Tribes_Seth Godin

1. Tribes

2. Outline
What is
Tribe?
Leading
from
the
bottom
Crowd
vs.
Tribe
Organizations
vs.
factories
Tighten the
tribe

3. A group of people
Connected to one another
Connected to a leader
Connected to an idea
A Tribe Defined

4. A shared interest
A way to communicate
Requirements of a Tribe
Joel Spolsky –Runs a small software company
Passion- Talking about how a small software company is run
Writes blogs and books
Extremely famous amongst software programmers, has created tribe

5. Certainly not. Internet has removed all communication barriers
Facebook, Ning, Meetup, Twitter, Squidoo, Basecamp new channels of communication
Are Tribes Local?
Jacqueline Novogratz – Founder, Acumen Fund (Involving 20
countries)
Inspiring entrepreneurs to create products/services to enrich people
Has a tribe of donors, employees, entrepreneurs and supporters

6. Tribes are everywhere
Inside and outside organizations, in public and private, in non-profits and
classrooms
Tribes are about belief in idea, in leaders and in the community
It is about respect for the tribe
The Opportunity and Belief

7. Working on stuff we believe in is much more satisfying
Factory centric model of producing things is no longer profitable, we need change
Consumers are spending money on fashion, on things that matter not on factory-
produced commodities
The Realizations

8. Need a change
Need Heretics,
people who
challenge the
status quo
Marketplace
rewards
heretics,
trouble makers
and change
agents
They bring
innovative
solutions,
solutions that
are simpler
and that
matter
Outcomes

9. Leading from the bottom
Elon Musk Steve Jobs Thomas Barnett

10. Empowering the
tribe, thus creating
a movement
Establishing
foundation for people
to communicate
Inciting a movement
rather than telling
how bring change
Transforming shared
interest into
passionate goals
What does it take?

11. What Market Wants?
• Market don’t want boring, they want
remarkability, novelty and style
• Market is bored with yesterday and want
tomorrow
• Good enough was past, today it has to be
great enough
Crowd is tribe without leader
There is no communication within crowd
Most companies target crowd
Smart companies target tribe
Crowd vs. Tribe

12. Average is Mediocre
Do you have Fans?• Average is good in stable environment
• The motto is to build reliability,
predictability, cut cost and make profit
• Traditional marketer: standard product for
standard market
• Average is mediocre for tribes and is boring
• No difference between average and
mediocre
• Average is taken for granted
• Someone who care deeply about you and
your work
• An artist need only thousand true fans
• Thousand is enough because they form a
tribe
• Don’t look for numbers, look for fans with
depth of commitment
• Hard to find and precious, need generosity
and bravery

13. Twitter and Trust The Status Quo
Initiative=Happiness
• Twitter build trust, slowly, provide true fans
• Consistent touch with tribe
• Tighten the relationship with followers
• Winners break status quo
• Inspire others to change the rules => Thrive
• Changing status quo =>opportunity to be
remarkable
• Innovation is rewarded
• Creativity is fun
• Doing such work is engaging
• Making successful things=> Great way to spend time

14. With enough leverage, you can change
the world
Status quo is in big trouble => King can
not remain kind
Make something bigger than yourself
=> People will follow you
A Simple Example
Crowbars
• Scott Beale=> Innovator, Leader and hence
Impresario
• Walked into deserted bar after waiting for
long to enter into Google party
• Tweeted about being in designated place
• Scores of people came
• Deserted bar => Line at the door
• People follow you if you earn respect and
permission of tribe

15. A Brief History of The Factory
The Beginning
Factories are efficient
Good way to make profit
Measurable output, reduced cost
Stability and absence of
responsibility
Government job in India: no
surprises and stable pay
NO motivation to make a difference
The End
Companies lost growth => Factory
worker lost jobs
Absence of responsibility =>
illusion of deniability
Reap benefits => Imagine and
provide insights
Control what you do => Authority
over own time and efforts
Can’t achieve it in factory

16. The F Word
Organizations vs. Factories
We need
organizations, we
don’t need
factories
Ability to create
complex product
Provide muscle and
consistency to get
product into
market
Have scale to care
for large tribes
Filled with smart ,
fast and flexible
people with a
mission
Factories can slow
you down
Factories are easy
to outsource
Organizations
require leadership
• Fear => Reason why not all
does innovation
• Will to make ideas happen is
missing
• Winning idea is the one with
most fearless heretic mind
behind it

17. The Peter Principle Revisited
It All Falls Apart If ->
Fight Your Fear
• Fear is emotion => Very strong
• We are eagerly waiting to see an fearless fail
• If you want to do something => Make clear
that world needs change
• Everything is ready for change => only fear is
holding you back
• In hierarchy, every employee tend to rise to
his level of incompetence
• Promoted until ends up in job that one can’t
handle
• Can’t handle because one gets paralysed
with fear• The one who is leading is fearful
• Many entrepreneur fail just because of this

