Leadership for Improved Profits and Productivity

Just as birds flock and fish school, people tribe. A tribe is a naturally forming group of 20 to 150 people. Smaller companies can be a single tribe. In larger organizations, there can be many tribes; for instance, it is easy to spot the cultural difference between sales and engineering departments. Tribes also operate at different cultural stages, which can positively or negatively impact your results as an organization. A high performing tribe can be three to five times more productive.

Measuring Culture

How do leaders change their company culture and become a high performing tribe? Like the old joke about eating an elephant, the answer is one bite at a time. The book, Tribal Leadership: Leveraging Natural Groups to Build a Thriving Organization, is the result of a 10-year study of over 24,000 people. Authors Dave Logan, John King, and Halee Fischer-Wright recognized culture strategies failed 70 percent of the time. In their inquiry as to why this occurred, they discovered Peter Drucker’s statement that “culture eats strategy for breakfast” was true.

One of the challenges to cultural change is that it has been difficult to measure and you can’t manage what you don’t measure. We can assess a culture by observing the language people in the tribe use in their everyday conversations. These observations can be classified into five different stages. The study found that the stages form a bell curve, with the majority of workplace tribes at Stage Three. By observing and classifying the people that work for you into these five stages, you will be able to lead them to the next highest level. The impact of moving a tribe up one level is an increase of three to five times in productivity and profits. Here are the five stages and the typical language used in each stage.

Stage One

The language used is “life sucks,” and people act out in despairingly hostile ways. Life is so unfair for this segment that anything is permissible. This is where we see workplace violence, extortion, and sabotage. Fortunately, it is only two percent of the workforce.

Stage Two

The language used here is “my life sucks.” According to the study, this tribe makes up 25 percent of workplaces and exhibits the behavior of apathetic victims. This is an upgrade from Stage One because even though their life sucks, they see others around them whose life is working. They have conversations like, “if only I had a college degree,” or “if only I could afford a car, then my life would work.” If you think of the TV show The Office, this is the culture of the staff. They do the minimum amount of work to get by and don’t show initiative. There is almost no sense of urgency or accountability. Motivational speakers and assessment tools aren’t effective.

Stage Three

This is dominant culture in 49 percent of US workplace tribes, where the language is “I’m great (and you’re not).” In The Office, this is the character played by Steve Carell. Stage Three people are competitive and work to show everyone that they are smarter and better than anyone else. This personally competitive cultural stage produces limited innovation and almost no collaboration. No amount of ropes courses and trust exercises will turn this tribe of self-declared superstars into a team.

Stage Four

Representing 22 percent of workplaces, the language is “we’re great (and they’re not).” Stage Four is the zone where productivity improves substantially—three to five times more than at Stage Three. Teams are the norm and genuine stable partnership is the structure. At this stage, people feel more alive and have more fun. Zappos is a company at Stage Four.

Stage Five

This is the culture of two percent of workforce tribes and the language is “life is great.” Here, people focus on realizing potential by making history. Teams at Stage Five have produced remarkable innovations, leading their industries and the economy. The first Macintosh was produced at Stage Five. This stage is pure leadership, vision, and inspiration. The language focuses on infinite potential and making history. There is no other to compete with because the vision is about making a better world.

Once leaders identify which stage their tribe is in, they can use specific leverage points to upgrade the culture. But first, they have to move themselves to Stage Four by shifting the way that they work and the structure of the relationships around them. It can’t work from a “do as I say, not as I do” behavior. Leaders have to walk the talk and authentically act differently. Specifically, at Stage Four, leaders know and act from their core values, or the principles without which life wouldn’t be worth living. For example, when Gordon Binder, the former CEO of biotechnology giant Amgen, was asked who his competition was, he replied, “We’re in competition with cancer.”

Implementing Change

As a Tribal Leader, you can change the culture of your organization bit by bit—and make it run faster, more productively, and more effectively. As a result, you will achieve greater strategic success, more profit, less stress, and more fun.