Tribes

OutlineWhat is Tribe? Crowd vs. Tribe

Organizations vs.

factories

Tighten the tribe

A group of people

Connected to one another

Connected to a leader

Connected to an idea

A Tribe Defined

A shared interest

A way to communicate

Requirements of a Tribe

Joel Spolsky –Runs a small software company

Passion- Talking about how a small software company is run

Writes blogs and books

Extremely famous amongst software programmers, has created tribe

Certainly not. Internet has removed all communication barriers

Facebook, Ning, Meetup, Twitter, Squidoo, Basecamp new channels of communication

Are Tribes Local?

Jacqueline Novogratz – Founder, Acumen Fund (Involving 20 countries)

Inspiring entrepreneurs to create products/services to enrich people

Has a tribe of donors, employees, entrepreneurs and supporters

Tribes are everywhere

Inside and outside organizations, in public and private, in non-profits and classrooms

Tribes are about belief in idea, in leaders and in the community

It is about respect for the tribe

The Opportunity and Belief

Working on stuff we believe in is much more satisfying

Factory centric model of producing things is no longer profitable, we need change

Consumers are spending money on fashion, on things that matter not on factory-produced commodities

The Realizations

Need a change

Need Heretics,

people who challenge the

status quo

Marketplace rewards heretics, trouble

makers and change agents

They bring innovative solutions,

solutions that are simpler

and that matter

Outcomes

Leading from the bottom

Elon Musk Steve Jobs Thomas Barnett

Empowering the tribe, thus

creating a

movement

Establishin

g foundation for people to communicate

Inciting a

movement rathe

r than tellin

g how bring chan

ge

Transformi

ng share

d interest into passionat

e goals

What does it take?

What Market Wants?

• Market don’t want boring, they want

remarkability, novelty and style

• Market is bored with yesterday and want

tomorrow

• Good enough was past, today it has to be

great enough

Crowd is tribe without leader

There is no communication within crowd

Most companies target crowd

Smart companies target tribe

Crowd vs. Tribe

Average is Mediocre

Do you have Fans?• Average is good in stable environment

• The motto is to build reliability,

predictability, cut cost and make profit

• Traditional marketer: standard product for

standard market

• Average is mediocre for tribes and is boring

• No difference between average and

mediocre

• Average is taken for granted

• Someone who care deeply about you and your work

• An artist need only thousand true fans• Thousand is enough because they form a

tribe• Don’t look for numbers, look for fans with

depth of commitment• Hard to find and precious, need generosity

and bravery

Twitter and Trust The Status Quo

Initiative=Happiness

• Twitter build trust, slowly, provide true fans

• Consistent touch with tribe

• Tighten the relationship with followers

• Winners break status quo• Inspire others to change the rules => Thrive• Changing status quo =>opportunity to be

remarkable

• Innovation is rewarded• Creativity is fun• Doing such work is engaging• Making successful things=> Great way to spend time

With enough leverage, you can change the world

Status quo is in big trouble => King can not remain kind

Make something bigger than yourself => People will follow you

A Simple Example

Crowbars

• Scott Beale=> Innovator, Leader and hence Impresario

• Walked into deserted bar after waiting for long to enter into Google party

• Tweeted about being in designated place• Scores of people came• Deserted bar => Line at the door• People follow you if you earn respect and

permission of tribe

A Brief History of The Factory

The BeginningFactories are efficientGood way to make profitMeasurable output, reduced costStability and absence of responsibilityGovernment job in India: no surprises and stable payNO motivation to make a difference

The EndCompanies lost growth => Factory worker lost jobsAbsence of responsibility => illusion of deniabilityReap benefits => Imagine and provide insightsControl what you do => Authority over own time and effortsCan’t achieve it in factory

The F Word

Organizations vs. Factories

We need organizations, we

don’t need factories

Ability to create complex product

Provide muscle and consistency to get product

into market

Have scale to care for large tribes

Filled with smart , fast and flexible people with a

mission

Factories can slow you down

Factories are easy to outsource

Organizations require

leadership

• Fear => Reason why not all does innovation

• Will to make ideas happen is missing

• Winning idea is the one with most fearless heretic mind behind it

The Peter Principle Revisited

It All Falls Apart If ->

Fight Your Fear

• Fear is emotion => Very strong• We are eagerly waiting to see an fearless fail• If you want to do something => Make clear

that world needs change• Everything is ready for change => only fear is

holding you back

• In hierarchy, every employee tend to rise to

his level of incompetence

• Promoted until ends up in job that one can’t

handle

• Can’t handle because one gets paralysed

with fear• The one who is leading is fearful

• Many entrepreneur fail just because of this

Fear of Failure is Overrated

It will win if it spreads, it will spread if it is not boring

Its horrible to work for organization that does not want change

The IDEA Which Wins

• It is an excuse• Organization bear failure and not you• We choose not be remarkable because we are worried about criticism• When others are criticized, we believe that same will happen to us• Constructive criticism is terrible, no one challenges it• Criticism is a proof that you are not boring• Weigh in the bad feeling of criticism and benefits from doing remarkable and decide• Find what can you create that critics with criticize because they are meant to

The Way to Lead!

