Owen Eastwood considers our ancestors throughout the book, reflecting upon how they understood our primal need to belong – to work together, to thrive in groups. Over the course of Belonging, he poignantly considers his own childhood, one in which his Maori heritage helped him to understand the past, and shape his identity. This book, then, provides reflections, research, traditions, anecdotes, and plenty of thoughtful musings, as Eastwood explores why we need to belong, and how we can achieve it. He asks thought-provoking questions of us, such as what is the optimal environment for this group to perform to their best? And it soon becomes apparent that the group will only thrive when they feel a sense of belonging. A more inclusive approach is possible. It can be as simple as a belonging cue like coming over and sitting with a teammate at meetings (as a senior) through to asking for everyone’s views in team meetings. A copy of Eastwood's new book, Belonging, was given to every England player when they reported for duty at the European Championships' - Telegraph Our need to belong, I think this is something that’s critically important, is that for all of our history I would say, including now, if you are alone, you won’t survive. Your health will be seriously compromised for most of our history that would have been fatal. And so that need to belong. That survival instinct that we all have, that was part of a band of people and the band had a leader. So the leader’s fundamental job was to take care of people. That was a fundamental job. That’s why our groups of humans existed. So when we think of it like that, why is that not obvious to us today? Why do we feel that we can go and pursuit of outcomes and sacrifice people and damage people along the way? It makes no sense to me. How he thinks about true leadership Aspects of Owen's unique approach finding your identity story; defining a shared purpose; visioning future success; sharing ownership with others; understanding the 'silent dance' that plays out in groups; setting the conditions to unleash talent; and converting our diversity into a competitive advantage.

In whakapapa terms, as the sun arrives on each generation their high purpose is passed on to them and they ask the question: what do we need to do to promote the wellbeing of our people? Therein lies their mission. Owen has worked with some of the very best teams and organisations both in the UK and abroad. Of Maori descent, that’s also a driver that’s fuelled his thinking around purpose, leadership, role models, success and much more. For the last five years he’s been a consultant to Gareth Southgate’s England team as well as recently consulting with the new Premiership Rugby Champions, Harlequins and thee are stories about those teams as well as many more examples along the way. One of the wisest books about winning you'll ever read...Powerful lessons beautifully expressed.' - James Kerr But the England of Sterling and Kane, of Saka and Maguire is a very different one to Ottoway’s, surely? They are not trying to replicate anything from the past, Eastwood says. “We should be proud of our history, understand and respect it, but ultimately this is about us, a very diverse, young, technically different group of people. It’s about inspiration and a sense of belonging to motivate us to create our own story.” What I’ve seen is, this idea of whakapapa because the shirt is more important than any individual. The shirt must be passed down and with the shirt, the stories and the values and the rituals and tradition, and you wear it with pride and a sense of duty. And then you pass it on to those who come after you. And it is not all about you. It’s not all about how much money you can make and how much Liberty you can make for yourself. It is always about the tribe. It’s always about the team. So these ideas are not just spiritual ideas. They are actually applied. That’s a big motivation for writing a book, because a lot of these really beautiful, powerful ideas are applied in real life. Environment mattersPeople are scared of having emotional conversations … some leaders will run a mile from that. But when there’s a lot of emotions, it’s great, we can learn to optimise that. Teams need emotional energy.” Values’ are shorthand for our Us story. They are the beliefs we value as a tribe but articulated in a way that allows us to align our behaviours easily. We share a mental map of the world with those around us. They become a code for how we will live and work together. It is less about rules and more about the archetype of the person we aspire to be: a mix of standards (what we are expected to do) and prohibitions (what not to do). Our ancestors deeply understood our primal need to belong, and now we’re beginning to see psychology and nueroscience begin to gather the proof for their instinct. Whakapapa. You belong here.Whakapapa is a Maori idea which embodies our universal human need to belong. It represents a powerful spiritual belief - that each of us is part of an unbroken and unbreakable chain of people who share a sacred identity and culture.Owen Eastwood places this concept at the core of his methods to maximise a team's performance. In this book he reveals, for the first time, the ethos that has made him one of the most in-demand Performance Coaches in the world.In Belonging, Owen weaves together insights from homo sapiens' evolutionary story and ancestral wisdom. He shines a light on where these powerful ideas are applied around our world in high-performing settings encompassing sport, business, the arts and military.Aspects of Owen's unique approach include: finding your identity story; defining a shared purpose; visioning future success; sharing ownership with others; understanding the 'silent dance' that plays out in groups; setting the conditions to unleash talent; and converting our diversity into a competitive advantage. When our need to belong is met we can focus on a team’s shared mission. We are comfortable being vulnerable in our quest to get better. We feel secure enough that others can point out where we could be better. Our own identity and that of the team coexist.

I feel that a Rory McIlroy or a Harry Kane, they want to be connected to something bigger than themselves and to have a special bone-deep relationship with people around them. And I’m yet to find an example where that’s not true,” Eastwood says.It starts with belonging. And we needing to understand that we have this not only a psychological but biological need to belong. Once we have a sense of belonging, our anxiety levels start to come down and our dopamine levels, oxytocin levels, you know this stuff better than me, Michael, they become imbalance and we get into this optimal state where we can go and compete from. So belonging is somewhere where we start from. For me, a critical factor of high-performing teams is this idea of a vision and they visualize it as deeply as an individual visualizes their own performance. Having a shared vision In Māori culture, the principle of Whakapapa places oneself in a wider context that links to land and tribal groupings and heritage. It offers a sense of immortality, attaching ourselves to something permanent in this impermanent world. Why would you turn a blind eye to such a valuable lessons within our Us story? When a culture’s resilience is questioned through a mistake or malpractice, the story must be “carved into the walls” so that our descendants can learn from them.