The tribes we lead Seth Godin
[Music]
so sometimes I get invited to give weird
talks I got invited to speak to the
people who dress up in big stuffed
animal costumes to perform its sporting
events unfortunately I couldn’t go but
it got me thinking about the fact that
these guys at least most of them know
what it is that they do for a living
what they do is they dress up as stuffed
animals and entertain people at sporting
events shortly after that I got invited
to speak at the convention of the people
who make balloon animals and again I
couldn’t go but it’s a fascinating group
they make balloon animals there’s a big
schism between the ones who make gospel
animals and porn animals but they do a
lot of really cool stuff with balloon
sometimes we get in trouble but not
often and the other thing about these
guys is they also know what they do for
a living
they make balloon animals but what do we
do for a living what exactly do the
people watching this do every day and I
want to argue that what we do is we try
to change everything that we try to find
a piece of the status quo something that
bothers us something that needs to be
improved something that’s eating to be
changed and we change it and we try to
make big permanent important change but
we don’t think about it that way and we
haven’t spent a lot of time talking
about what that process is like and I’ve
been studying it for a couple years and
I want to share a couple stories with
you today first about a guy named Nathan
Winograd Nathan was the number two
person at the San Francisco SPCA and
what you may not know about the history
of the SPCA is it was founded to kill
dogs and cats cities gave them a charter
to get rid of the stray animals on the
street and destroy them and in a typical
year four million dogs and cats were
killed most of them within 24 hours of
being scooped off the street Nathan and
his boss saw this and they could not
tolerate it so they set out to make San
Francisco a no-kill City create an
entire city wherever
dog and cat unless it was ill or
dangerous would be adopted not killed
and everyone said it was impossible
Nathan his boss went to the City Council
to get a change in the ordinance and
people from SPCA s and humane shelters
from around the country flew to San
Francisco to testify against them to say
it would hurt the movement and it was
inhumane they persisted and Nathan went
directly to the community he connected
with people who cared about this
non-professionals people with passion
and within just a couple years San
Francisco became the first no-kill city
running no deficit completely supported
by the community Nathan left and went to
Tompkins County New York a place as
different from San Francisco as you can
be and still be the United States and he
did it again he went from being a
glorified dog catcher to completely
transforming the community and then he
went to North Carolina and did it again
and he went to Reno and he did it again
and when I think about what Nathan did
and I think about people here do I think
about ideas and I think about the idea
that creating an idea spreading an idea
has a lot behind it and I don’t know if
you’ve ever been to a Jewish wedding but
what they do is they take a light bulb
and they smash it now there’s a bunch of
reasons for that and stories about it
but one reason is because it indicates a
change from before to after it’s a
moment in time and I want to argue that
we are living through and are right at
the key moment of a change in the way
ideas are created and spread and
implemented we started with the factory
idea that you could change the whole
world if you had an efficient factory
that could turn out change we then went
to the TV idea that said if you had a
big enough mouthpiece if you can get on
TV enough times if you could buy enough
ads you could win and now we’re in this
new model of leadership where the way we
make change is not by using money or
power to lever a system but by leading
so let me talk about the three cycles
the first one is the factory cycle Henry
Ford
comes up with a really cool idea it
enables him to hire men who used to get
paid 50 cents a day and pay him five
dollars a day because he’s got an
efficient in a factory well with that
sort of advantage you can churn out a
lot of cars you can make a lot of change
you can get roads built you can change
the fabric of an entire country that the
essence of what you’re doing is you need
ever cheaper labor and ever faster
machines and the problem we’ve run into
is we’re running out of both ever
cheaper labor and ever faster machines
so we shift gears for a minute and say I
know television advertising push push
take a good idea and push it on the
world I have a better mousetrap and if I
can just get enough money to tell enough
people I’ll sell enough and you can
build an entire industry on that if
necessary you can put babies in your ads
if necessary you can use babies to sell
other stuff and if babies don’t work you
can use doctors but be careful because
you don’t want to get an unfortunate
juxtaposition when you’re talking about
