabric of the company and is not just talked about during EDIB updates and initiatives. When employees feel valued, they’re more likely to stay with the company, contributing to institutional knowledge and continuity, both of which are essential for evolving strategies over time and building enduring success.
Moreover, belonging encourages continuous feedback loops, where employees feel comfortable sharing their observations and suggestions for improvement. This ongoing dialogue ensures that strategies remain relevant and responsive to changes in the marketplace, making the company more resilient and agile in the face of disruption.
Recognizing and Addressing a Lack of Belonging: Practical Steps for Leaders
When team members don’t feel like they belong, it can directly undermine the effectiveness of your strategy. Whether it’s in the initial stages of development, the execution phase, or evaluating outcomes, disengaged or disconnected team members pose a risk to your goals. Recognizing these signs early is essential to maintaining a cohesive team committed to achieving strategic success.
Here are five key indicators that people on your team may not feel they belong, along with practical steps to course correct:
- Silence in Strategy Discussions
Impact on Strategy: If key team members remain silent during brainstorming or strategy meetings, their valuable insights are lost, leading to a strategy developed from a narrow perspective.
Course Correction: Encourage a psychologically safe space where every voice matters. During meetings, invite input from quieter members by asking specific questions that highlight their expertise. Make it clear that diverse perspectives are critical to the strategy’s success. - Decline in Initiative and Ownership
Impact on Strategy: When employees don’t take ownership of their roles within a strategy, they may complete tasks mechanically rather than with a sense of purpose, weakening the overall implementation.
Course Correction: Reinforce the connection between their role and the broader strategic objectives. Provide clear responsibilities that align with their strengths and celebrate their contributions publicly to boost morale and engagement in the strategy's success. - Withdrawal from Collaborative Efforts
Impact on Strategy: Collaboration is essential for refining and adjusting strategies. If team members begin to withdraw from collaborative efforts, it could lead to missed opportunities for synergy, ultimately affecting outcomes.
Course Correction: Identify opportunities for better integration within the team. Facilitate more inclusive team activities, both formal and informal, to rebuild trust and connection, ensuring everyone is contributing to the evolving strategy. - Negative Attitude Toward Strategic Changes
Impact on Strategy: Cynicism or resistance to change can stall the implementation of new initiatives, dragging down momentum and creating friction within the team.
Course Correction: Address negativity head-on. Have open, empathetic conversations to understand the root cause of the dissatisfaction. Reinforce the “why” behind strategic decisions and how each team member’s role helps move the company toward long-term success. - Increased Absenteeism or Disengagement During Execution
Impact on Strategy: Absenteeism or disengagement during critical phases of strategy implementation can disrupt timelines, reduce productivity, and impact overall results.
Course Correction: Address absenteeism proactively by checking in with team members individually. Reassure them of their value in achieving the strategic goals and offer support where needed. Sometimes flexible solutions, like adjusting workloads or providing additional resources, can help re-engage key contributors.
Recognizing the signs of disengagement is just the beginning. To ensure your strategy succeeds, leaders must take intentional steps to rebuild a sense of belonging within the team:
- Lead with Empathy: Approach each individual with an understanding of their unique needs and challenges. Show that their well-being and contributions matter.
- Clarify the Strategic Vision: Regularly connect individual tasks and responsibilities back to the larger strategic goals, ensuring that each person understands their vital role in the organization’s success.
- Encourage Regular Feedback: Open dialogue creates an environment where concerns are addressed early, and team members feel heard and valued.
By identifying and addressing these signs early, leaders can ensure that every team member feels connected to the strategy, leading to better collaboration, more innovative solutions, and stronger execution. When everyone feels they belong, your strategy is more likely to succeed.
Conclusion: Belonging as a Strategic Advantage
In today’s business environment, strategy alone isn’t enough. Companies that prioritize belonging as part of their culture are setting themselves up for long-term success. When employees feel they belong, they’re more engaged, more innovative, and more committed to achieving the company’s strategic goals.
If culture eats strategy for breakfast, then belonging is what serves it up—ensuring that your strategic initiatives are executed with the full energy and commitment of a motivated, diverse, and united workforce.
This post is part of our ongoing EDIB Perspectives series offering insights and reflections on equity, diversity, inclusion and belonging (EDIB) topics from a business perspective, brought to you by leaders and colleagues at Stratford. Through this series, we aim to share experiences, challenges, and successes in fostering an inclusive corporate culture.
With a more personal tone, the goal of these posts is to offer diverse perspectives on how individuals at Stratford authentically live and embody the principles of EDIB in their daily lives and work.