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Tribal Leadership Tip #9

Jack — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 18:08:09 +0000

Tribal Tip of the Week #9:

Share Six Minutes of Tribal Leadership

We’re often asked if we have a short introduction to Tribal Leadership, so people can understand what all the buzz is about. Thanks to BNET (part of CNET), there’s now a free six-minute summary of the book.

Needle moving challenge:
Share the video and ask two questions of people: (1) which cultural stage best describes us, and (2) what can we do to move to the next stage? See Appendix A in the book for all the steps to moving from where you are to where you can go.

Tribal Leadership Tip #8

DaveLogan — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 17:34:20 +0000

Rekindle the Love for the Tribe

Have you ever fallen in love with a company? Perhaps with a corporate tribe within a company? In researching and writing Tribal Leadership, we interviewed thousands of people who said they had.

Most of them said they had fallen out of love for one reason or another—politics, the stresses of hitting the numbers, short-term financial thinking, or perhaps the actions of people at Stage Three (“I’m great and you’re not”). Great Tribal Leaders foster people falling in love with the tribe over and over.

You can do this. Here’s how:

Step one: Ask people why they chose to work there in the first place. Also ask about what they’re proudest of in their time with the organization.

Step two: As people give their answers, listen to the meaning behind the words. Try to hear the “sacred flame”–the essence of what makes this corporate tribe so great. It’ll be some combination of values and a noble cause, and what people feel in love with originally. We heard: “This place was inventing the future of technology!”, “I love the ambitions of people to change the world”, “we said we wanted to do what no one had ever done before!”

Step three: In meetings, or casual conversations, talk about the “sacred flame,” and encourage others to do the same. The more people talk about the sacred flame, the more it’s real for the them. You’ll find people—yourself included—fall in love over and over again, and are inspired at the same time.

Needle moving challenge:
Once people are connected to the sacred flame of the tribe, and have fallen in love with the tribe again, ask them (as a group): “What initiative can we start that will be an expression of the sacred flame?” Said differently, “what does the sacred flame suggest we do?” Wait for the idea that makes everyone say, “Yes! That’s it!” Not only will the group be reengaged, but many petty problems will fall away.

Tribal Leadership Tip #7

DaveLogan — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 20:16:05 +0000

Get Out of Your Own Way

People at Stage Two undermine themselves. By allowing apathy to swallow them, they surrender to mediocrity. Dr. Mark Goulston, author of Get Out of Your Own Way at Work…and Help Others Do the Same, points out the dark side of Stage Two for the individual:

There are few things that cause people to lose more respect for you than engaging in behaviors that affect your productivity and that of your team such as procrastinating, getting defensive, not listening, being unprepared, making excuses or wasting time and then having the insolence to minimize the damage they cause.

So what is there to do?

Needle Moving Challenge:

Get out of your own way! Make a deal with someone else that they will let you know when you’re getting in your way, in exchange for doing the same for them.

Tribal Leadership Tip #6

DaveLogan — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 17:13:40 +0000

Speak in Stages 2-5

We’ve heard hundreds of speeches from company leaders and most are as impactful as generic mayonnaise.

The reason is that most speeches are written in Stage Five, and most people (96%) are in Stages Two, Three and Four. Thus, they come across like bad graduation addresses—vague, filled with platitudes, having no relation to people’s lives.

Being a Tribal Leader means touching everyone, and this means speaking to Stages Two through Five.

Consider one of the greatest speeches of all time–Martin Luther King Jr’s “I Have a Dream.” It was immediately relevant to millions of people, and continues to move people today. Notice his words:

Stage Two: “…the [African American] lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity.”

Stage Three: “I say to you today, my friends, that in spite of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment, I still have a dream.”

Stage Four: “With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.”

Stage Five: “…we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, ‘Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!’

Needle Moving Challenge:

Next time you give a speech, include sentiments and aspirations from all the stages in your tribe.

