The 5 stages of building a tribe, and 8 elements of telling the story of the tribe.

Hello and welcome to this episode of Speak PR. Now the question today is, are you in a tribe? Are you leading a tribe? Or are you within a tribe? Or are you part of a crowd or many crowds? The reason this is important is because if you're a business owner or a business leader, a tribe is much more effective and much more efficient and creates measurable change in the marketplace Whereas organizations which are sharing the characteristics of being a crowd have been proven to be less so. But there are 5 stages for formation of a tribe, and I'm going to share those with you today. I'm also going to talk about the communications aspect of building a tribe, and this is important because tribes really build businesses. Tribes create change, and that's really what we all want to do with our own organizations. My name is Jim James. Welcome to the Speak PR Podcast today. Now, according to Seth Godin, the thought leader, author of some 22 books, who wrote, in fact, the book entitled Tribes, a crowd is a tribe without a leader. A crowd is a tribe without communication. And most organizations spend their time marketing to the crowd, but smart organizations assemble a tribe. Now, a tribe, according to the dictionary, is a social division in traditional society consisting of families or communities linked by social, economic, religious, or blood ties with a common culture and dialect, typically having a recognized leader. Well, of course, in modern-day terms, businesses can also become tribes. So we recognize this when we go to organizations and everybody across the organization, all the touchpoints, are passionate about that brand and that service. I was thinking about this because I got another email today from a chap called Mark Bowness who runs a business called We Build Tribes. Mark Bowness is an Englishman who now lives in Australia, and I subscribed to one of his courses where he helps people to build communities and tribes around a sense of common purpose. He has some 30,000 people now following him as a tribe leader. Now, it's a fantastic business model he's built, but it's also helping to create sense of purpose and drive, but also the structure required for people to create a tribe. Well, businesses need to do the same thing because tribes are groups of people that are committed to a common sense of purpose and who recognise the roles within that organisation. And I think this is increasingly important because quite often the centre of power is no longer in control of the people delivering the value, the service. I was thinking about this because I went to a shop here in Bath called Blackstones, and the assistant said, we're going to be shutting soon, and in 5 minutes. And I said, well, could I just try something on? He said, well, if I need to stay open, I'm being paid by the minute, sir, so that's up to you. Quite a different sort of an attitude rather than, would you like me to make sure that you've got what you like? I know that the store's closing. So obviously there's a cultural issue within that organization where this person doesn't feel as though he's part of the tribe. He feels like he's just one of the crowd working for the company. Back in 2008, a couple of authors, Dave Logan and Hayley Fisher Wright, wrote a book entitled Tribal Leadership: Leveraging Natural Groups to Build a Thriving Organization. They interviewed some 24,000 organizations and built a 5-stage model for tribe leadership and building within organizations. Their view is that tribes are ultimately more powerful than companies and more powerful than individual executives, and that you can actually create tribes through a methodology. Now, the way that they like to look at tribes is they say a tribe is comprised of normally 15, 20 to 150 people. Now, statistically, that would cover pretty much 96, 97% of all companies around the world, because as we've said before, really only 1% of all companies are above 250 people. So the obvious implication of this is that really every business could be a tribe, and a fundamental part of the role of the founder of the company is to be the leader of that tribe. So let's just look at the 5 stages that companies go through, and then we can start to look at how you can position yourself as the leader through the communications tools that are available. So again, according to these authors, the American authors Logan and Fisher-Wright, they say stage 1 is where tribes are distinguished by some degree of hostility and despair, where their members say things like life sucks. Now, that sounds maybe a little bit extreme, but we've probably all been in places where we hear staff members complaining about the nature of the management or the nature of the facilities or the hours that they have to work. Now, stage 2 is apparently where tribes are characterized by apathy and a sense of futility, where the people in the organization basically don't try, they don't care, they don't innovate, and they don't hold one another accountable for anything. And actually, then they say that My life sucks. Not just a detached life sucks, but my life sucks. In other words, they feel committed enough to the organization, but only in a negative way. Stage 3 is where tribal members, or let's call them company members of staff, are selfish at this