Leadership and the Danger of the Social Wall

The leader needs to beware of the “us and them” mentality of teams. A team forms an ethnos — a people group. It necessarily runs on a social dynamic that is intrinsic to the nature of human beings. This has negative and positive implications. A team, by its nature, forms a “social wall.” People are viewed differently on the other side of that wall. The leader needs to know when such walls become an obstruction to progress. The integration of two teams (which requires integration of objectives) can be one of the most effective ways to recognize, and also obliterate, the negative consequences of a “social wall.”