Tribal Leadership Tip #5

DaveLogan — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 17:52:48 +0000

Ban Night of the Living Dead Conversations

Most organizations have lots of Stage Three (“I’m great and you’re not”) bullies who thrive on dropping the culture around them to Stage Two (“My life sucks.”) Remember, Stage Three and Stage Two have an inherent dysfunctional relationship with one another. One of their techniques is to have a ready supply of “I will crush you like a bug” stories they can use to put anyone back in their place. Here are some we heard while writing Tribal Leadership:

1. Remember when you did ______ and I saved you?

2. Don’t talk to me about teamwork, because you did _______ a year ago.

3. This is ironic coming from you. Remember ______?

Like Night of the Living Dead–a movie where zombies would rise from the grave over and over—these lines open conversations that never go anywhere, never resolve anything and never make life better for anyone. They are tactics of control and manipulation. It’s time to elevate the cultural conversation.

Needle Moving Challenge

In the movie, zombies would only die if they were shot in the head. Here’s how to shoot these “Night of the Living Dead” conversations in the head so they won’t rise again:

1. Next time a Stage Three bully drags one of these conversations up, say the following: “I’ll talk about this on one condition…when we’re done with this conversation today, we’re done with it. Deal?”

2. Send the bully an e-mail saying that you’re grateful you two resolved the issue, and because its resolved, you will both will never bring it up again.

3. Next time the person brings up the issue, remind him or her that you’ve moved past that issue. If that doesn’t work, say “you’re the one who agreed we were done with this.” Pull up the e-mail if necessary.

Stage Four can only form when you’ve effectively dealt with bullies and elevate the conversation.

Tribal Leadership Tip #4

DaveLogan — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 01:08:16 +0000

Get Out the Managerial Weed Whacker

We’re often asked why companies with great cultures don’t always stay great. Over time, most slip in the self-interests of Stage Three or the “my life sucks” of Stage Two.

One of the reasons for this slide is that people deal with temporary problems (budget shortfalls, reimbursement policies, appraisal processes, etc.) with new policies, systems, processes and procedures. Each one, taken on its own, is a good idea. But the mass of them squeezes out creativity, innovation, and the excitement of Stage Four. People begin to say, “my job sucks because I can’t get anything done that I want done, and nothing I do seems to matter.” The solution is to have meetings every month, and no less than each quarter and, as a group, figure out what bureaucratic weeds need to meet the managerial weed whacker, so that the tribe is free to make their highest contributions.

Needle moving challenge–get everyone together and ask the following questions:

1. What values unite our tribe?

2. What do our values insist that we stop doing?

3. What do our values insist that we start doing—that will make an immediate difference in our business?

Tribal Leadership Tip #3

DaveLogan — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 19:56:09 +0000

Five Whys to Values

A key leverage point from moving Stage Three to Stage Four is to align people on shared values. So how do figure out what people value?

A quick way is to ask individuals what they’re proud of, such as a, work accomplishment. Ask why they are proud of that. Ask “why” again until you hit a value that’s so core people have no answer about why it’s important, other than it is. One person in one of our sessions said creativity is important to him. ”Why?” we asked. ”Well, because…ahhh…creativity is so important to everything.” Translation: it’s important because it is–a sign of a core value.

With most people, asking why between three and five times will get to a core value.

Needle Moving Challenge:

Once you find what people value, see what core value(s) they share. Then ask the tribe this question: what new initiative would bring that value to life?

Tribal Leadership Tip #2

DaveLogan — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 14:56:42 +0000

Tribal Tip of the Week #2:

Elevate Individuals out of Stage Two.

Tribal Leaders advance each member of their their tribe to the next stage. Most groups have members stuck at Stage Two, where the mantra is, ”my life sucks.” Such individuals come across as victims, lacking ambition and desire, and are not willing to try anything new. When people at this stage form a critical mass in a tribe, it becomes entrenched in mediocrity.

So what do you do?

