Us vs. Them

“But we only hire collaborative people. So how could this happen?”

A client asked me this recently. She is an experienced leader. Her team had worked well together for years. And yet, seemingly overnight, the atmosphere had shifted into an “us versus them” dynamic.

Her surprise makes sense. The answer is more interesting—and more unsettling—than it might seem: it had very little to do with whom she had hired.

The brain sorts people into “us” and “them” within milliseconds. Our values, principles, and best intentions enter the conversation only afterward. That is an uncomfortable fact. But it explains a great deal.

This post marks the beginning of a short series on what the research actually tells us about tribalism in teams.

We’ll start with Robert Sapolsky. We’re big fans of Sapolsky’s work.