Unafraid to speak of spirituality (“it might freak your readers out”), he describes creating a great team as a spiritual challenge. “If you look at the definition of spirituality that is it: it is individuals connected to a higher purpose than their own and emotional communion between people.” Humans need to belong, it is an element of performance. “We try to signal to players that this is a place where you belong. You are respected, this is a safe place, we want you to be yourself and express yourself.” Why has his work had such an impact in different fields? It’s so refreshing to hear the traditionally “soft” language that Eastwood uses – emotions, spirituality, connection, vulnerability, wellbeing – set convincingly in the arena of “hard” performance at the highest level under the greatest pressure. Eastwood is unequivocal that his work is not warm and fuzzy, but goes to the heart of performing in high pressure, highly scrutinised situations: “Belonging has a profound effect on behaviour … We have this need to belong. If the need is fulfilled, it becomes quite profound in terms of managing your own stress. We have a capacity to communicate at a much higher level. Our communication skills, particularly for males, are much better when you feel you belong. A copy of Eastwood's new book, Belonging , was given to every England player when they reported for duty at the European Championships' - Telegraph

Why would you turn a blind eye to such a valuable lessons within our Us story? When a culture’s resilience is questioned through a mistake or malpractice, the story must be “carved into the walls” so that our descendants can learn from them. Culture never stands still. Every day it shifts. How we deal with new stations redefines who we really are and how we really do things. When new people come into the environment and others leave, the dynamic changes. One of the great risks in sustaining a strong culture is where there is a transition between leaders. We do not want our leaders’ personal beliefs forced upon us - we want our tribe’s authentic values articulated. And we don’t want rules - we want values to aspire to that define what it means to be part of our tribe.Belonging is a must-read for anyone interested in building a long term high-performing team.' - Stuart Lancaster Beyond kin, this concept of Whakapapa frames our connection to any group we belong to. It is a universal idea and one that Eastwood has coached on around the world. An interesting read on high-performance cultures with a solid set of principles built on primal instincts rather than MBA speak. Loses its focus for the final third of the book where it begins to feel slightly rushed but a very interested read nonetheless. Once more, the more emotional weight attached to a vision, the stronger these neural pathways will be. In his work, Eastwood has found that producing bespoke films of the team’s identity and vision particularly effective in creating this emotional weight.

When asked to describe the culture he had observed, he said “there is no coherent culture … the coach is king or queen. If my child was to come here, I would have no clue what their experience would be, it would completely depend on who they end up with as a coach”. Eastwood is clear that this is a failure of leadership at the top, “deferring and subcontracting culture to coaches”. We leak energy and focus by obsessing over the unsafe environment and relations around us and the pressure builds.It is a phrase I remember Southgate using during his first World Cup campaign as England manager in 2018, confusing journalists who had asked him what success looked like, expecting him to respond with a World Cup finishing position. Eastwood reframes what ambition and success in sport should be. Eastwood regularly uses emotive films to share and also introduce new people to the team culture or help them along in defining it.

In whakapapa terms, as the sun arrives on each generation their high purpose is passed on to them and they ask the question: what do we need to do to promote the wellbeing of our people? Therein lies their mission. That means no complex models, no fancy diagrams. Eastwood draws on our “evolutionary super strength” to connect and belong that seems so blindingly obvious, you wonder how it ever dropped out of sport. Working “in the shadows”, offering a sounding board to captains, coaches and chief executives, Eastwood urges them to embrace emotions. A copy of Eastwood's new book, Belonging, was given to every England player when they reported for duty at the European Championships' - TelegraphWe can make people feel a deep sense of belonging immediately by giving an induction to the individual with an Us story, an induction to the history of the team or project and allow them to connect with that history and Us story personally. Even a personal conversation with the leader to explain the new recruits role within the tribe really helps. Belonging is a vital book for our disconnected and leaderless times. It’s one whose lessons should be taught in schools across the world, because the power of creating a sense of togetherness could help heal our fractured society. Eastwood believes responsibility for culture must sit at the top of sporting organisations. He argues that boards should be setting the “cultural blueprint” for their sporting environments, not leaving it up to the whims of the latest head coach. If you want to get the best out of people in the Ryder Cup team or football team or Royal Ballet School or whatever, you have to connect them to something bigger than themselves and connect them to people around them.”