Are Your Beliefs Supporting Or Limiting You At Work?

Hello everyone. Welcome to Naked Insider, episode 6. My name is Boss Fisher and we have Peter Natterer. Welcome.

Thank you.

Excellent, excellent. And today's video. I Believe. All about beliefs.

I believe so.

You believe so. Okay, what exactly do we mean by that?

Belief is a way of being able to trust into the world. So that we say this is the way the world works. And that is a belief system that is reinforced by what we perceive around us and by the social bubble that we have around us.

Any examples?

Well, the world is flat or the world is round.

Yes.

There's a huge debate raging still today.

And also, you know, whether the Americans ever actually managed to get to the moon.

That is a belief. Yes. Or is that a conspiracy? A conspiracy, yeah, but it is, it's all about a belief. And it's those things that we've convinced ourselves of based on the evidence that we, that we allow ourselves to receive. And because we do filter out stuff that does not conform with our beliefs. Which kind of self populates the belief as well too.

Yeah, it does. So how does, or how do people form beliefs in the first place?

Beliefs are a way of dealing with the world without getting every situation being new. So yes, breathing is good. That's a belief. And yes, it. It's also backed up a few other little bits and pieces. I believe that in Australia we drive on the left hand side of the road. That's a very useful belief. So beliefs are actually quite helpful in terms of allowing us to get on with the rest of our lives while performing or structuring the world around us in a way that makes sense to us at that time.

Correct. Because if you had to think every time about when the sun comes up or the sun comes down.

Yes, and that's a belief too. We believe that the sun will come up tomorrow morning.

Correct. So what is the difference? Or explain it sort of more about what global beliefs sort of imply?

Well, absolutely. So I just touched on one. The global belief is that every day the sun comes up in the morning, presumably from the east. So these are beliefs. And yes, we have certain scientific principles that we believe in that make that happen. One of the beliefs that's been recently shattered was that there's always going to be toilet paper on the supermarket shelf.

I was going to ask you, so how, how has the coronavirus pandemic shaken our belief structure?

It has really forced people to restructure the way the world works in their mind. There is a lot of shaking of belief systems going on at the moment and that's why we're having these debates, do we wear masks? Do we don't wear masks? Do we have two people in the elevator or do we just all pile in? Do we go for a walk in the park or do we not go for a walk in the park? And these are, this is actually a symptom of belief systems being called into doubt and it confuses people. So belief systems in general are really good at keeping us sane.

Yes, correct. Okay, so I just want to talk more now around the behavior which is explain to everyone about what do we mean by empowering belief.

Well, we all have certain experiences in our lives where we know we can do something that knowing is that we have a belief that we can do that. I, not that I am, but I know that I can run the mile, fastest track. Or a disempowering belief would be one that starts with. But I always do that.

Yes.

So it's a self sabotaging belief. Self sabotage is a form of belief in its own right. And we tend to conform to what we believe in.

Correct. Because disempowering beliefs can be highly, highly toxic. Toxic, absolutely. So you can get in an organization, but you can also for yourself, so you can self sabotage as yourself. So if you, for example, say well, I'm very poor with money because it's something that you've learned as a kid, or your parents have told you you're never good with money or we've never been good at managing money. So you've grown up with that belief and therefore you are self sabotaging yourself.

Absolutely. And we conform to that belief.

Okay, so let's look at an example from an organization. An organization is made out of people and each one is a collection of people and they have all their unique belief structure. So what are the challenges there to start off with? When you've got a group of people all trying to work together, you can.

Get a match or a mismatch of beliefs. If you get a match of beliefs, people saying yes, we can do this, we're going to get on board with this, we're going to power through this. Then you get a really powerful organization and you create a mini universal or global belief within that organization. And that's what the structure of a lot of these meetings are and powwow sessions and power sessions to try and get people into that. What happens is if the individual doesn't line up with that belief within themselves, either about the company or about themselves, that energy can tend to dribble away. Which means that in a shorter or longer period of time, the effectiveness of that organization can start to stagnate.

Okay, so what are the risks then?

The risks are that a bubble of belief, and I call it a bubble, tends to form and tends to solidify in a certain place so that you can see it almost, you know, we've always done the business this way, why should we change?

Correct.

And look, every business goes through a cycle like a bell curve, where you reach the peak, but after you've reached the peak, you're on the downward slope. If your beliefs don't change from the point that you've hitched that peak, you will hit the downward slope. There's no way about it. I mean, it's just, it's just that's a belief. So one of the most powerful things a business can do is to re envision their beliefs still keeping the core belief, but at the same time raising the level, raising the horizon, raising the profile of where they can see themselves.

