Tribal Leadership: The Key To Building Great Teams by Dave Logan (with John King and Halee Fischer-Wright) is yet another easy-reading business storybook, focused on what many middling managers enjoy hearing and already believe (like Drive). It's hugely first-person, full of name-dropping anecdotes of semi-famous folks whom the authors interviewed and breathlessly quote. Negative evidence? Not much. Confounding factors? The rôle of luck? The value of self-criticism? Ditto.
The goodness of Tribal Leadership is important: think meta, as applied to levels of self-actualization for individuals and teams. A Busy Executive Summary (adapted from Michael Batko's notes and the Farnham Street blog) might be to see organizations in five stages:
| Stage | Themes | Motto | Characteristics |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alienation & Hostility | "Life Sucks" | Gangs → the lowest form of culture, rarely encountered outside prison-like situations |
| 2 | Separation & Apathy | "My Life Sucks" | Apathetic victims → "Other people's lives seem to be working, but mine sucks." |
| 3 | Superiority & Heroism | "I'm Great" | Dyads and dominant-submissive relationships → "I'm great" with the unstated "and you're not"; people try to outperform one another on an individual basis and put one another down, often under a veil of humor; a lone warrior culture, the "wild, wild west"; trust must be earned |
| 4 | Teaming & Pride | "We're Great" | Triads and values-based relationships → "We're great" with the unstated "and they aren't" (another tribe, company, competition); together, radiate tribal pride; trust is assumed |
| 5 | Transcendence | "Life is Great" | Relationships with all whose values resonate → there is no "they"; Stage 5 cultures are history-making, so far ahead that competition is irrelevant, e.g., "We are defeating cancer", not "We want to be #1" |
And then? As wise comrade "Alice" asks, What happens beyond Stage 5?
Maybe Oneness? Pure Being? Total Wonder?
(cf How Great Thou Art (2005-03-16), ...) - ^z - 2019-09-21