stage, and they're really in it for themselves, and they're really finding ways to maybe support their own cause internally, and they are looking for ways to quite possibly make themselves look better. By making others look worse. So their attitude is, I'm great but you're not, or I'm great but the rest of my team are not so great. Stage 4 is where tribe members do have a sense of shared values and they're willing to share knowledge and collaborate with each other, but they are still competing slightly with each other, but their competitive focus shifts to other tribes and other companies. So they move from internal competition to external competition, which of course is a good, a good situation in some respects where they're saying, you know, we're a great company, but they're not a great company. Buy from us because we're good, but I wouldn't go there because they're bad. And stage 5 is where tribes attain what the authors call a rare level. Of innocent wonderment, where they say that the individuals within their organization apply themselves to the creation of things that no one has dreamt of yet and are often incredibly successful. Now, these tribes and the people within them say life is great, and these people are quite often solving, you know, what they believe to be a higher purpose, a problem which is still bound into some very deep and maybe primal instincts. So it's a lot easier for individuals and for companies to be competitive with other companies and other individuals than it is for them to take on a larger, higher-purpose challenge. If you like, the whole sort of changing a world, not changing a company or an industry. Now, the point of the authors is that these stages can be managed, which is essentially a good thing, you know. And they've pointed to obviously Pixar, Apple, Tesla was actually after the book came out, but these companies that we've all met that have a messianic desire which really runs through the entire organization And it's not just these big companies. It's smaller owner-operated restaurants that we've been to, for example. There are some great training companies that I've dealt with where the founders have imbued a sense of mission and purpose throughout the team, and that person has created a tribe around what they believe in the same way Mark Barnes is creating with his We Create Tribes product, or even If we look at people like Tony Robbins, for example, these people that are creating tribal leaders and creating what Simon Sinek talks about in terms of the why. So why the organization exists. I personally think that we have to look upstream from that, and we have to look at who is the leader. So in the same way we had Geronimo, of course, who was the great Indian leader. The, the sense of who is the person, because that creates the authenticity to the why. If we have people who, to some degree, if we look at Donald Trump, who says his purpose is to, you know, drain the swamp and to make it like a blue-collar revolution in America, but actually, of course, he's a billionaire. So the authenticity there for me is a stretch because here we have a billionaire following what they are proposing as populist measures. So there's a disparity there between the life role and purpose of the, of the tribal leader and the members of the tribe. So when you're building your own tribe around your story, This is why we believe that storification is the first part of the Speak PR methodology, because who you are, who is the hero, who's the protagonist, is very, very important. If I look at, for example, my sister, Dr. Shelley James, when she was younger, she was knocked off a bicycle and she suffered a head injury. And as a result, she had issues with understanding color and being able to read color again. And so she had to relearn color. And as a result of that, later on in life, she studied color and got a PhD in color and how we interpret color through the mind. She could have had a fascination, an academic fascination with color, but who she is, her story, Her challenge of trying to reconnect her mind with color, and she's an artist too, which created a special need for her, is a genuine part of the story. Why when she now talks about light, people can understand why it's important to her and also resonate and connect with that meaning for her. So when we're creating our own companies, then how do we have people that have a shared If you like, history or a shared mission. Who are those people? And this seems to be some of the characteristics of a great company that is built on a tribe of commonly driven people. So it's the old adage now in business, and I've done this myself when I've hired people for one of my companies. I'm more interested in who they are than what they know, because who they are I can't change, what they know I can. So part of what we want to think about when we're running our own businesses, and I think about this from a public relations point of view, because how everybody in the organization behaves becomes the reality for the consumers and the partners and also for the other members of staff. Coming all the way back to that member of staff who said to me when I went to buy something, some outdoor equipment, that you know he'd stand another five minutes because he was going to be paid for an extra five minutes. He was fine with that, as opposed to saying, "You