one thing instead of the other this
model requires you to act like the king
like the person in the front of the room
throwing things to the peons in the back
now you are in charge and you’re going
to tell people what to do next that you
know the quick little diagram of it is
you’re up here and you are pushing it
out to the world
this method mass marketing requires
average ideas because you’re going to
the masses and plenty of ads what we’ve
done as spammers is trying to hypnotize
everyone into buying our idea hypnotize
everyone into donating to our cause
hypnotize everyone into voting for our
candidate and unfortunately it doesn’t
work so well anymore either
but there is good news around the corner
really good news I call it the idea of
tribes what tribes are is a very simple
concept that goes back fifty thousand
years it’s about leading and connecting
people and ideas and it’s something that
people have wanted forever lots of
people are used to having a spiritual
tribe or a church tribe having a work
tribe having a community tribe but now
thanks to the internet thanks to the
explosion of mass media thanks to a lot
of other things that are bubbling
through our society around the world
tribes are everywhere the internet was
supposed to homogenize everyone by
connecting us all instead what it’s
allowed is silos of interest so you got
the Red Hat ladies over here you got the
Red Hat triathletes over there you’ve
got the organized armies over here you
got the disorganized rebels over here
you got people in white hats making food
and people in white hats sailing boats
the point is that you can find Ukrainian
folk dancers and connect with them
because you want to be connected that
people on the fringes can find each
other connect and go somewhere every
town that has a volunteer fire
department understands this way of
thinking
now it turns out this is a legitimate
non photoshopped photo people I know who
are firemen told me that this is not
uncommon and that what firemen do to
Train sometimes is they take a house
that’s going to be torn down and they
burn it down instead in practice putting
it out but they always stop and take a
picture so you know the pirate tribe is
a fascinating one they got thrown flag
they got the eye patches you can tell
when you’re running into someone in a
tribe and it turns out that it’s tribes
not money not factories that can change
our world that can change politics that
can align large numbers of people not
because you force them to do something
against their will but because they
wanted to connect that what we do for a
living now all of us I think is find
something worth changing and then
assemble tribes that assemble tribes
that spread the idea and spread the idea
and it becomes something far bigger than
ourselves it becomes a movement so when
Al Gore set out to change the world
again he didn’t do it by himself and he
didn’t do it by buying a lot of ads he
did it by creating a movement thousands
of people around the country who could
give his presentation for him because he
can’t be in 100 or 200 or 500 cities in
each night you don’t need everyone what
Kevin Kelley has taught us is you just
need I don’t know a thousand true fans a
thousand people who care enough that
they will get you the next round and the
next round and the next one that means
that the idea you create the product you
create the movement you create isn’t for
everyone it’s not a mass thing that’s
not what this is about what it’s about
instead is finding the true believers
it’s easy to look at what I’ve said so
far as I wait a minute I don’t have what
it takes to be that kind of leader
so here are two leaders they don’t have
a lot in common they’re about the same
age but that’s about it what they did
though is each in their own way
created a different way of navigating
your way through technology so some
people would go out and get people to be
on one team and some people get people
to be on the other team it also informs
the decisions you make when you make
products or services you know this is
one of my favorite devices but what a
shame that it’s not organized to help
authors create movements what would
happen if when you’re using your Kindle
you could see the comments and quotes
and notes from all the other people
reading the same book as you in that
moment or from your book group or from
your friends or from the circle you want
what would happen if authors or people
with ideas could use version two which
comes out on Monday and use it to
organize people who want to talk about
something now there is a million things
I could share with you about the
mechanics here but let me just try a
couple the Beatles did not invent
teenagers they merely decided to lead
them that most movements most leadership
that we’re doing is about finding a
group that’s disconnected but already
has a yearning not persuading people to
want something they don’t have yet when
Diane hats worked on the meatrix her
video that spread all across the
internet about the way farm animals are
treated
she didn’t invent the idea of being a
vegan she didn’t invent the idea of
