BS vs bs: beating belonging uncertainty

Guess who ….is feeling Belonging Uncertainty?

Let's play BS vs BS....Behavioural Science vs the BS that holds us back....

This is a picture of me with my People Science Team colleagues at the Empire State Building offices of LinkedIn back in 2019.

I'd been flown over to take part in a hackathon. .

I was just 2 months into the job and as I delighted as I was to be there-- I was quietly consumed with the thought:

"Uft, these people are all so incredibly smart and brilliant, do I belong here?"

You might say, my empire state of mind was: suboptimal.

The BS holding me back has a name: Belonging Uncertainty.

...So what's the behavioural science that can help?

Walton & Cohen (2011) ran a randomised controlled trial with 92 college freshmen.

Students read a messages from older students saying worries about fitting in are normal and fade over time.

They then wrote an essay about how their own experiences echoed that - and delivered it as a speech to a video camera, framed as advice for future students. The whole intervention took just an hour.

The result: a reduction in the minority GPA gap of 52% over 3 years. Knowing that it's normal to feel like you don't fit in - and others feel it too - quiets the mind, and let's you focus on the work at hand.

...My fears eventually did fade, but I wish I'd know that nugget then so I could focus on how fun of an opportunity it was.

Applications:

• Create belonging during onboarding

• Help new managers to navigate their role with confidence (connect them to previous managers)

• During Pride month, have LGBTQ+ colleagues share their experiences at work

What have I missed?