Why Reaching Out to Someone in Your Group Can Strengthen Your Group
It is difficult to call someone from your group. Whether it’s your workgroup or your social circle, if you like the people in it, it’s tempting to support everyone on the inside and defend against everyone on the outside. While these are good instincts, internal criticism of a group is critical to its growth.
As productivity writer Seth Godin explains, it’s very easy for us to slip into a tribal mentality. We internalize the idea that our group is right and the outside is wrong, and criticizing our own group is destructive. Often we even discard internal criticism because it is not supportive enough. While this can sometimes be beneficial for team morale, it can also allow groups to engage each other’s blind spots:
However, the most powerful thing we can do to earn the respect of others is to call one of us when he crosses the line. “People like us, we don’t do that.” This is when real change begins to occur, and when others begin to believe that we really care about more than the points we have earned.
Of course, this does not mean that if you are the moron of the group, then you are actually on a noblemission of civilization . If you have nothing to say positively, the group is unlikely to notice. However, a little accountability within the group is not something to shy away from.
Knee | Seth Godin