· Karin Hochsticher · Culture · 2 min read
The Inner Circle: Is Your Company Run by a Gang?
Inner circles — small groups making decisions behind closed doors — can quietly stifle innovation and breed distrust. Here is how to recognize this cultural pattern and start calling it out.
Think of the classic sitcom moment where one character feels excluded because their boss and a colleague conduct business during smoking breaks, making key decisions without broader team input. It’s funny on screen – but it’s a great example of a harmful cultural pattern: the phenomenon of the inner circle.
What Defines an Inner Circle?
An inner circle is a small group within an organization that quietly holds outsized influence over decisions. It tends to show up in a few characteristic ways:
- These groups can span multiple hierarchical tiers.
- Members function like an exclusive club with shared external activities – cycling, golf, social outings, vacations – prioritizing “fitting in and being part of the gang.”
- 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?
There are two common approaches: positioning your ideas through gang members – which is generally ineffective – or breaking the taboo around the situation and calling it out.
By discussing the pattern openly, employees can challenge exclusionary decision-making behavior, ultimately moving this dynamic from the cultural backstage onto the front stage, where it can actually be addressed.
Have you experienced this phenomenon in your own workplace? We’d love to hear about it.