caring about this issue but she helped
to organize people and help turn it into
a movement
Hugo Chavez did not invent the
disaffected middle and lower class of
Venezuela he merely led them Bob Marley
did not invent Rastafarians he just
stepped up and said follow me Derek
Siver’s invented CD Baby which allowed
independent musicians to have a place to
sell their music without selling out to
the man to have a place to take the
mission they already wanted to go to and
connect with each other what all these
people have in common is that they are
heretics that heretics look at the
status quo and say this will not stand I
can’t abide this status quo I am willing
to stand up and be counted and move
things forward I see what the status quo
is I don’t like it that instead of
looking at all the little rules and
following each one of them
that instead of being what I call a
sheep Walker somebody who is half asleep
following instructions keeping their
head down fitting in every once in a
while someone says up and says not me
someone stands up and says this one’s
important we need to organize around it
and not everyone will but you don’t need
everyone you just need a few people who
will look at the rules realize they make
no sense and realize how much they want
to be connected so Tony Hsieh does not
run a shoe store
Zappos isn’t a shoe store Zappos is the
one the only the best there ever was
place for people who are into shoes to
fight each other to talk about their
passion to connect with people who care
more about customer service than making
a nickel tomorrow it can be something as
prosaic issues and something as
complicated as overthrowing a government
it’s exactly the same behavior though
what it requires as Geraldine Carter has
discovered is to be able to say I can’t
do this by myself but if I can get other
people to join my climate ride then
together we can get something that we
all want we just waiting for someone to
lead us Michelle Kaufmann has pioneered
new ways of thinking about environmental
architecture she doesn’t do it by
quietly building one house at a time she
does it by telling a story to people who
want to hear it by connecting a tribe of
people who are desperate to be connected
to each other by leading a movement and
making change and around and around and
around it goes so three questions I’d
offer you the first one is who exactly
are you upsetting because if you’re not
upsetting anyone you’re not changing the
status quo the second question is who
are you connecting because for a lot of
people that’s what they’re in it for the
connections that are being made one to
the other and the third one is who are
you leading be
because focusing on that part of it not
the mechanics of what you’re building
but the who and the leading part is
where change comes so you know Blake at
TOMS shoes had a very simple idea what
would happen if every time someone
bought a pair of these shoes I gave
exactly the same pair to someone who
doesn’t even own a pair of shoes this is
not the story of how you get shelf space
at Neiman Marcus it’s a story of a
product that tells a story and as you
walk around with this remarkable pair of
shoes and someone says what are those
you get to tell the story on Blake’s
behalf on behalf of the people who got
the shoes and suddenly it’s not one pair
of shoes 100 pair of shoes it’s tens of
thousands of pairs of shoes
my friend red Maxwell has spent the last
10 years fighting against juvenile
diabetes not far during the organization
that’s fighting and fighting with them
leading them connecting them challenging
the status quo because it’s important to
him and the people he surrounds himself
with need the connection they need the
leadership it makes a difference you
don’t need permission from people to
lead them but in case you do here it is
they’re waiting we’re waiting for you to
show us where to go next so here’s what
leaders have in common the first thing
is they challenge the status quo they
challenge what’s currently there the
second thing is they build a culture a
secret language a seven-second handshake
a way of knowing that you’re in or out
they have curiosity curiosity about the
people in the tribe curiosity about
outsiders they’re asking questions they
connect people to one another do you
know what people want more than anything
they want to be missed they want to be
missed the day they don’t show up they
want to be missed when they’re gone and
tribe leaders can do that and it’s
fascinating because all tribe leaders
have charisma but you don’t need
charisma to become a leader being a
leader gives you charisma and if you
look and study the leaders who have
succeeded that’s where charisma comes
from from the leading and finally they
commit they commit to the cause they
commit to the tribe they commit
to the people who are there so I’d like
you to do something for me and I hope
you’ll think about it before you reject
it out of hand what I want you to do is
only takes 24 hours is create a movement
something that matters start do it
we need it thank you very much
[Applause]