Find the individuals at Stage Two who want their situation to change. Meet with them offline from the rest of the tribe, and mentor them by:

   1. Helping them see their strengths.
   2. Working with them to pick small projects where they can shine.
   3. Speak about their abilities, and their recent development, with others in the tribe, so that their tribal reputation shifts.

Your goal is to get that person up to Stage Three, where the mantra is, “I’m great.”

Needle Moving Challenge:

Find the individuals in your tribe who have recently made the leap from Stage Two to Stage Three. Give them this challenge: Can you mentor someone else at Stage Two to become the star performer that you are becoming?

This technique causes mentoring to ricochet throughout the tribe, moving as many as are willing to Stage Three. From there, you can go to Four, and then to Five.

Tribal Leadership Tip #1

DaveLogan — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 23:46:55 +0000

Three is the new two.

The most valuable relationships are not made of two people, they’re made of three. A third person will always stabilize and grow the relationship between the other two. It’s called a triad, and the more you create, the stronger your network.

So next time you go to Starbucks, take two professional contacts and introduce them (or deepen their relationship with each other), on the basis of what motivates them, a mutual interest, or a shared project. Listen for the values underneath it all when your companions speak. Discover mutuality. Then say what connects the two people at a deep level. You will instantly create a triad – the building block of a Stage Four culture and the basis of great Tribes.

Recession Proofing Your Business: Part 1

robert — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 10:11:37 +0000

Is there a secret to so-called “recession-proofing” in business? Can you still improve performance, products, and productivity when the going gets tough?

The answer to both these questions is a resounding yes…if you know how to build a world-class culture. The process is straightforward, and any company would do well to follow its lessons.
Many companies plan and then rely on forecasted orders. In a downturn demand becomes unstable and unpredictable, and so the very key to our survival seems outside our control. This is an opportunity to take a lesson from the service industry, in which many businesses have to reinvent themselves every few years. Truth be told, some people and companies not only weather recessions but also flourish in them. Here’s how you can count yourself among those who thrive.

Identify and Understand Your Tribes
The key to recession proofing your company is to identify the basic building block of companies–it isn’t leaders, or departments, or divisions. It’s a naturally occurring group we call a “tribe”— between 20 and 150 people. In any corporation there may be a leadership tribe, a management tribe, a research and development tribe, and a line tribe.

Companies that survive and flourish in a recession have to become smart, and fast. Quickly develop new ideas—for changes in processes, exploring new markets, revising products, and how to partner with your supply chain in new ways. Remember that companies are only as smart as their tribes. Although tribes form in your company without your effort—only 22% are strong enough to survive and thrive the predicted economic downturn. In our landmark study of 24,000 people across multiple industries over ten years, only 22 percent of corporate tribes show the hallmarks of being recession proof. No matter what happens in the economy, they will find a way to thrive.

To get to this stage, however, a leader must have a clear understanding of the tribes “stages”—of all the tribal cultures—and see which one runs the show in his company. You can do this just by observing the social groups that exist in your company, and listen to the way they talk. Is it “life stinks” (Stage One), “my life stinks” (Stage Two), “I’m great” (Stage Three), “we’re great” (Stage Four) or “life is great” (Stage Five)? The 48% of workplace tribes in the U.S. operate in Stage Three. This is where the theme is “I’m great, and you’re not.” In this culture, knowledge is power, and so people hoard it, from client contacts to gossip. People at this stage have to win, and winning is personal. They’ll out-work, think, and maneuver their competitors. The mood that results is a collection of “lone warriors,” wanting help and support and being disappointed that others don’t have their ambition or skill. Stage 3 tribes wont survive the recession, only Stage 4 tribes will.

To move your tribe to Stage 4, identify your tribe’s leverage points and use those to help your tribe transition to the next immediate stage. For example, tribal leaders intervene in Stage Three by identifying people’s individual values and then seeing which cut across the tribe. Point out the values that unite people, and then construct initiatives that bring these values to life. This is key to moving such a tribe to Stage Four, which is where a company gains that recession-proof vest.