How Trump Leverages the Groupness Factor

Let me say this up front: I'm not a political person and this article is in no way meant to be political. What I want to demonstrate is a principle unfolding right in front of our eyes that I described in 2006 in my first book "The Groupness Factor".

Now, I'm pretty certain that Donald Trump did not read my book (apparently he doesn't like reading too much) , but he quite effectively applies the principles that I described and you will see how you could possibly leverage the same principles for higher leadership effectiveness yourself.

'Groupness' is defined as the sense of belonging to a group. I distinguished 'con-groupness' (= constructive groupness which supports leaders in achieving their goals) and 'dis-groupness' (disruptive groupness which hinders leaders in achieving their goals).

In the case of Donald Trump, we can see both in action, one more overtly (con-groupness) and the other more covertly (dis-groupness).

Dis-groupness seems at play within the Trump administration if recent reports are to be believed, especially the anonymous op-ed published by the New York Times "I am Part of the Resistance inside the Trump Administration". It describes how a significant number of senior officials 'gang up' to undermine Trump's actions. In that mission they appear to have developed groupness that binds them together with the mission of undermining Trump's objectives, hence I call it dis-groupness.

Con-groupness induced by Trump is much more visible though. It probably becomes most visible during Trump's (in-)famous campaign rallies. You can observe how otherwise reasonable and moderate people get fired up and feel that intense sense of belonging with a crowd of mostly strangers. And this kind of groupness serves Trump as the 'group' is supporting his ambitions.

So what generates groupness?

Through my research, I found that there are three elements that play a role:

• Direction (Vision / Mission / Strategy / Major Goals)
• Differentiation (how are we different from others)
• Identity (Values, Culture, Image)

1) Let's start with Direction: I said already before the presidential election in 2016 that Trump is getting the most important component of Direction right and that we should not underestimate it: Mission or Purpose. "Make America Great Again" is a very catchy, appealing and easy to communicate mission, that attracted especially those voters whose situation was not that great and who blamed it on previous administrations.

Trump's vision and strategy overall was less clear, though I would say he had some very clear goals (tax reform, Mexican border wall, etc.) that he kept communicating tirelessly.

2) The element Identity that contributes to higher levels of groupness is perhaps the one where Trump is weakest. His personal values are barely visible and also for the country, there seems a value erosion under his administration. The only key values that I can gather as an observer include 'Winning', 'Money' and 'Power'.

However, in terms of 'image' as part of the Identity, Trump successfully leveraged social media (especially Twitter) and more traditional media to communicate his greatness as perceived by himself.

3) Now let's get to the most important aspect of Groupness: Differentiation. My research shows that differentiation is the most powerful of all 3 aspects that drive groupness. "Us versus Them" is - like it or not (I don't) - still very powerful. And he uses this approach extensively in his speeches.

In my book I described why this is the case, why differentiation until today is so powerful. In a nutshell, it has to do with evolution and how human beings lived for 3-6 Million years before civilisation emerged about 10,000 years ago. In fact, effective differentiation often was a matter of life and death. So it's no wonder that 0.15-0.3% of human evolution could not do away with what was crucial for 99.7-99.85% of our evolutionary time.

At the same time, humans have tremendously evolved in the last 10,000 years, much more than in all the other parts of evolutionary time combined. So we have developed the ability to resist the forces of groupness if we consciously recognise it for what it is and disagree with the direction of the leader. Unfortunately, still a large number of people on the planet lack that awareness and simply get drawn in even if deep down they actually don't believe in the cause of the leader. Being part of 'us' versus them can override the lack of appeal for what the leader stands for. I believe also this dynamic is playing out right in front of our eyes.

As Trump in recent weeks is ramping up the divisions (us versus them) even more, we should not be too surprised if the mid-term election results in November turn out better for the Republicans than expected, especially since the Democrats seem not to leverage the elements of groupness in the same fashion.

In my book I do not only refer to political leaders and their leverage of the Groupness Factor, but in fact focused more on how corporate leaders can make use of it with their team and/or organization. Current events in the USA provide an instructive demonstration of groupness at work.