Tribal leadership David Logan

what we’re really here to talk about is

the how okay so how exactly do we create

this world shattering if you will

innovation now I want to tell you a

quick story we’ll go back a little more

than a year in fact the date I’m curious

to know if any of you know what the what

happened on this momentous date it was

February 3rd 2008 you know and remember

what happened February 3rd 2008 Super

Bowl I heard over here it was a date of

the Super Bowl and the reason that this

date was so momentous is that what my

colleagues John King and Haley Fisher

write and I noticed as we began to

debrief various Super Bowl parties is

that it seemed to us that across the

United States if you will tribal

councils had convened and they had

discussed things of great national

importance like do we like the Budweiser

commercial and do we like the nachos and

who’s going to win but they also talked

about which candidate they were going to

support and if you go back in time to

February 3rd it looked like Hillary

Clinton was going to get the Democratic

nomination and there were even some

polls that were saying she was gonna go

all the way but when we talked to people

it appeared that a funnel effect had

happened in these tribes all across the

United States now what’s a tribe tribe

is a group of about 20 so some kind of

more than a team 22 about a hundred and

fifty people and it’s within these

tribes that all of our work gets done

but not just work it’s within these

tribes that societies get built that

important things happen and so as we

surveyed the if you will representatives

from various tribal councils that met

also known as Super Bowl parties we sent

the following email off 240 newspaper

editors the following day February 4th

we posted it on our website this was

before Super Tuesday we said the tribes

that we’re in are saying it’s going to

be Obama now the reason we knew that was

because we spent the previous 10 years

studying tribes studying these naturally

occurring groups all of you are members

of tribes in walking around at the break

many of you had met members of your

tribe and you were talking to them and

many of you were doing what great if you

will tribal leaders do which is to find

someone who’s a member of a tribe and to

find someone else who’s another member

of a different tribe and make

introductions that’s in fact what great

tribal leaders do so here’s the bottom

line

if you focus in on a group like this

this happens to be a USC game and you

were to zoom in with one of those super

satellite cameras and do magnification

factor so that you could see individual

people you would in fact see not a

single crowd just like there’s not a

single crowd here but you would see

these tribes that are then coming

together and from a distance it appears

that it’s a single group and so people

form tribes they always have they always

will

just as fish swim and birds fly people

form tribes it’s just what we do but

here’s the rub not all tribes are the

same and what makes the difference is

the culture now here’s the net out of

this you’re all a member of tribes if

you can find a way to take the tribes

that you’re in and nudge them forward

along these tribal stages to what we

call stage 5 which is the top of the

mountain but we’re gonna start with what

we call stage 1 now this is the lowest

of the stages you don’t want this ok

this is a bit of a difficult image to

put up on the screen but it’s one that I

think we need to learn from stage one

produces people who do horrible things

this is the kid who shot at Virginia

Tech stage one is a group where people

systematically several relationships

from functional tribes and then pool

together with people who think like they

do stage one is literally the culture of

gangs and it is the culture of prisons

now again we don’t often deal with stage

one and I want to make the point that as

members of society we mean - it’s not

enough to simply write people off but

let’s move on to stage two now stage one

you’ll notice says in effect life sucks

so my in this other book that Z

mentioned that just came out called the

three laws of performance my colleague

Steve saffron and I argue that as people

see the world so they behave well if

people see the world

in such a way that life sucks then their

behavior will follow automatically from

that it’ll be despairing hostility

they’ll do whatever it takes to survive

even if that means undermining other

people now my birthday is coming up

shortly and my driver’s license expires

and the reason that that’s relevant is

very soon I will be walking into what we

call a stage 2 tribe which looks like

this now am I saying that in every

Department of Motor Vehicles across the

land you find the stage 2 culture no but

in the one near me where I have to go in

just a few days what I will say when I’m

standing in line is how can people be so

dumb and yet live ok now am I saying

that there are dumb people working here

actually no I’m not but I’m saying the

culture makes people dumb ok so when a

stage 2 culture and we find these in all

sorts of different places you find them

in fact in the best organizations in the

world you find them in all places in

society I’ve come across them at you

know the organizations and everybody

raves about as being best-in-class

but here’s the point if you believe and

you say to people in your tribe and in

