Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us

“Human beings can’t help it: we need to belong. One of the most powerful of our survival mechanisms is to be part of a tribe, to contribute to (and take from) a group of like-minded people. We are drawn to leaders and to their ideas, and we can’t resist the rush of belonging and the thrill of the new.”

A yearning to belong is human nature. Since antiquity, the species has interacted in groups and unified through shared beliefs. Tribes claims it as a law that people will always tend toward coalescence.

“Now, the Internet eliminates geography. This means that existing tribes are bigger, but more important, it means that there are now more tribes, smaller tribes, influential tribes, horizontal and vertical tribes, and tribes that could never have existed before.”

The Internet of Everything has connected people globally. Niche interest groups can grow through direct communication without ever meeting in person. As personal communication devices become more accessible and affordable, there will be more members of every tribe.

“The power of this new era is simple: if you want to (need to, must!) lead, then you can. It’s easier than ever and we need you. But if this isn’t the right moment, if this isn’t the right cause, then hold off. Generous and authentic leadership will always defeat the selfish efforts of someone doing it just because she can.”

Godin urges action but also pragmaticism. He affirms it is better to wait for a genuine opportunity than it is to seize an ersatz one. So long as one is authentic in their endeavors, they will be rewarded for leading or following.

“Tribes are about faith—about belief in an idea and in a community. And they are grounded in respect and admiration for the leader of the tribe and for the other members as well.”

Faith and belief are significant to Godin’s philosophy. The book’s eudaimonic ethos preaches purpose over results or profit. Godin consistently illustrates that, given commitment and persistence, a noble cause will pay off.

“Partisans want to make a difference. Partisans want something to happen (and something else not to happen). Leaders lead when they take positions, when they connect with their tribes, and when they help the tribe connect to itself.”

Partisanship has taken on negative connotations, especially when it comes to politics. However, Tribes argues it is necessary for a leader to choose sides. When a tribe offers defined parameters, it makes it easier to draw interested parties and maintain a healthy level of exclusivity.

“Senator Bill Bradley defines a movement as having three elements:

1. A narrative that tells a story about who we are and the future we’re trying to build
2. A connection between and among the leader and the tribe
3. Something to do—the fewer limits, the better

Too often organizations fail to do anything but the third.”

Godin summarizes the key ingredients to tribal motivation. Stories help bind individuals and give them a sense of where they are going; communication is integral to fostering intimate relationships; and broadly defined goals help guide them. The key to empowering a tribe is synergizing the three so that the group is driven, cohesive, and flexible.

“Most organizations spend their time marketing to the crowd. Smart organizations assemble the tribe. Crowds are interesting, and they can create all sorts of worthwhile artifacts and market effects. But tribes are longer lasting and more effective.”

While Godin acknowledges the power and impact of mass movements driven by disorganized crowds, these developments are much more fruitful when backed by cohesive tribes. There will always be causes people can get behind—humanistic coordination and an eye for progress will empower those movements.

“A true fan, he argues, is a member of the tribe who cares deeply about you and your work. That person will cross the street to buy from you or bring a friend to hear you or invest a little extra to support you. An individual artist needs only a thousand true fans in her tribe. It’s enough.”

The influence of a small loyal following is stronger than that of large unfaithful mass. Tribal members who spread the message and fight for the cause will inevitably convert others. Leaders should focus on maintaining a tight network regardless of its size. Cultivating purpose, such as that proposed in eudaimonic philosophy, will reinforce member relationships and weed out those who do not strongly feel one way or the other.

“By ‘factory,’ I don’t necessarily mean a place with heavy machinery, greasy floors, and a din. I mean any organization that cranks out a product or a service, does it with measurable output, and tries to reduce costs as it goes. I mean any job where your boss tells you what to do and how to do it.”

Any organization can be a factory. Hierarchical groups, when authoritarian, leech power away from the individual and squander potential. Some of the most successful companies in the country are run like factories, but Godin sees them as a dying breed.

“Fear’s an emotion, no doubt about it. One of the strongest, oldest, and most hardwired.”

Fear of criticism, failure, and responsibility all thwart self-actualization. Fear is in-built and evolutionary, so it requires great leaps of faith and full commitment to conquer it. However, Godin believes anyone can overcome the instinct of fear.

“When you abuse the attention, you are taking something from the tribe. When Fidel Castro gave six- or seven-hour-long speeches (with mandatory attendance), he was diminishing the energy of his tribe. When a CEO takes the spoils of royalty and starts acting like a selfish monarch, he’s no longer leading. He’s taking.”

Ego can get in the way of efficient leadership. Success is defined not by the amount of power a person can accumulate but by how much they share with their tribe. Leaders who squander the group’s potential by feeding into their own selfish desires ultimately end up failing.

“Leadership is scarce because few people are willing to go through the discomfort required to lead. This scarcity makes leadership valuable. If everyone tries to lead all the time, not much happens. It’s discomfort that creates the leverage that makes leadership worthwhile.”

