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Tribal Leadership
Book

Tribal Leadership

Leveraging Natural Groups to Build a Thriving Organization

Dave Logan, John King and Halee Fischer-Wright
HarperBusiness, 2008
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Editorial Rating

7

Qualities

  • Innovative
  • Applicable

Recommendation

Tribes naturally form within organizations. Wherever people gather to live and work, groups of between 20 and 150 members coalesce – parallel to villages within nations – and progress through five stages of development. Culture consultants David Logan and John King, writing with physician Halee Fischer-Wright, teach you how tribes and proficient tribal leadership can help you work and play well with others and bolster your career. The authors conducted extensive research on corporate tribes and interviewed many business leaders about the five-stage evolution of tribes within their organizations. Though the report seems somewhat less concrete in identifying exactly how people coalesce to form tribes, it makes for accessible reading, certainly compared to most organizational sociology. getAbstract finds that this exploration of tribes and teams can open readers’ eyes to the way people function within groups. Managers will find it revelatory, as will all those who can succeed only by working and playing well with others.

Summary

Tribes, in Stages

Tribes are factions of between 20 and 150 people that develop wherever humans gather for any purpose, including, but not limited to, business. If you own or work in a company, tribes surround you, complete with their “tribal leaders.” Most people are not aware of these tribes and their influence, but their importance becomes apparent when you realize that “the members of your tribe are probably programmed into your cellphone and your email address book.”

To “build a better organization,” your leaders’ goal should be to move your firm’s tribes to Stage Four, one step at a time. A few tribes may need to move to Stage Five, which produces industry-changing innovation.

If you are a Tribal Leader, help your co-workers reach higher levels with the goal of attaining Stage Four. Sometimes this process includes employees reaching an epiphany – for example, suddenly understanding that parking their careers at their current level is unfulfilling or impeding their goals. To aid this “journey through the stages,” coach members how to develop insights into their “dominant cultures,” the language they use and the associations they develop. Tribes within organizations...

About the Authors

Dave Logan and John King founded CultureSync, a consulting company. Logan teaches at the University of Southern California. King lectures internationally. CultureSync partner Halee Fischer-Wright, a physician, teaches at the University of Colorado School of Medicine.

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