Remember the scene in “Friends” when Rachel felt pressured to start smoking? She felt excluded, because both her boss and her colleague used to disappear together for smoking breaks, and when they came back, the big decisions were made between the two of them.

This is a great example of a harmful cultural pattern, the phenomenon of “the inner circle”.

1) Such a tight-knit group of people can spread over several hierarchical levels.

2) Similar to a mafia family, it is all about fitting in and being part of the gang. The gang is often very close, whether at work or outside: it’s not unusual that they share hobbies like cycling or golfing, go regularly to grab a beer, or even vacation together.

3) Decisions get made behind closed doors, and new ideas get denied if they don’t originate from within this exclusive club. This lack of inclusivity can stifle innovation and creates a culture of distrust.

How to cope with this cultural pattern?

You can use the pattern by trying to get closer to one of the ‘gang’ members and place your idea in such a way that they accept it and go around promoting it as their own one.

While this is neither satisfactory nor changes anything about the situation, you might want to consider breaking the taboo around the situation and calling it out. When you start talking openly about this pattern, you allow others to talk about it too and call out ‘gang’-members, when they fall back into taking important decisions between them or declining any input from outside their circle.

By bringing this behavior from the cultural backstage onto the front stage, you can effectively challenge it and destabilize the circle of influence.

What about you? Where have you met this cultural pattern before? We would love to hear your story.