Participation Is Not Belonging

I used to think team-building events were a sign of a strong culture.

I’m less sure now.

I have seen workplaces where the signs of community were everywhere.

And yet, people could still work in silos, stay guarded, and be careful about what they said.

I have also seen fully remote teams, spread across locations, work with remarkable trust and alignment.

That made me question something I had taken for granted.

Perhaps being together is not the same as belonging.

Offsites.

Celebrations.

Photographs on the wall.

Plenty of language about being “one team.”

People can participate in all of it.

But participation is not the same as belonging.

One test of belonging, at least for me, is much simpler:

Can people speak honestly?

Can someone say:

“I disagree.”

“I don’t think this will work.”

“The customer is telling us something different.”

And say it without worrying that speaking up will come back to hurt them?

Because silence can easily be mistaken for agreement.

Sometimes people are silent because they agree.

Sometimes they are silent because they have learned that disagreeing is not worth the risk.

That difference matters.

Not just for culture.

For the business too.

No one person sees everything.

The people closest to customers see things leadership may not.

The people executing the work see problems others may miss.

The whole point of having a team is to bring those views into the room before decisions are made.

Otherwise, you can have many people in an organization and still end up with only one person’s thinking.

That is why I have started looking at culture differently.

Not by how many people attend the offsite.

Not by how many photographs are on the wall.

But by what happens in the room when someone disagrees.

You can bring people together.

You can get them to participate.

But if they don’t feel safe enough to disagree, that is participation.

Not belonging.