Tribes

The Discipline Slip
Credit

In elementary and middle school each teacher was rumored to have three small notepads in their desk.  One was pink, another yellow, and lastly a blue pad of paper.  The pink slips were for discipline issues, the yellow covered academic deficiencies, and the blue awarded for commendation.  As a sixth grader, these colors were as important as green, yellow, and red to a teenager testing for their driver’s license.  The thought of handing over a pink or yellow slip to a parent was mortifying, actually terrifying.  The rare blue slips of commendation found their way into my hands a few times and I think I placed them in a file hoping they would contain long term value.  If you handed any of these slips of paper with their carbon copy duplicate attached to a stranger they may get a curious glance but nothing more.  Within the confines of elementary and middle school they carried the weight of a court-martial or medal of honor.


I laughed out loud today when I recalled these slips of paper.  They are relics from a scrapbook.  But they have been replaced in adult life by speeding tickets, being served legal papers, and awards of honor.  Each tribe has their own tokens for appreciation and reprimand.  The items themselves are merely placeholders for intentions.  If we value the tribe we hold these tokens with high regard.


What tokens does your community celebrate or fear?     



Relax
Do Not Enter

Want to make some room on your strategic plan?  Stop trying to get everybody to “like”, “friend”, donate, volunteer, or contribute to your cause.  You do not need everyone.  Most politicians require a majority to be elected but not everyone who votes.  They understand that not everyone believes what they believe.  Spend your time with those who share your purpose.  It will be far more rewarding and productive.  Imagine if you spent most of your time nurturing your tribe.  Who might the members invite to join you?  Who would they also know not to invite?

Meet Up

Living abroad offers the opportunity for adventure every time we walk out the door.  Today’s discovery started off by joining a running group I found on Meetup.com.  I was welcomed immediately by the Ingmar, the group leader who offered options for Sunday’s run.  Feeling ambitious I agreed to meet at the early starting point and head out with Ingmar to  do a warm-up run to the official start.  In the hour of running to get to the group start he pointed to numerous sites and locations that might be of interest to me and my family.  We arrived at the official launching point for the run and about dozen runners were ready to head for the hills.  We climbed steeply to an amazing old railway trail that contoured the hillside and proceeded along, high enough to take in a constant view of the city and ocean and yet feel like we were a bit detached.  We ran in groups of two or three but waited at key intersections or the infrequent water fountains.  Runners turned around as the distance increased but not without announcing their intentions.  Eventually we climbed to the highest point where a number of runners opted to take the bus back to the city and a few of began the run back.  One runner knew of a shortcut and another offered advice on how we could intersect our intended route.  As we rolled into the final hour we shared what remaining food and water was in the group’s possession.  Finally we reached the group starting point and Ingmar and I began our final cruise back to the city center.  Almost 40 kilometers later I was back at our apartment.


I share this because it was the perfect road map of how a tribe works effectively.  When I headed out the door this morning, I knew little of where we were headed or how the day would play out.  After I returned, I had been welcomed by a number of individuals who shared the same passion.  We had covered amazing terrain and I was introduced to trails I might have never found on my own reconnaissance.  I finished feeling excited about the experience and ready to sign-up for more.  I even found one of the runners had uploaded pictures to the Meetup group page by the time I got back.


How do you welcome newcomers to your cause?  What is their initial experience?  What is the tribe’s culture?  Do members openly offer assistance to one another? What immediate follow-up can they expect?   Can the members of the tribe communicate with one another using your cause as a platform?  Do newcomers sign-up for more?

Putting the Tribe Back Together

I have watched a couple organizations struggle to keep all their constituents connected as part of one tribe.  These are groups who started small and formed a loyal base of supporters.  As the cause grew and the membership increased suddenly there was need for new staff, databases, email newsletters, and phone systems.  Now the staff who were part of the organization’s early years and the original members are trying to regenerate the intimacy that they so cherished.  They have proposed multiple strategies and programs to re-create community.  Some of the initiatives are goals in the strategic plan.

It took me a while to see the common denominator in theses causes.  The challenge is that the tribe has grown larger than the organization’s could handle.  As Seth Godin points out in the aptly named book, Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us a tribe needs two things.  The two elements are a shared interest and a way to communicate (they also need a leader as Seth points out later).  In the case of the aforementioned organizations the shared interest had begun to deviating and communication was fractured.  There is another point.  At about 150 members a tribes typically begins to outgrow a level of intimacy and either splits into separate tribes or become less of a community.  That is why a national organization such as Alcoholics Anynomous has local chapters, so individuals can form their own tribes within a local community and still connect to a larger national tribe.  For an independent day school serving kindergarten through twelfth grade it might mean allowing tribes to form within the Elementary, Middle and High School.

Are you providing your tribe with information that resonates with their shared interest?  Is your enterprise constantly enhancing communication not only to the tribe but between its members?  Does your tribe need to split in order to thrive?

Being Empowered


Decoding and familiarizing yourself with a new place opens unseen paradigms. Our recent visit to Washington, DC reminded me of the importance of connecting with people and sharing your perspective. In meeting our local congressional staff and taking an amazing tour of the Capitol I regained an appreciation for the importance elected representation. It was a reminder that I have too have served as a guardian for the public’s trust on numerous occasions. I like to believe I have taken the assignments seriously and been effective in sharing my talents. What was enlightening to me was the fact that I rarely received input from the ‘public’ whose trust I was representing. Occasionally, the organization I was serving would stir-up some controversy and constituents would demand action. But mostly it took a focus group, specific invitation, or directed question to encourage feedback.

In the book Tribes Seth Godin reminds us of the importance of connecting with people, keeping it simple, encouraging members of the tribe to connect with each other. So I emailed my Senator with feedback on a piece of pending legislation becoming a more active member of the tribe.

How are your encouraging feedback from your donors, members, volunteers, clients, community?


Tribes

I am reading Seth Godin’s book Tribes. It discussed the difference between leadership and management. Management is defined as the manipulation of resources to get a known job done. Leadership is about creating change you can believe in. Leaders have followers. Managers have employees.

Makes me wonder how often I try to act as a manager versus a leader. When I consider interactions with family, friends, collegues, ‘to do’ lists, travel, I see a lot of managing when deadlines loom.

Perhaps I better understand why I gravitate towards individuals I deem inspirational. Many of them are providing a vision of change and not simply a blueprint.

USC Football Coach Pete Carroll said they other day that he always believes something great is just about to happen. That is a unique perspective.

Where do we focus on the majority of the time? What are you thinking now?