TRIBAL LEADERSHIP, stage five: Attaining "Life is Great" Workplaces

This final installment looks at the high performance of Stage Five and how and why the "life is great" culture is optimal for business.

 

Stage Five is the culture of 2 percent of the workforce tribes, where the theme is “life is great” and focuses on realizing potential by making history. Teams at Stage Five have produced miraculous innovations. The team that produced the first Macintosh was Stage Five, and another example is Amgen, an international biotechnology company. This stage is pure leadership, vision, and inspiration.

In the early 1990’s, the authors only knew about tribal Stages One through Four, and had lots of examples of each. On the basis of their observations, they believed Stage Four was at the top, until Amgen demonstrated something more. They expected a cultural mood of tribal pride, a hallmark of Stage Four, but there was no congratulating of one another. When asked who their competitors were, they answered with cancer, arthritis, and Parkinson’s, not a company. At this point, they had stumbled across their first example of Stage Five, and it was just as much a leap forward as Stage Four was from Three. The authors believe this is the future of business.

The pinnacle of workplace tribes are those who seek and promote good life for everyone. This group works on the "life is great" mantra in which the culture is devoid of competitors. These organizations align with a greater "noble cause" and tribal elders are seen as "brokering treaties" with other like-minded tribes. While individuals can regress into any of the earlier cultural stages, this stage is the end goal for those looking to elevate their team to a level of peak performance.

Stage Five shares the same characteristics of Four (values, noble cause), except that there is no “they.” As a result, these people form ever-growing networks with anyone whose values resonate with their own. Stage Five is rare. The authors of Tribal Leadership believe stage five is “the future of business,” however it happens in limited bursts in the corporate setting.

Tribal Strategy

As tribes naturally progress one cultural stage at a time, tribal leaders focus on upgrading tribes through the cultural stages using leverage points, with the goal of stabilizing at Stage Four. A tribal leader sets a strategy that takes everything into account, especially the tribe itself, along with the market, product & project lifecycle, economics, technology, etc. A tribal strategy begins at Stage Four and is composed of five parts (core values, noble cause, outcomes, assets, and behaviors). There are three separate and interlocking discussions that flow from core values and noble cause with three questions, which the tribe must answer “yes” to before the strategy can be successfully implemented.

Core Values and Noble Cause

A tribal leader engages a tribe in an exploratory process about what the tribe stands for (values) and what it lives for (noble cause). Core values are “principles without which life wouldn’t be worth living”. A noble cause is a “pronouncement of a future state that a tribe will bring about through its coordinated action”.

Outcomes (“What do we want?”)

This is a conversation about what we want. Outcomes should be big, specific, measurable, and set in time. A goal is a success in the future, which implies a failure in the present, while an outcome is a present state of success that morphs into an even bigger success in the future. A tribal leader should ensure outcomes are in line with the tribe’s core values and noble cause.

Assets (“What do we have?”)

This is a conversation about what we have. Assets should be heavy, varied, and specific so that they overwhelm the outcome.

--Question #1: Assets Sufficient for the Outcomes?

The first question is whether the tribe has enough assets to accomplish the outcome. If the answer is “no”, the tribe should focus on an interim strategy to build its assets.

Behaviors (“What we will do”)

This is a conversation about what we will do. Behaviors should be general, consistent, and forwarding so that when accomplished, they become assets. Behaviors need to be put in order of implementation. As the tribe puts these behaviors together, individual leaders will step forward.

--Question#2: Enough Assets for Behaviors?

The second question is whether the tribe has enough assets for the behaviors. If the answer is “no”, the tribe should add assets or modify behaviors.

--Question #3: Will Behaviors Accomplish Outcomes?

The third question is whether the behaviors will accomplish the outcomes. Everyone in the tribe should answer this question. Once all of the tribe members have expressed their thoughts, the tribe needs to take the concerns or objections into account.

As the tribe implements the strategy, it may enter Stage Five.

Success Indicators:

• They will use “life is great” language rather than “we’re great (and they’re not).”
• They will seek out evermore challenging projects, and their network will include an almost stunning amount of diversity
• They will make decisions about how to spend their time based on the tribe’s core values and noble cause.
• They will appear to be an embodiment of the tribe’s strategy, especially its values.    

Stage Five culture provides a level of performance that can make history. Have you seen this up close? It’s characterized by the unlocking of boundless potential and committing to something larger than the group would imagine is possible. We’ve seen it with Olympic teams and the authors’ research has uncovered it at times within business organizations.

For a moment let’s think beyond the level of any one organization. Given that we, as human beings, must take decisive collective action toward such complex matters as the stabilization of our global economic recovery, can we afford to wait for fleeting moments of Stage Five culture or shall we work toward it now?

Many of you work with or work inside of large organizations. What are your experiences, both positive and negative, of the culture of your “tribe” or your organization, and what can you see as possible?

Cultural Map: Five Stages of Culture

Stage	%	Behavior	Relationship to People	Language
5	2%	Innocent Wonderment	Team	"Life is great"
4	22%	Tribal Pride	Stable Partnership	"We're great"
3	49%	Lone Warrior	Personal Domination	"I'm great"
2	25%	Apathetic Victim	Seperate	"My life sucks"
1	2%	Undermining	Alienated	"Life sucks"

 

Whether you are a manager of an organization seeking to improve organizational performance or a member of an organization seeking to move up, it pays to understand the most basic ways in which people interact.

Listen to the way people talk. Is it “life stinks” (Stage 1), “my life stinks” (Stage 2), “I’m great” (Stage 3), “we’re great” (Stage 4) or “life is great” (Stage 5)? You can be influential in moving your tribe to the next stage and reach Stage 5.

 

Contact Software Consortium or call 1-877-850-9393 if you would like to discuss how to leverage our top-level talent to empower your business.

 

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