fact my life sucks I mean if I got to go

to TEDx USC my life wouldn’t suck but I

don’t so it does if that’s how you talk

imagine what kind of work would get done

what kind of innovation would get done

the amount of world-changing behavior

that would happen in fact it would be

basically nil now when we go on to stage

3 this is the one that hits closest to

home for many of us because it’s in

stage three that many of us move and we

park and we stay stage three says I’m

great and you’re not I’m great and

you’re not now imagine having a whole

room of people saying in effect I’m

great and you’re not or I’m gonna find

some way to compete with you and come

out on top as a result of that a whole

group of people communicating that way

talking that way I know that sounds like

a joke three doctors walk in a bar but

in this case three doctors walk in an

elevator happened to be in the elevator

collecting data for this book and one

doctor said to the others did you see my

article in the New England Journal of

Medicine

and the other said no that’s great

congratulations next one got kind of a

wry smile on his face and said well well

you were you know doing your research

notice the condescending tone well you

were off doing your research I was off

doing more surgeries than anyone else in

the Department of Surgery at this

institution

and the third one got the same wry smile

and said well well you were off doing

your research and you were off you know

doing your monkey meatball surgery that

eventually will train you no monk used

to do or cells or robots or maybe even

not even me not even need to do at all I

was off running the future of the

residency program which is really the

future of medicine and they all kind of

laughed and they patted him on the back

and the elevator door open and they all

walked out that is a meeting of a stage

three tribe now we find these in places

where really smart successful people

show up like oh I don’t know TEDx see

you se here’s the greatest challenge we

face in innovation it is moving from

stage three to stage four let’s take a

look at a quick video snippet this is

from a company called Zappos located

outside Las Vegas and my question on the

other side is just gonna be what do you

think they value but it was not workers

at this time there was a straight dance

dance revolution this is their Lobby

terminal right in the lobby

employees volunteer time and the advice

booth notice it looks like something out

of it the peanuts cartoon okay we’re

going through the hallway here at Zappos

this is a call center notice how its

decorated notice people are applauding

for us better no we are and they don’t

care and if they did they probably

wouldn’t apply but you’ll notice the

level of excitement notice again how

they decorate their office now what’s

important to people at Zappos these may

not be the things that are important to

you but they value things like fun and

they value creativity one of their

stated values is be a little bit weird

and you’ll notice they are a little bit

weird okay so when individuals come

together and find something that unites

them that’s greater than their

individual competence then something

very important happens the group gels

and it and it changes from a group of

highly motivated but fairly individually

centric people into something larger

into a tribe that becomes aware of its

own existence stage four tribes can do

remarkable things but you’ll notice

we’re not at the top of the mountain yet

there is in fact another stage now some

of you may not recognize the scene

that’s up here and if you take a look at

the headline of stage five which is life

is great this may seem a little

incongruous this is a scene or a snippet

from the truth and reconciliation

process in South Africa for which

Desmond Tutu won the Nobel Prize now

think about that

South Africa terrible atrocities had

happened in the society and people came

together focused only on those two

values truth and reconciliation

there was no road map no one had ever

done anything like this before and in

this atmosphere where the only guidance

was people’s values and their noble

cause what this group accomplished was

historic and people at the time feared

that South Africa would end up going the

way that Rwanda has gone descending into

one skirmish after another and a civil

war that seems to have no end

in fact South Africa has not gone down

that road largely because people like

Desmond Tutu set up a stage five process

to involve the thousands and perhaps

millions of tribes in the country to

bring everyone together so

people hear this and they conclude the

following as did we in doing the study

okay got it I don’t want to talk Stage

one that’s like you know life sucks who

wants to talk that way I don’t want to

talk like they do with the particular

DMV that’s close to where Dave lives I

really don’t want it to say I’m great

because that kind of sounds narcissistic

and then I won’t have any friends you

know saying we’re great that sounds

pretty good but I should really talk

Stage five right life is great well in

fact there are three somewhat

counterintuitive findings that come out

of all this the first one if you look at

the Declaration of Independence it

actually read it

the phrase that sticks in many of our

minds is things about inalienable rights

that stage-five right life is great