Going further and going future. I actually came up with another point. How does an organization identify what's the core belief?

Very, very difficult. It's kind of like navel gazing. I believe I have a navel. Really the hardest thing is to self diagnose, is to self identify what is the belief inside of an organisation? Because our beliefs, especially if that is being looked at by somebody who has a vested interest in the organization, will believe what they believe about the organization.

Correct.

But that may not track with the way or where the organisation is. So it's pretty much important to have some kind of outside person or outside organization looking at that structure and saying, well, yes, in principle this is where you're at, but actually this is where you are on the map at the moment.

Yeah. Okay, so my next question was more about sort of the relationship between for example, the manager or the executive was an employee or peer, so within peer. So you can have toxic relationships where you can have the manager and executive just constantly pulling down their employees. How detrimental could that be to the organization?

Yeah, extremely detrimental. So one of the things about human nature, we generally tend to believe the negatives. We generally tend to believe the negative about ourselves. And perhaps that's something that's ingrained in us since we were, you know, this high. But the power of communication is extremely important. That's why a lot of the successful organizations actually coach their people. Which means, yes, you know, here is where you can improve, but here are the things we already doing amazingly. So can we lift everything one ratchet higher or can you keep doing more of what it Is you're doing whatever the case may be, There is an element of communication that needs to be very, very consciously thought about from the executive level to the level that actually does the do.

Yeah. Okay. So we sort of realized that it can be extremely toxic.

Yes.

The question is, do they actually realize that it's actually taking place? Because most of the time they don't look at human behavior that closely.

No, no. And oftentimes a lot of these things are emotionally driven because the executive level has imperatives that are totally not visible to the people who have to do the functions. Yet it creates an emotional pressure which can oftentimes come out as a negative or as a criticism or as more stick than carrot.

Yeah, correct. So is there an easy way for organizations to identify that sort of potential risk within people?

Yes, you look at, look at the reaction of the people and look at their output. It might be a very quick way of looking at it. But if you get the glazed eye syndrome when you're talking to somebody, then this person is tuned out because they're not at all on board with what you're saying and they're just occupying space while you finish what it is that you're saying. That doesn't achieve anything for the person listening or the person talking.

Correct, Correct. So in the end, so if believes there's a mismatch of beliefs with an organization, and you talked about that, you know, it's quite difficult to self identify. What can they do then?

They need to find somebody who can take an objective view. Look, it's very simple. When you're in amongst the alligators, to use an American term, it's very hard to find out where it is that you are and what you need and where you need to go to get out. And it's often hard to identify because that's the norm. Because this environment has. Is the way that the company or the organization always has been. It may not seem strange, it may not seem that the alarm bells are going on.

Yeah, yeah.

And perhaps for an organization, that's okay. Okay. Being a mediocre term for that organization to walk along on that pace. How much better would it be if everybody got on board, align with a belief system, empowering that belief system, and move forward.

Oh, that. I totally agree. Yeah, totally. By the way, that's a belief too.

Absolutely.

Everything is a belief. Exactly. So what's the key takeaway in this, this topic?

I think to look at where your belief system currently is, which is actually the question that you asked. One of the most important things that you can do is to play the what if game. I don't think anybody would have in 2019 played the what if the COVID 19 happened game. But you can game things out a little bit and say, what if legislation changes? What if this happens? What if the competitor comes along and is suddenly financed by a mega million dollar organization from overseas somewhere?

Or it could be a. Could be. What if there's a merger, acquisition, and then now you're fighting against another person who's got exactly the same role as yours?

Absolutely. What if somebody wants to find out our company secrets and is sort of doing elbows with some of my staff at the bar?

Yes.

What if what that does is it actually allows people to look at where their boundaries of their belief systems are and pop the paradigm.

Yes.

You will always create boundaries. But the bigger your boundaries, the more inclusive you are of possibilities.

Okay, cool. Now, is there a question that I should have asked you, but I haven't. I like that.

What is it that beliefs drive?

Yes.

And basically, beliefs goes back to our value system. Beliefs align our values. So we believe that we need money, we need a house, a car, whatever it is that we believe we need. This then drives our values, and our values drive our actions. It drives what we do every day on a daily basis.

You got it.

Absolutely.

So with that, I'm gonna say thank you again, Peter. Our next session is gonna be about trust, I believe.

Absolutely.

So stay tuned for that one. If you haven't seen the previous episode, which is all about all about values. So, yeah, please, please have the opportunity to go and check it out. You'll find it highly valuable.

Absolutely.

With that, I wish you a great day and look forward to catching up.

Thanks, guys.

Thank you.