Navigating the journey of tribes in organizations: challenges of transformational leadership

‘They are moving in herds. They do move in herds‘. In Jurassic Park Dr. Alan Grant said at a chilling moment, talking about dinosaurs who were emerging in herds. Birds move in flocks, fish like to shoal, and also move in a herd, or ‘school’, as the term goes. In business organizations, people form alliances, and move in packs .Sometimes, the herds are natural groups of people, who congregate or school together based on similar likes, dislikes and interests. They strike a synchronicity in the way they behave, speak, take actions and align, sometimes unconsciously.

In one of the organizations where I worked very briefly and exited after some years, a new leader came in from another part of the organization to be my boss’ boss. During an internal presentation, the new boss openly criticized the presentations made by some of us. My boss, who squirmed at the harsh criticism, took us aside and consoled us after the meeting.  ‘You know you did well. But X is good at heart, only he is different. He likes people to be street smart and focused, and we have to adapt.’ We found many admirable qualities in the new man, and a high level of goal orientation and impactful communication. But we also watched him bringing in people, who he worked with before and liked, and slowly gave them important roles and assignments, and grew them faster than those who he was not familiar with. Slowly the contours of an invisible tribe within the formal organization emerged before us. The inner tribe members were quite alike- fiercely competitive, seeking rewards and giving them, going all out to gratify the needs and interests of their leader, running down their peers, and acting as the eyes and ears of the  leader. The good news was that it created a momentum for the function and made the entire function highly visible and an envy of other functions. The bad news was that it destroyed internal harmony and cohesion in the function, and created a sense of alienation, inequity and unease among those who were not part of the close community.

Tribal leadership is a mutual relationship between the tribe’s leaders and members. Tribal Leaders are not superstars or even charismatic. Instead, they work hard to upgrade themselves and their tribe, and are recognized as leaders due to the success they bring to the tribe. Their efforts create a wave, and they’re then led by that wave to fulfill the tribe’s will. A tribe’s culture determines its effectiveness. A tribe can consist of any numbers, from 10 to 150. The effectiveness of the tribe depends on the culture that it builds and the quality of collaboration it achieves with the other tribes in the organization. This culture is in turn influenced by the language used by people; and the actions and types relationships being forged.

According to Dave Logan et al (Tribal Leadership) every organization, is made up of some tribes, groups of between 20 and 150 people who share a common culture. These tribes, he says, have more collective power to make a difference than the organization’s CEO, or any other leader. To understand how tribal leadership works, organizations must first recognize the basic types of groups that form naturally in any company by the way the groups interact with each other. Starting from the very bottom and working toward the pinnacle of work culture, Logan has categorized these tribal relationships into five basic stages, starting from stage 1 where the tribe is in despair believing that life sucks, to the stage five where it is at peace and feels life is great. The enlightened tribal leadership takes the tribes through successive higher stages. At stage five where the tribe is integrated with the organization, there is possibility of achieving outstanding results. According to Dave Logan’s research, very few tribes are in stage one or five, implying that the tribes do not transcend into the ideal stage of integration.

A practical way to look at the situation in a business organization is to accept the fact of there being communities bonded by some common characteristic. The leadership role then is to understand, motivate, and grow their tribes with the power of their vision and influence. Success in working with the tribes and moving them up the ladder will unlock the energy of the group: failure will fracture the cohesion of the organization.