Discomfort and fear stop most people from leading, but this also makes leadership a scarce resource—and, consequently, a prized commodity. Godin reminds readers that, since not everyone is taking initiative, they have leverage in the marketplace.

“Not all leadership involves getting in the face of the tribe. It takes just as much effort to successfully get out of the way.”

“Microleadership” is integral to tribe success. A leader cannot be everywhere at once, and often it is detrimental to even attempt it. If a leader can inspire members to teach each other, then the leader can back off and encourage the tribe’s self-sufficiency.

“A fundamentalist is a person who considers whether a fact is acceptable to his religion before he explores it. As opposed to a curious person who explores first and then considers whether or not he wants to accept the ramifications.”

Godin highlights curiosity as a trait of true followers. Willing and aware members are far more potent than mindless acolytes. If a person fully understands the cause, they can integrate it into their identity and engage with it critically; this leads to an eudaimonic wellbeing that pairs self-determination with group purpose.

“Welcome to the age of leverage. Bottom-up is a really bad way to think about it because there is no bottom. In an era of grassroots change, the top of the pyramid is too far away from where the action is to make much of a difference. It takes too long and it lacks impact. The top isn’t the top anymore because the streets are where the action is.”

Increased communication and information accessibility has empowered everyone to impact culture. Society has seen the downfall of corporations that governed with inhumane policies, negatively affected the environment, or greedily profiteered. Whistleblowers have become more common since communications can spread more easily. Social media allows low-ranking employees to spread their message or propose an idea.

“Faith is critical to all innovation. […] Religion, on the other hand, represents a strict set of rules that our fellow humans have overlaid on top of our faith. Religion supports the status quo and encourages us to fit in, not to stand out.”

Many religious systems are procrustean. Such “religious” organizations promote rule-following and curb any revolutionary spirit, rewarding only those who maintain stability. Godin views faith as humanistic because it affords agency to every single person, and although religion often supports faith, the two are far from the same thing.

“So successful heretics create their own religions.”

“Heretic” is the label Godin gives to people who defy the status quo. He celebrates heretics for their vision and originality. In this era of leverage and empowerment, Tribes encourages heretics to rebel against stagnant systems and establish their own syndicates—ones that champion innovation.

“Initiating is really and truly difficult, and that’s what leaders do. They see something others are ignoring and they jump on it. They cause the events that others have to react to. They make change.”

Opportunities do not announce themselves, and the hardest moment to enact change is when a company is running smoothly. Godin exhorts readers to analyze their industry, hobby, or movement, then to initiate change instead of waiting to respond or react to a stimulus.

“The only thing that makes people and organizations great is their willingness to be not great along the way. The desire to fail on the way to reaching a bigger goal is the untold secret of success.”

Godin weaves this optimalist ethos throughout the book. Tribes does not guarantee success to readers who defy the status quo, but it offers myriad examples of people who have endured and triumphed. Learning from failure and keeping a steady aim on higher purpose is the optimalist’s credo.

“If you’re trying to persuade the tribe at work to switch from one strategy to the other, don’t start with the leader of the opposition. Begin instead with the passionate individuals who haven’t been embraced by other tribes yet.”

Godin offers this pragmatic advice for persuading others to join a tribe. The most willing to defect to a cause are those who already have reservations about their current standing. These individuals may be oppressed critics, ambivalent followers, or shunned outsiders; whatever the case, a leader can convert more members from the fringes of another group rather than from their loyal core.

“Your tribe communicates. They probably don’t do it the way you would; they don’t do it as efficiently as you might like, but they communicate. The challenge for the leader is to help your tribe sing, whatever form that song takes.”

A tribe’s language is whatever form of information exchange suits them best. Learning that language can be as simple as recognizing that certain platforms or media feel more comfortable than others. A highly internet-literate software clique may love conversing on web forums, while a more hands-on book club favors in-person meetings. Noting and honoring preferences will strengthen a tribe.

“There are leaders with speech impediments and a fear of public speaking. Leaders way down the corporate ladder and leaders with no money or obvious trappings of power. There are ugly leaders too, so charisma certainly isn’t about being attractive.”

There is no set formula for a pioneer. Godin champions the person who cultivates courage and forges onward, honing their qualities as they progress. No two leaders have the same qualities, as shown in the text’s many examples. The tools for leadership are inherent in every individual, thus it is unnecessary to be rich or powerful to start a movement.

“Putting these two facts together, it’s not hard to come to the conclusion that you desperately need more leaders, more deviants—more agents of change, not fewer. Great leaders embrace deviants by searching for them and catching them doing something right.”

Fostering ingenuity will strengthen a tribe’s network, link by link. Individuals who defy convention may invent solutions to previously unsolvable problems. Deviant behavior could also spotlight flaws in a system’s procedures. Therefore, nontraditional conduct should be explored and rewarded if it results in innovation.