Customer Reviews

Tribal Leadership: Leveraging Natural Groups to Build a Thriving Organization

5 star:		(66)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

To all those wondering "Why?" and "How?" certain organizations are more productive than their peers, Logan, King and Fischer-Wright have some concrete answers. In their landmark book, "Tribal Leadership", they explore the essence of organizational culture. What they have uncovered is a dynamic at least 15,000 years in the making, and at the heart of all human organizations: the tribe. We operate in a "tribe"-a group of 20 to 150 people- in which important decisions are made and productivity is determined. Larger organizations are "tribes of tribes". Five stages describe the evolution of the tribe, from savage and dysfunctional to innovative and powerfully inspirational. What sets this work apart is its practical advice on both identifying the stage of the tribe and the means to advance to the next stage. Laced with real-life examples, the book is eminently readable. There is no doubt it will transform the reader, no matter where their own tribe finds itself. They will understand the difference between leading and commanding.

The most insightful management book I've read since business school.

The book starts with an accessible framework for evaluating corporate cultures, each with instantly recognizable traits -- from the DMV to Apple to your company. Stage 1: Life sucks. Stage 2: My life sucks. Stage 3: I'm great (and you're not). Stage 4: We're great (and they're not). Stage 5: Life is great.

While the vast majority of the working world is stuck in stages 2 and 3, Tribal Leadership delivers tools to help individuals and organizations break through to the next evolutionary stage. I found this a powerful, pragmatic and surprisingly fun read.

What I liked:
Rich insights into human behaviour, group dynamics and individual motivation.
Very useful, structured and specific suggestions - in essence, management tips that can be applied.
More readable than the average business book - well written.
I would have liked:
Less of a "consultant hard sell" tone. I think there's an emerging pattern of consultant academics writing books that over-sell the observations within, and verge on style exceeding substance. There is good stuff in this book, and the tips appear sensible, but the constant "move up one level at a time" to "the fifth level that we don't even know yet" ...maybe it's just me, but I think this book would benefit by turning down the volume; not every set of consultants' observations needs to promise a transformed world - it's not going to happen. I think this is a common problem in current business literature.
Summary:
In my view, a very accessible and useful book that possibly over-estimates its own "system".
I'd recommend it to young managers as a very good introduction to organisational dynamics, and to entrepreneurs who need a little help understanding the motivations of their employees.
This book probably augments "Good To Great" quite nicely - if you liked that, you might like this; I'd read "Good To Great" first.

PROS:

* Provides a researched system of classifying organizations and businesses as "tribes" that is easy to apply.
* Has useful ideas for helping people "tribe up" and improve their relations and improve organizational relations.
* Very readable and understandable.
* Doesn't pull punches on some of the conclusions.


CONS:

* Some historical interpretations are arguable.


SUMMARY: Buy this book and read it unless you have no interest in community, leadership, and business. In that case you're probably not even reading this blog.

Leadership books. I've been getting tired of them ever since people started deciding "The Art of War" could by applied to businesses if you ignored all the war, killing, use of fire, and soforth in the book. Everyone talks about Leadership in business and in the world, but as I don't see any improvement out there as the amount of lame Leadership books increase, so I assume most of these texts aren't that useful.

At the same time, I'm very interested of issues in Leadership since I don't see nearly enough of it. I see bean-counting management, rock-star style poseurs, and exploitative jerks with a narrative. I don't see enough leadership in business, politics, media, or more - real, rallying, directing, powerful leadership.

Tribal Leadership is the kind of book I've been waiting for. It not only explores issue of leadership, mostly (but not entirely) dealing with business, but issues of culture, organization, and community. In many ways its a book of applied sociology that happens to focus mostly on business.

Based on research covering a decade, the book lays out a very clear thesis:

1. Humans naturally form tribes.
2. These tribes can be classified into 5 types each with a unique attitude towards life, and become more functional as you move from Type 1 to Type 5.
3. It is possible to coach people and groups to "tribe up" the scale to become more cohesive, functional, and productive (and in some cases at least less pathological)


The book is split between describing the theories, and describing how people and groups can advance from lower to higher Tribal levels. Each chapter leads naturally to the next, and handy checklists and bulletpoints help you keep track of important ideas. This clear focus and organization makes the book easy to read, refer to, and use.

As for the theory itself? It's simple and intuitive Essentially there are five tribal types, each defined by an attitude of members:
Level 1 - "Life Sucks" - pathological, gang-like, angry.
Level 2 - "My Life Sucks" - a mix of learned helplessness, bitterness.
Level 3 - "I'm Great" - Productive and dynamic but egocentric.
Level 4 - "We're Great" - tribe-oriented, creative, productive, tight.
Level 5 - "Life Is Great" - Big-picture, tribe-connecting.

You can probably guess right now which level you and your friends and co-workers function at (hint: you're probably also wrong).

The theory itself is extremely applicable in my experience, and the authors give extensive information to help you understand where you and your various organizations fit on the tribal scale. The clear boundaries of levels, straightforward explanations, and explanations of the classifications helps you use this theory and see the sheer lack of B.S. Just be prepared for a few ego-bruises because most people think they function higher than they do (and this book will puncture your illusions).

The theory comes with tips, advice, and directions for raising tribal level of people and organization. These sections are straightforward with excellent detail, from things to try, to signs to look for to identify personal progress. Again there's a refreshing lack of B.S. here.

So is the book flawless? No. There's a few moments of historical reference and metaphor that seem stretched or that I disagree with. There could be some better explanation of techniques at a few points.

These are minor concerns.

