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All organisations are tribes, or, if they are large enough, networks of tribes, which consist of groups of between 20 and 150 people who know (or know of) every member in the group. Tribes are more powerful than teams, companies and CEOs.

Leaders, managers and organisations that don’t understand, motivate and grow their tribes will not succeed in the increasingly fragmented world of business.

This is according to the authors of Tribal Leadership and partners at management consulting firm CultureSync, Dave Logan, John King and Halee Fischer-Wright.

Their 10-year study of 24 000 people working in more than two dozen organisations found that:

• An organization’s success depends on its tribes;
• Naturally occurring tribes in every organisation make up its culture;
• Tribal culture determines tribal strength; and
• Effective tribal leaders can establish thriving corporate cultures.

Logan, King and Fischer-Wright say tribal leadership success comes from identifying and using the tribe’s shared values and aspiring causes with the group’s natural assets and behaviour, and basing them on the tribe’s goals and objectives.

Once a tribe sets its strategy according to these principles, a real sense of excitement emerges. “Every member of the tribe knows exactly how to succeed and what each person must do to make the tribe effective. That’s the promise of tribal strategy.”

CultureSync approved tribal leader Sinan Si Alhir says, “Tribal leadership is about influencing natural groups and building thriving organisations. Tribal leaders promote natural groups and thriving organisations by harmonizing culture and strategy, and developing other leaders naturally.”

He says your values define your standard. Your cause defines your vision. Culture emerges from values. Strategy advances a cause. So, leadership is simply about naturally harmonizing culture and strategy.

According to Logan, King and Fischer-Wright, tribal leadership helps:

• To improve organizational culture;
• Teams, propelled by their values, to collaborate and work towards a noble cause;
• To reduce fear and stress levels, because the “interpersonal friction” of working together decreases;
• Entire tribes shift from resisting leadership to seeking it out;
• Organisations become a magnet for top talent;
• Increase employees’ engagement to work and they go from “quit on the job but still on the payroll” to fully participating;
• Organisational learning become effortless, as tribes actively teach their members the best thinking and practices; and
• Individuals feel more alive and have fun.

Tribes make or break an organisation’s success

When rolled out to organisations, most strategies and plans fail, because, as management guru Peter Drucker put it, “culture eats strategy for breakfast”. This explains why many “tribes” are running around like a bunch of headless chickens.

Culture limits strategy. This means leaders must upgrade their organizational culture or modify their strategies based on the limitations of their organizational culture, notes Si Alhir.

The five-stage tribal culture

Logan, King and Fischer-Wright say almost 80% of the organisations they studied had tribal cultures that were adequate at best.

Organisations that assess their tribal cultures using a five-stage scale and that implement specific tools to elevate them from one stage to the next, enjoy unrivalled success.

Here is brief outline of the five stages of tribal culture, described in Tribal Leadership:

Stage 1 tribal culture

• Tribe members are exceptionally hostile.
• They tend to create scandals, steal from the company and even become violent.
• Most professionals skip this stage.

Stage 2 tribal culture

• This stage includes members who are passively antagonistic, sarcastic and resistant to new management initiatives.
• 25% of workplace tribes have a stage 2 culture.

Stage 3 tribal culture

• This stage is marked by knowledge hoarders, who want to outwork and outthink their competitors, individually.
• They are lone warriors who do not only want to win but also need to be the best and brightest.
• 49% of workplace tribes have a stage 3 culture.

Stage 4 tribal culture

• This stage marks a transition from “I’m great” to “we’re great”.
• Tribe members are excited to work together for the benefit of the entire organisation.

Stage 5 tribal culture

• The ultimate purpose of an organisation is to enable ordinary human beings to do extraordinary things.
• Here, members, who make substantial innovations, want to make a global impact.
• Less than 2% of workplace tribal cultures are in this stage.

The [ultimate] purpose of an organisation is to enable ordinary human beings to do extraordinary things. “The right organisation is one that fits its purpose,” says Si Alhir.

Transforming a group into a thriving organisation

“The world is uncertain and chaotic. People are vital and the soft stuff is the hard stuff. But ultimately, it’s about performance and thriving in today’s reality,” says Si Alhir.

He says to transform a group of people into an organization, you need structure and process, an organizational structure and business processes. But, to transform a group of people into a thriving organisation, you need the right structure and the right process, the right organizational structure and the right business processes.

The right organizational structure and the right business processes define the right organisation that will thrive. This requires the right group and the right people. The right people are those who naturally fit the organisation.

The right fit is a natural fit; a natural group. Natural groups are groups of people that are committed to shared values and align themselves to a shared cause.

“But, it’s my nature” – the tale of The Scorpion and the Frog

The tale of The Scorpion and the Frog is a good example of what “natural fit” means:
Once there was a scorpion who wanted to cross a river. The scorpion asked a frog to carry him across the river. The frog refused and suggested that the scorpion would sting the frog and the frog would die. The scorpion assured the frog that he would not sting the frog, since they would both drown. After some thought, the frog agreed to carry the scorpion across the river. Mid river, the frog felt a sting, and then asked the scorpion: “Why did you sting me, we’re both going to die!” The scorpion replied: “It’s my nature.”

Individuals thrive when they live in accordance with their nature or character. But, says Si Alhir, most organisations don’t thrive, because they are made up of unnatural groups of people who don’t share the same values and are not aligned to a shared cause.

Most leaders try to define or change the values or shared cause of the groups within their organisations, forcing them to become unnatural groups.