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Trust your tribe!

A while ago I wrote about the difficulty of removing friction(digital path) on the way organisations look at digital transformation initiatives, but what are digital transformation initiatives without the right people, the right teams/tribes. This takes us to what is needed to create these tribes that take on these digital transformation projects.

What is a tribe?

A tribe is a group of people who share a common interest and have a way to communicate.

People want to feel connection, growth and the excitement to do something new. To be able to get emotive with what they can create.

Most people like to play with Legos (myself and my toddler included) because of the ability to belong to something, and the ability to create something that has not been designed yet.

The need to belong to something, it’s hardwired in our self-defence mechanism, and sometimes we need to be part of something greater than ourselves (like Sports — Soccer, Rugby’s… ) and this responsibility is only on you, how you communicate and what you communicate.

Tribes are created with like-minded people who understand the problem and know how to work on a solution. They are the so-called teams, but they have an additional thing that most teams lack. This group of people take full responsibility for what they are doing, and they do it together for good or for worst. To create a tribe (or several tribes) within your company, you need to feel and be on a safe environment, and that needs to be created. A place where they can talk openly and without filters expressing their opinion and knowing that they are being listened to. And these teams will promote synergies and loyalty, while being conscious of the strengths and needs of development of each member.

You might be wondering, at this point, why do you need to create tribes in an organisation? By creating tribes, you will ensure a better leadership than with the old pyramid model. The funny thing is that we don’t only want to belong to one tribe, but to many, we as people have the need to be drawn to leaders and their ideas, again, feeling the excitement to belong to and the thrill of something new.

Now creating these tribes brings challenges: • Most companies create crowds, not tribes. • Crowds don’t have leaders. • Crowds don’t have communication.

And, while most organisations are marketing to the crowd, smart companies assemble tribes.

You need to create these Tribes if you want to deliver Transformational projects or you will get the same output as before.

Empower a team to accomplish an objective, they will do everything they can to accomplish it, but for that, you need to empower your leaders and you can’t continue to request the same results as before. Creating these tribes means that you realize that they may fail, and that’s ok. That’s what it takes for them to regulate themselves. But when they start acting like a tribe the result is much more than you were expecting. Give people time to know themselves, to learn what they like and what they don’t. But remember that not everyone is cut for this kind of job and the tribe may expel elements.

One thing is certain, for organisational tribes to thrive, the status quo must be broken. Every individual must be able to push forward, inspire others and take initiative. Although the rules are the same that have been for years (look for Native Tribes and you will know what I mean), companies need people to have initiative. That’s happiness being generated.

Why would people try to change companies and organisations and create these tribes? Because creating new services and products is fun, and when you do fun things, that’s engaging, and the results are mind-blowing, and if you are trying to drive a better digital experience platform you need to set the stage for your team to excel. Trust your tribe!