Why They Exist?

The Cult of Heretic• Engaged, passionate and more

powerful than everyone else

• They challenge status quo

• They believe

• Not for getting their statue built

• They exist to help the tribe

• Great leaders don’t want attention BUT

they use it

• To lead the tribe and not take from tribe

• There is no right way

• Understand what is authentic leadership

• Understand how to create a tribe

• Connect and inspire, DON’T manage

Leadership is Scarce• Don’t be tempted to make tribe bigger• A tribe which communicate quickly is the one which thrives

How to Tighten the Tribe? • Because not many are willing to go through

discomfort required to lead• Discomfort come from:

• Standing in front of strangers• Proposing an idea which might fail• Challenging the status quo• Resisting the urge to settle

• If there discomfort, leader is required there

• If you are feeling discomfort, you are not

reaching the leadership potential

Tighten the Tribe

Spread the word to the unreached

Spread the word within the tribe

Blogging is powerful, it allows

discussion and knowledge sharing

Use online medium like

Twitter, Facebook and Basecamp

They are not substitute for the

hard work and generosity

FollowersLean in, Back Off But

Don’t do Nothing• Group creates a vacuum where everyone is waiting

for something to happen• Figure out how to step into vacuum and create

motion• Those who don’t do anything are afraid of

something that’s not out there• Sometimes its good to set stage and step back• Backing off is not doing nothing, it is finding right

time to step in• Doing nothing means hiding• Leadership is a choice of not doing nothing• Participating isn’t Leading

Organization need people who are eager to follow

Those who just mindlessly follow let tribe down

They will not do local leadership while interaction

among members

They will not do a good job in recruiting new members

Followers should be micro leaders

Case Studies CrossFit.com

• Tribe of slightly crazy fitness fanatics• Get engaged in timed competitions on websites• Runs certification courses to recruit new members,

coordinated by Central website

CrossFit Tribe is STRONG and GETTING STRONGER!!

Foundation laid by : Greg Glassman

• Built the tribe from scratch

• Pushes the tribe to their limit every day

• Creates a friendly environment among the people

Patientslikeme.comLeaderless tribe

Builds an ever growing database of real world dataPeople support one another with enthusiasm and

comfort

Different type of leadership :

• Founders were Leaders in a different way

• Gave the tribe the tools to communicate with each other

• Made the tribe tighter

Leaning in or backing off, but NOT DOING NOTHING!!

Curiosity

A Fundamentalist is a person who considers whether a fact is acceptable to his religion before exploring it

A Curious person explores first and then considers whether or not to accept the ramifications

Curiosity is a key word. It is the desire to understand, to try, to push whatever is interesting

Curious people count.They are the ones who lead the masses in the middle who are stuck

Curiosity doesn’t happen overnight.It’s a process which is built over years, which distinguishes greatness from mediocrity

The Plurality Myth

You don’t need a plurality or a majority of people following you

YOU GET TO CHOOSE THE TRIBE YOU LEAD !!

All you need to do is motivate people who choose to follow you

Through your actions as a leader, you attract a tribe that wants to follow you

Ultimately, people are most easily led where they wanted to go along

Al Gore led a tribe whom they didn’t even know.

He stated his message and people followed him.

The Schoolteacher Experiment

Class with less number of students tend to do better

Teacher has more time to spend customizing the lesson to each student

Tribes are increasingly voluntarily.People have a choice of their own in every decision

Great leaders realize that a motivated, connected tribe is far more powerful than a larger group

The Virtuous Cycle vs. the Exclusive Tribe

Virtuous Tribe

Tribes that work better when they’re bigger

Political parties, Facebook etc.

• Career cannot grow by going after most people• Growth happens when you aren’t like most people;

when you appeal to folks who aren’t most people

The Wrong Question?• No one anoints you as a leader• Change isn’t made by asking permission• Change is made by asking forgiveness

The Two things you need to know

• First thing : Individuals have far more power than ever before

• Second thing : Keep faith; faith that failures won’t destroy you and that it’s worth doing

Recap : Main Lessons from the book

No Escape• S

eek Criticism and persist

Thank You