By Nilesh Bhagat, CHRP

Every game day, I have to go to the same little soup and sandwich shop across the street and spend the same seven dollars on their lunch special.  Why?  I fear that if I break this ritual, the Canucks will lose. No, I’m not crazy and I can assure you that I’m not the only one in Vancouver thinking and acting like this.

Why do we do these things? I have a theory: I propose to you that our aggregated superstitions are influencing the performance of the Canucks. Individually, we have no influence on the outcome of the team’s performance – they won’t win or lose because we wear the same, unwashed t-shirt every game. It’s the collective behavior of superstitious behavior, grounded in the belief of hope that our team can execute and earn its goals.

In organizations, this type of behavior is an integral part of company culture. The beliefs we share in our organizations shape our attitudes, and our attitudes shape our behavior. This notion is at the core of the theories of cognitive dissonance and self perception, which state that we have a drive for internal (cognitive) and external (behavioral) consistency – Robert Cialdini agrees.

Here’s how it works: we share a belief that our organization can be effective (explicitly through things like our mission and vision statements); through our drive to maintain internal consistency, our attitudes reflect these beliefs; and finally, our behaviors are such that they are aligned with these attitudes. Further, when we all share the same beliefs and behave accordingly, it has a reinforcing effect on all those that share the common belief.

As Cialdini put it in his book, Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion: “What those around us think is true of us is enormously important in determining what we ourselves think is true.”

It is this collective belief and action that determines the success and failure of our groups, teams and organizations. The reinforcing mechanism has a forceful effect on our individual and collective behavior. If one or more people share a certain belief of another, their behaviors toward that person will influence the way the target person thinks, acts and feels.

Such is the case with the city of Vancouver’s unwavering belief toward their hockey team. We – through our superstitions – show our positive belief; the team confides in this positive belief and is influenced to think, act and feel accordingly. The result: a concerted effort to better their opponents on the ice through aligned behavior.

Thus, though our individual behaviors may be quirky – especially when it comes to playoff rituals – the collective belief that we all share is a force to be reckoned with when it comes to influencing the success of our teams, organizational or otherwise.

What’s your ‘goal-scoring’ superstition?

Nilesh Bhagat, CHRP, is the membership and CHRP administrator at BC HRMA. After several grueling years in school, Nilesh graduated in October 2010 from Simon Fraser University with a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, First Class Honors. He majored in Human Resources Management and tacked on an extended minor in Psychology. He’s a self-confessed nerd (the first step is admitting), likes to read, loves hockey and is struggling with the complexities of learning the game of golf.