Here's what you need to know about this book- you should read it unless you have a reason not to, like a lack of money or being currently dead.

How much did I like this book? I've given two copies as gifts and my Kindle edition is filled with notes, I've joined a group to discuss it, founded another, and am discussing applying it's philosophy with other people. Yeah, I was impressed.

This is a must-read

According to Dave Logan, in the work place, there are 5 tribal stages. Stage One's theme is "Life sucks"; Stage Two "My life sucks"; Stage Three "I am great and you are not"; Stage Four "we are great and they are not" and Stage Five "Life is great".

Stage Three represents 49% of workplace. That means while people often preach the need for teams, their behavior shows that they discourage teaming - unless it is a situation where they can be the star. The performance review system makes the culture more individualistic. People attempt to outperform each other. The language they use expresses "I am great" and in the background unstated is "and you are not". They hoard information to keep power. They rely on gossip and spies for political information. They are hungry for tips, tools and techniques that will keep them ahead of their competition. They talk about values and focus on "my values". The cost is that they have many blind spots, don't have enough time and don't get enough support. They can't get to the next level.

The purpose of the book is to build great companies, and this means getting you and your tribe to Stage Four - 22% of the workplace. They walk in values and want to collaborate. They are happy, inspired, genuine and identify with each other. They work less and produce more. They communicate more information, more often and with transparency.

A very well researched and written book, with practical insight.
The eight years they spent on the study of more than two dozen organizations was time well spent.
They show how tribes in the workplace naturally form and how each stage progresses.
The text clearly shows how leaders within organizations that fail to understand what motivates their tribe will have a difficult time creating success.

This book is an excellent tool to help the leadership in any organization define what stage they are currently at and how they can move their tribe to the next stage with positive results.

I've read more than 20 Leadership books in the last 6 years and this one easily makes my top 5.

Length:: 1:54 Mins

I've read a lot of business books and most of them I think about once and rarely even think about it. With Tribal Leadership I find it applicable whenever I talk about work, or talk to someone about their company. (more in the video)

After hearing a presentation on the concepts of Tribal Leadership, I immediately saw the clear connection to most business models and the relative ease of implementation. At my company, we motivate our teams by leveraging shared values to build cohesive relationships. Tribal Leadership has given my executives a true systematic approach to raising the performance potential of their teams. It brought instant calibration to our assessment efforts and took the guess work out of selecting tactics to move individuals forward to a state of mind where they are performing well, focusing on team results and obtaining more satisfaction from the workplace. "We're Great!" I highly recommend!!

I have read many books on leadership, and this one really broke through to a deeper level of understanding for me. My key takeaway is that people within organizations operate within complex systems, or tribes. Better still, the book outlined how to leverage these natural tribes for the betterment of the entire organization. This book offers a great analysis of how culture impacts performance without simplifying the idea by assuming that there is a single monolithic culture within an organization. This book takes a deep look at how high-performance cultures impact the success of a company, and I use the concepts from "Tribal Leadership" within my own business on a daily basis.

It isn't often that I read a business management book that I can't stop talking about, but I absolutely loved Tribal Leadership: Leveraging Natural Groups to Build a Thriving Organization by David Logan, John King, and Halee Fischer-Wright. Over a 10-year period, the trio studied 24,000 individuals in 24 organizations, researching employee behavior in terms of the groups they form (tribes) and those who assume leadership roles (tribal leaders). In particular, the authors wanted to find some link between the tribes and their leaders that explains how great leaders emerge, develop new skills, and leave a standing legacy where they work.

The book looks at the workplace in terms of small groups, or "tribes," often created along the lines of department (operations, IT, support staff), status (new employees, hourly employees), personal characteristic (gender, race), or any varied set of values. Accordingly, employees can belong to more than one tribe at the same time. Tribal leaders are challenged with harnessing the synergistic energy inherent in any group of people and using the collective power of the group to bring about change, achieve goals, and eventually, create remarkable success for the company.

Using descriptions provided by the authors, readers can categorize their tribes as being in Stage 1 (the most rudimentary, ineffective groups) through Stage 5 (high performing companies with goals above simple market success). A tribal leader's job is to figure out which stage their tribe is in and "upgrade" the tribe using management techniques heavily influenced by the company's cultural values and vision. The book provides useful tips for dealing with groups at each stage, as well as behaviors that indicate you've succeeded in moving tribes up from one stage to another. Written as both a research report and how-to manual, the book is both highly readable and easy to relate to, with numerous real-life examples, interviews with CEOs, and links to further research material.

I particularly loved the realistic tone of the material -- so many management books are all roses and sunshine with a "Do this, and you'll be great too!" spin. Tribal Leadership is sometimes brutal in its honesty, acknowledging that some employees (and some companies) simply won't advance through the five stages, no matter how great a leader you are -- sometimes you have to cut the dead weight in order to catapult the tribe to a new stage.

Readers of this book will be exposed to a wealth of insight into the groups they work with, and will receive invaluable tips on how to propel both themselves and their groups into the next level of development. This book will be just as useful for a small start-up group as it will for a large public entity, and should be on the bookshelf of anyone who has ever admired the seemingly impossible success of companies like Apple, IDEO, Griffin Hospital, and more. It is a longer read than many management books (250 pages in hardback, with densely-packed text), but well worth the time if you're working with an organization that seems to be stuck in a rut or has cultural and morale issues.

In short, this is one of the best management books I have read in years. I highly recommend it, whether you're a middle manager suffering under an authoritarian boss, or a CEO who wants to develop a company dedicated to more than just profit margins and stock prices.