18. Fear of Failure is Overrated
It will win if it spreads, it will spread if it is not boring
Its horrible to work for organization that does not want change
The IDEA Which Wins
• It is an excuse
• Organization bear failure and not you
• We choose not be remarkable because we are worried about criticism
• When others are criticized, we believe that same will happen to us
• Constructive criticism is terrible, no one challenges it
• Criticism is a proof that you are not boring
• Weigh in the bad feeling of criticism and benefits from doing remarkable and decide
• Find what can you create that critics with criticize because they are meant to

19. The Way to Lead!
Why They Exist?
The Cult of Heretic
• Engaged, passionate and more
powerful than everyone else
• They challenge status quo
• They believe
• Not for getting their statue built
• They exist to help the tribe
• Great leaders don’t want attention BUT
they use it
• To lead the tribe and not take from tribe
• There is no right way
• Understand what is authentic leadership
• Understand how to create a tribe
• Connect and inspire, DON’T manage

20. Leadership is Scarce• Don’t be tempted to make tribe bigger
• A tribe which communicate quickly is the one which thrives
How to Tighten the Tribe?
• Because not many are willing to go through
discomfort required to lead
• Discomfort come from:
• Standing in front of strangers
• Proposing an idea which might fail
• Challenging the status quo
• Resisting the urge to settle
• If there discomfort, leader is required there
• If you are feeling discomfort, you are not
reaching the leadership potential
Tighten the Tribe
Spread the word
to the unreached
Spread the word
within the tribe
Blogging is
powerful, it allows
discussion and
knowledge sharing
Use online
medium like
Twitter, Facebook
and Basecamp
They are not
substitute for the
hard work and
generosity

21. Followers
Lean in, Back Off But
Don’t do Nothing
• Group creates a vacuum where everyone is waiting
for something to happen
• Figure out how to step into vacuum and create
motion
• Those who don’t do anything are afraid of
something that’s not out there
• Sometimes its good to set stage and step back
• Backing off is not doing nothing, it is finding right
time to step in
• Doing nothing means hiding
• Leadership is a choice of not doing nothing
• Participating isn’t Leading
Organization need people who are
eager to follow
Those who just mindlessly follow let
tribe down
They will not do local leadership
while interaction among members
They will not do a good job in
recruiting new members
Followers should be micro leaders

22. Case Studies
CrossFit.com
• Tribe of slightly crazy fitness fanatics
• Get engaged in timed competitions on websites
• Runs certification courses to recruit new members,
coordinated by Central website
CrossFit Tribe is STRONG and GETTING STRONGER!!
Foundation laid by :
Greg Glassman
• Built the tribe from
scratch
• Pushes the tribe to
their limit every day
• Creates a friendly
environment among
the people
Patientslikeme.com
Leaderless tribe
Builds an ever growing database of real world data
People support one another with enthusiasm and
comfort
Different type of
leadership :
• Founders were Leaders
in a different way
• Gave the tribe the tools
to communicate with
each other
• Made the tribe tighter
Leaning in or backing off, but NOT DOING
NOTHING!!

23. Curiosity
A Fundamentalist is a person who
considers whether a fact is acceptable
to his religion before exploring it
A Curious person explores first and then
considers whether or not to accept the
ramifications
Curiosity is a key word.
It is the desire to understand, to try, to push whatever is
interesting
Curious people count.
They are the ones who lead the masses in the middle
who are stuck
Curiosity doesn’t happen overnight.
It’s a process which is built over years, which distinguishes
greatness from mediocrity

24. The Plurality Myth
You don’t need a plurality or a
majority of people following you
YOU GET TO CHOOSE THE TRIBE
YOU LEAD !!
All you need to do is motivate people who
choose to follow you
Through your actions as a leader, you
attract a tribe that wants to follow you
Ultimately, people are most easily led
where they wanted to go along
Al Gore led a tribe
whom they didn’t
even know.
He stated his
message and
people followed
him.

25. The Schoolteacher Experiment
Class with less number of students tend to
do better
Teacher has more time to spend
customizing the lesson to each
student
Tribes are increasingly voluntarily.
People have a choice of their own in every
decision
Great leaders don’t try to please everyone
Great leaders realize that a motivated,
connected tribe is far more powerful than a
larger group

26. The Virtuous Cycle vs. the Exclusive Tribe
Virtuous Tribe
Tribes that work
better when
they’re bigger
Political parties,
Facebook etc.
Exclusive Tribe
Some tribes do
better when
they’re smaller
They are ruined
when they’re
pushed to
become big

27. • Career cannot grow by going after most people
• Growth happens when you aren’t like most people;
when you appeal to folks who aren’t most people
Most people Don’t matter so
much
• No one anoints you as a leader
• Change isn’t made by asking permission
• Change is made by asking forgiveness
The Wrong Question?
• First thing : Individuals have far more power than
ever before
• Second thing : Keep faith; faith that failures won’t
destroy you and that it’s worth doing
The Two things you need to
know

28. Recap : Main Lessons from the book
No Escape
• Seek
Criticism
and persist
Create a
Movement
• Failure
isn’t fatal
Believe in
what you Do
• Create Your
Own
Religion

29. Thank You