know what? I really want to make sure that you get the waterproof clothing that you need." So that in that PR that they might have done around the brand. In the media, for example, isn't being translated into the experience in store. And what I believe personally is that public relations is greater than press releases. It's greater than the contact that we have with the media. It's all the touchpoints that we create with our company. Now, marketing is the act of telling stories about the things that we make and the stories that sell And the stories that spread, and it's important that we have stories with a narrative that are genuine. So here are some points that if we've got our tribe and we're building the tribe through the five different stages, from if you like apathy through to evangelism, how do we do that? So from a communications point of view, we need to think about the platforms that we're going to use. If it's internal staff, which platforms can we use? And in the Speak PR Technology Applications Directory, I've listed over 100 platforms that can be used for communication. But obviously one of the core ones is face-to-face, whether that's now in a digital platform or if it's a, uh, in a sort of a lockdown situation. But Personal contact is going to be essential in one way or another to create a tribe. Second thing is about being consistent, that the messaging that we want to be sharing must be consistent. Now, the point of this, of course, is that if it's who you are, if the mission of the company is who you are, it's going to be consistent because you're keeping consistent to your purpose and your sense of mission. Only posting what's relevant and what is thought through. Now, when I put this podcast together, I always do some research in advance. I try not to just post things generally because I think there should be a post. I commit myself to 6 days a week, but also what I commit myself is to making sure that it's researched and considered because it's not fair on you, the listener, If I just am talking generally without some preparation, I think that's not a that's not a value that I would like to share. The being candid is another part of sharing our values and creating a tribe, good and bad about what we're doing. Because ultimately, if we're a leader, if we're a tribal leader, then of course we're going to need to be telling people as we do in any situation what's going to be good, but what's going to be bad because we need to prepare people. For reality. Using hashtags, as I've talked about on another podcast, about the need to start to categorize your content by hashtag, almost like a Dewey Decimal or Library of Congress system for the internet. Quality is important— getting great images, great video, great audio— all really important because then they're not a distraction for the audience. That we can give back credit, that we can credit the people who have shared the information. Here I am talking about, for example, Seth Godin, or I'm talking about Dave Logan and Haley Fisher Wright. It's important not to claim credit where credit shouldn't be claimed, but to give credit where it's due. And this then leads me on to the next point about loyalty being earned and not given. People lead tribes, and they're given authority because of what they say and how they behave. This is different to people who are appointed with authority. Now, often we find the people who are the leaders in organizations are not necessarily the people with the title of leadership. We've we all know one or two people in an organization who get things done, who other people look to for answers, even though they may not have. The job title or the responsibility given to them by the organization. Senator Bill Bradley from America defined a movement as having 3 elements. One, which is a narrative that tells a story about who we are and the future we're trying to build. Number 2 is a connection between and among the leader and the tribe. And the 3rd is something to do. The fewer limits, the better. And this leads us on to our methodology of storification around the vision, but therefore. The tribal leader has the vision, but they also help to articulate the but, the why there are challenges. And they also then can vision and articulate the therefore, the solution. And ultimately, tribal leaders, if it's Me or you or anybody else are people that we want to trust to follow. And we may be a member of more than one tribe. We may be a tribal leader in one tribe, in our family, for example. We may be a tribe member in another tribe, for example, at work. We all have different roles to play, and in communication terms, it's important to know which ones we're playing, how and when, and which ways we can do that so that the greater good of the organization is transferred across to everybody. that needs to know about it. So thank you. That's this episode of Speak PR. Thank you. My name is Jim James. And if you like this podcast, please do share it with your friends or your colleagues or other entrepreneurs and business owners. Subscribe and share a rating. Also, if you'd like more information about our Speak PR program, the Mastermind, there's information at eastwestpr.com. And so until we meet again, like to wish you the best of health, A profitable business, and that you keep on leading your tribe with great communication. Thank you.