Do a quick tally of how many people you know that show up for work each day but don't "belong" to the organization. You aren't doing this to justify they don't belong. You're doing it to figure out how many people on the inside feel like outsiders.

How many people are in the "hired and forgotten" group? Who has been cast to the sidelines, banished to the outer fringes instead of included in the organizational mainstream? How has change broken the ties that bind? How have cliques or an organizational caste system kept employees out of the in-crowd?

Odds are you'll find people have deliberately not been allowed into the social nerve center of the organization. And there'll be others—employees who would never push for inclusion—that nobody else has taken the time or effort to pull into the core. How can high dedication be expected from these people, when they don't even feel like they're part of the group?

Exclusion cuts off the oxygen needed to keep commitment alive. So people who feel rejected put in nothing more than their time. Everything becomes transactional. Employees who feel left out or ignored invest little passion for their work.

As the manager or experienced peer, you should be like a magnet. Draw everyone in. Bring everyone together. Communicate with everyone, not just a chosen few. Take pains to see that each individual feels accepted.

A weak sense of belonging makes any of us feel like a bench warmer rather than a real player.

Change weakens people’s emotional attachment to the organization.
Some quit and leave. Others quit and stay—their names are still on the payroll, but their hearts don’t come back to work.
Re-recruit everyone you’ve decided to keep. Dedication isn’t going to show its face until you reconnect people to the organization.

To perform well while under pressure, we need to develop habits to work more effectively. Making the right decisions, engaging with others effectively, learning to manage our own emotions takes practice.

Driving Dedication During Change: A pocket guide for becoming an effective linchpin enables you with all the tools and tactics you need to make your interactions less stressful and more effective.