We all have beliefs.

Belief that the sun will rise, that your significant other will still be the same physical person when you wake up, the belief that your desk at work exists when you are not sitting at it.

Then there are beliefs that are more personal-how one should drink their coffee, proper etiquette, how to dress, hygiene, religious practices, etc…

We believe what we believe and that those who do not believe what we believe to be true we think are stupid, ignorant, foreign, different, rude, smelly, not good citizens, etc…

Then there are organization beliefs (Folkloric Constructs) – we have done it this way, this is the only way I know how, x is our preferred vendor. Folkloric constructs are the shared stories, myths and beliefs that are larger than the team and person. Stories that are created and continued through an organization. These organizational beliefs can cause one department to view another entire department (not necessarily the people, but the the department as a whole) as different, weird, foreign, the opponent.

Taking the time to explore where personal and organizational beliefs come from is valuable to teams and leaders – which brings up to this weeks inquiry;

• Where do you learn your beliefs? they came from somewhere.
• How certain are you that what you believe to be “the truth” is really “the Truth”?
• When someone challenges your beliefs, generally how do you react?
• Within your team (at work) what are the shared and created beliefs all team-members hold about that team? How about the beliefs about another team?
• Personally how do you deal with conflicting personal beliefs and work-place beliefs?
• If you are shown fact based evidence that what you believe to be right is wrong…are you willing to accept that you are wrong and adopt a new belief? If so what is an example of this in the past.

Belief is a personal and powerful thing…I often find myself at odds with emerging evidence of what-works with teams and managerial leadership vs. long held observational beliefs of what-works.