Tribal Leadership Action Steps

At the heart of Tribal Leadership is an eight-year study involving over 24,000 people.  The study mapped, for the first time, five stages of corporate culture and the actions that will nudge a group from one stage to the next. The five stages of tribal culture are:

• Stage One: criminal clusters, such as gangs and prisons, where the theme is “life sucks,” and people act out in despairingly hostile ways.
• Stage Two: the dominant culture in 25 percent of workplace tribes where people say, in effect, “my life sucks,” and exhibit behavior of apathetic victims.
• Stage Three: the dominant culture in almost half of U.S. workplace tribes, where theme is “I’m great (and you’re not)” This personally competitive cultural stage produces only limited innovation and almost no collaboration.
• Stage Four: representing 22 percent of tribal cultures, where the theme is “we’re great.” Stage four is the zone of Tribal Leadership where the leader upgrades the tribe as the tribe embraces the leader. Stage Four is the beginning of high performance.
• Stage Five: the culture of 2 percent of the workforce tribes, where the theme is “life is great” and people focus on realizing potential by making history. Teams at Stage Five have produced remarkable innovations, leading their industries and the economy.

Visit our webpage: Action Steps to Elevate Culture. This document represents the thinking and experience of many of our clients. We offer it to you in the hope that you will use it to create stronger tribes.