TIHACC: A Lesson in Conformity, Clarity, and Leadership

When I was at school, something strange started happening.

One day, I noticed people writing TIHACC on the backs of their hands. At first, it seemed harmless, just another school-yard trend. I didn’t know what it meant, but more and more people had it written on their skin. Friends. Classmates. Familiar faces. (I’m pretty sure Mr. Tucker from science had it).

I asked a few of them what it stood for.

They didn’t know either.

That’s what struck me most. People were participating without understanding what they were participating in.

Eventually, I discovered where it had started. A girl I’d been out with - very popular, very influential - had instigated it. She’d told her closest friends first. They’d followed along. And then it spread, quickly and quietly, like wildfire.

One of her friends later told me, almost cheerfully, what TIHACC stood for:

The I Hate Andy Chevis Club.

(Clearly, she had decided I was not boyfriend material)

I still remember sitting in maths class, confronting a friend of mine who had the letters written on his hand. I told him what it meant. He looked genuinely shocked. He said he had no idea and that he would never have “joined” if he had.

Another friend, who overheard the conversation, didn’t say a word. He just quietly rubbed the letters off his hand.

That moment stayed with me.

Not because it was cruel (although it was), but because it revealed something far more unsettling: how easily people can become part of something they don’t understand.

Falling In Without Realising

Years later, I came across conformity theory, and that school-day memory made sense.

Conformity theory explains how individuals often adjust their behaviour, beliefs, or actions to align with a group, sometimes consciously, but often unconsciously. This can happen for many reasons:

• A desire to belong
• Fear of standing out
• Trust in the judgement of others
• Or simply assuming that “someone else must know more than I do”

In my story, nobody stopped to ask what TIHACC meant because everyone else seemed comfortable writing it. The behaviour spread before understanding did.

And that’s the critical point.

Conformity doesn’t require agreement. It only requires momentum.

When Conformity Enters Organisations

This same pattern shows up every day in organisations.

Unhelpful behaviours, rhythms, and processes often don’t exist because they are planned but because they’re familiar.

"This is just how we do things here."

"It’s always been done this way."

"No one really knows why but it’s the process."

Over time, people begin to:

• Work around processes rather than with them
• Create their own versions of “the right way”
• Skip steps they don’t understand
• Duplicate effort without realising it

Not out of defiance but out of conformity.

When people don’t understand why a process exists, they naturally adapt it to survive their day. Multiply that across teams and departments and you get:

• Inconsistency
• Confusion
• Rework
• Escalating costs
• And frustration on all sides

The organisation believes it has standardisation. In reality, it has silent divergence.

Just like my friends at school, people haven’t chosen to “join” something broken, they’ve simply fallen into it.

From Schoolyards to Social Media

Today, we see the same phenomenon everywhere.

On social media, ideas spread faster than reflection. Opinions are shared before they’re examined. Hashtags are adopted before their implications are understood. Outrage becomes contagious. Silence becomes compliance.

People don’t always join movements because they believe in them. They join because others already have.

And this doesn’t stop in adulthood. It doesn’t stop in organisations. It doesn’t stop at leadership level.

Social Momentum Is Not Strategic Alignment

But the same dynamic happens internally in organisations.

When leaders assume understanding without checking it, conformity fills the gap. People copy behaviours, mirror decisions, and follow patterns without ever knowing whether those patterns still serve the organisation’s goals.

Momentum replaces meaning.

Activity replaces effectiveness.

Leadershipand the First C: Clarity

This is where leadership responsibility becomes critical.

At LIW, we talk about the 3Cs, and the first is Clarity.

Clarity is often misunderstood as simply providing information. Leaders frequently believe clarity is achieved when they’ve shared:

• Clear strategies
• Clear goals
• Clear messages

A message can be sent, a document can be written but information alone is not clarity.

Clarity without understanding is just noise.

True clarity exists only when people don’t just receive information, but understand what it means, why it matters, and how it connects to them.

In the classroom, my friends had information (the letters). They lacked understanding (the meaning).

And without understanding, people default to conformity but just like my friend quietly removing the letters from his hand, with understanding comes choice and a chance for humanity and positive contribution to take root.

Why Understanding Creates Empowerment

When leaders focus only on transmitting information, they may gain compliance—but they lose ownership.

Understanding does something different, it creates empowerment:

• It gives people agency
• It enables better decisions
• It breeds ethical courage
• It creates performance that lasts

People who understand why they are doing something don’t need to blindly follow. They can think, question constructively, align intelligently, adapt, and contribute.

Understanding turns followers into participants.

It turns participation into ownership.

And ownership is where real performance lives.

A Final Reflection

As far as I’m aware, there are no remaining members of The I Hate Andy Chevis Club.

But the lesson remains.

Conformity is powerful.

It can quietly cause harm.

But it can also heal, unite, and inspire—if guided well.

Leadership isn’t about preventing conformity.

It’s about directing it with clarity, intention, and understanding.

Because the same force that once spread something hurtful across a school can, in the right hands, be used for extraordinary good.

And that responsibility, whether we like it or not sits with us.