Tribal Leadership – The 1-Page Cheat Sheet

Behold, the 1-page cheat sheet for “Tribal Leadership”:

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Don’t need a fancy PDF, just text is enough?

— Summary of leveling up a tribe —

A TRIBE is a naturally ocurring group of 20-150 people, e.g. a small company or a department ina large company. It’s not only employees but also partners, frequent customers or friends.

Each tribe is in one of five STAGES – the stage that most of its members are in.

Raise a tribe to the next stage by LEVELING UP the majority of its members. Here’s how to level each stage up

STAGE 1 – Life sucks! -> 2

Point out that life is good for other people and so might be theirs. Encourage them to cut ties with Stage 1 people and meet new people.

STAGE 2 – My Life sucks! -> 3

Encourage them to make a friend. Then another. And another.
Show them how their work makes a difference, what their strengths are and how they can improve. Late Stage 3 people make good mentors for this stage.

STAGE 3 – I’m great! -> 4

Encourage them to introduce their contacts to each other based on values and advantages, i.e. forming triads. Compliment their successes but stress that they can’t accomplish more without others. Assign them projects too big for one person, thus enforcing a partnership. Point out Stage 4 role models and talk about your own transition. Encourage overcommunication.

STAGE 4 – My Life’s great! -> 5

Advise them to explore values, noble cause and outcomes with their teams, as well as to regularly reflect on how they can all work better together. Encourage them to let their teams solve their own problems. Assign bolder projects and create an opportunity to make history.

STAGE 5 – Life’s great!

Some background on making the cheat sheet:

Last year I hit a rough patch at work: I had this vivid image of how great things could be and no clue how to get there. Along came the right book at the right moment: “Tribal Leadership” by Logan, King & Fischer-Wright. If you haven’t read it, I strongly encourage you to do so. This post is NOT a book review, so lets just say that it introduces interesting new concepts about the dynamics of naturally occuring groups of 20-150 people such as a department or a small company.

This post is for people that have already read the book and want to raise their company to the next stage: You might remember that there is a great summary at the end of the book about the stages and how to transition between them. It’s called a “cheat sheet” but doesn’t readily serve as one, because it’s spread across several pages. I wanted something I can print out and hang up somewhere I’m likely to look at it. (For me, a visual reminder hugely increases the chances of following-through.) But I couldn’t find a ready-to-print version of the cheat sheet.

So I decided to make one for myself. And – in for a penny, in for a pound – I thought I might as well do it right and make it enjoyable. Here’s the result of my efforts:

Download as PDF

I hope the sheet helps you get to that Stage 4 or even 5 🙂

PS: Found an error or have a suggestion? Please contact me.

PPS: It’s intended for DinA4, about the same size as Letter. If you like the fonts, they are 5AM Gender, Droid Serif and Droid Sans.