oriented only by our values no other

guidance in fact most of the document is

written at stage two my life sucks

because I live under a tyrant also known

as King George we’re great who’s not

great

England sorry

well what about other great leaders what

about Gandhi what about Martin Luther

King I mean surely these were people who

just preached life is great right just

one little bit of happiness and joy

after another in fact Martin Luther

King’s most famous line was at stage

three he didn’t say we have a dream he

said I have a dream why did he do that

because most people are not at Stage

five two percent are at Stage one about

25 percent are at Stage two saying in

fact in effect my life sucks 48 percent

of working tribes say these are employed

tribes say I’m great and you’re not and

we have to duke it out every day so we

resort to politics only about 22 percent

of tribes are at stage 4 oriented by our

values saying we’re great and our values

are beginning to unite us only two

percent only two percent of tribes get

to Stage five and those are the ones

that change the world so the first

little finding from this is that leaders

need to be able to talk all the levels

so that you can touch every person in

society but you don’t leave them where

you found them okay tribes can only hear

one level above and below where they are

so we have to have the ability to talk

all the levels to go to where they are

and then leaders nudge people within

their tribes to the next level I’d like

to show you some examples of this one of

the people we interviewed was Frank

Jordan former mayor of San Francisco

before that he was chief of police in

San Francisco and he grew up essentially

in stage one and you know what changed

his life it was walking into one of

these a Boys and Girls Club

now here’s what happened to this person

who eventually became mayor of San

Francisco he went from being alive and

passionate at stage one remember life

sucks despairing hostility I will do

whatever it takes to survive - walking

into a Boys and Girls Club folding his

arms sitting down in a chair and saying

wow my life really sucks

I don’t know anybody I mean if I was

into boxing like they were then my life

wouldn’t suck but I don’t so it does so

I’m gonna sit here in my chair and not

do anything

in fact that’s progress we move people

from stage one to stage two by getting

them in a new tribe and then over time

getting them connected so what about

moving

Stage three to Stage four I want to

argue that we are doing that right here

GED represents a set of values and as we

unite around these values something

really interesting begins to emerge if

you want this experience to live on as

something historic then at the reception

tonight I’d like to encourage you to do

something beyond what people normally do

and call networking which is not just to

meet new people and extend your reach

and extend your influence but instead

find someone you don’t know and find

someone else you don’t know and

introduce them

that’s called a triadic relationship see

people who build world-changing tribes

do that they extend the reach of their

tribes by connecting them not just to

myself so that my following is greater

but I connect people who don’t know each

other to something greater than

themselves and ultimately that’s to

their values but we’re not done yet

because then how do we go from stage 4

which is great to stage 5 the story that

I’d like to end with is this it comes

out of a place called the Gallup

Organization you know they do polls

right so it’s Stage four we’re great

who’s not great pretty much everybody

else who does polls okay if Gallup

releases a poll on the same day that NBC

releases a poll people pay attention to

the Gallup poll okay we understand that

so they were bored they wanted to change

the world so here was the question

someone asked how could we instead of

just polling you know what Asia thinks

or what the United States thinks or who

thinks what about Obama versus McCain or

something like that

what does the entire world think and

they found a way to do the first-ever

World poll they had people involved who

were Nobel laureates and economics who

reported being bored and suddenly they

pulled out sheets of paper and we’re

trying to figure out how do we survey

the population of sub-saharan Africa how

do we survey populations that don’t have

access to technology and speak languages

we don’t speak and we don’t know anyone

who speaks those languages because in

order to achieve on this great mission

we have to be able to do it incidentally

they did pull it off and they released

the first ever world poll so I’d like to

leave you with these

first of all we all form tribes all of

us you’re in tribes here hopefully

you’re extending the reach of the tribes

that you have but the question on the

table is this what kind of an impact are

the tribes that you are in making you’re

hearing one presentation after another

often representing a group of people a

tribe about how they have changed the

world

if you do what we’ve talked about you

listen for how people actually

communicate in the tribes that you’re in

and you don’t leave them where they are

you nudge them forward you remember to

talk all five culture stages because we

got people in all five around us then

the question I’d like to leave you with

is this will your tribes change the

world thank you very much