I recently attended a workshop where I was a participant in an exercise.  It was an exercise where we were each labeled with a tag that we couldn't see, but that the other volunteers for this exercise could see.  As the volunteers, we had a task to perform.  The experience was pretty powerful for me. 

As participants in the exercise, I was struck by how we all waited for the others in the exercise to give us a cue as to our label so we knew how to behave.  This wouldn't be that interesting except that we were given the instructions that were to behave as normal, but we were to treat the OTHERS based on their label.  However, it was very clear that all of us waited to be shown how we were supposed to behave.  It was scary how quickly I packed up my leader, type-A personality and becamse passive and reactive. 

This caused me to think about how powerful expectations and culture could be.  If we would so easily give up our identity so quickly in an exercise with very low stakes, think about how much adapting we might do where we care about keeping our job or earning a promotion.  If the cultures of our organizations or teams aren't open and embracing of difference where people can bring them true selves to work, think about how much we are losing. 

-Jason