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