Tribes

So a couple of years ago I was at Catalyst (a next gen leadership conference) and I got a free book. I like getting free books, but I am not always good at reading free books. The book was Tribes by Seth Godin. Well I finally read the book. I wish I would not have waited so long to read it. I found it fascinating. First it was written in an unorthodox style. One would expect a book written by a business/marketing guru to be very pedantic, organized, and filled with objectives, steps, and evaluations. Not so with this one! It was a collection of short stories around concepts in no particular order. But one could still get the message of the book, it wouldn't be much of a book if you couldn't discern the message. So here is the message of Tribes.

1. Tribes have become the main avenues for influence and change in our culture.
2. A tribe is a group of people who share a common interest and have a way to communicate.
3. Tribes that are super successful become movements.
4. Tribes have leaders not managers.
5. Leaders see the future, are not bound by the status quo, embrace change, and take risks.
6. Traditional management skills do not apply to the leaders of Tribes.
7. Instant global communication makes the formation and leadership of tribes more accessible.

These are the main thoughts, but not the only ones in Tribes. I have to say that Tribes has changed my thinking. When I consider change that needs to happen my first response is how do I form a tribe and lead it to advocate this kind of change? I hope you will give Tribes a read, I think it is worth it.

By the way this is my second blog post this week! The world may very well be coming to an end and the Cubs my win the World Series.