Faith Tribe
I started reading two leadership books this week:
Bill Hybels' Ax.i.om: Powerful Leadership Proverbs and
Seth Godin's Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us
Tribes has an interesting (and pretty common sensical, if you ask me) premise: we all want to belong to something bigger than ourselves - and generally when we "join" we want to be with like-minded (or like-interested) people. We form tribes.
We form tribes around common interests: The Deadheads who followed the Grateful Dead, Trekkies, Star Wars fans, comic collectors, train nuts (heh, I am one), sports teams.
We form tribes around common ideologies: the emergent church, the One campaign, politcal parties, social issues...
We form tribes around the things that are important to us.
Tribes are different from organizations. Tribal bonds are very strong - sometimes (and wrongfully, but realisticly) stronger than family ties. Saturday golf outings, first day of buck season hunting camp, every night at the bar after work, whatever. Tribal bonds are strong. Sundays are given over to tailgating and game watching because the fan tribe bond is very strong.
Organizations are really just a collection of people who do something together. Tribes are a collection of people who ARE together - you know, they exist because they exist together. Get a workplace to be a tribe, and productivity and staff unity goes up. Get a group of political supporters to be a tribe, and watch the unlikely candidate win the election. Get a group of church goers to be a tribe, and watch the community be transformed.
Godin doesn't give the 10-steps to tribehood checklist that too many people try to force-fit into books like this. Just the guidelines.
Tribes are about common passion and communication. He gives all kinds of examples of leveraging communications (from the photocopied biweekly newsletter to Twitter) but he asserts that the METHODS of communication aren't nearly as important as the CONTINUAL and OPEN communication. From leader to tribe, from tribe to leader - from tribe member to tribe member.
I went to a Wovenhand concert a couple weeks ago - not because I'm a huge fan, but because someone from the Wovenhand tribe is a good friend of mine - and HE asked me to go. And I'm slowly joining the tribe...
And that's how tribes work - word of mouth - what people are saying about...
Average stuff is taken for granted, not talked about, and certainly not sought out. (page 32)
When was the last time I told somebody, "Hey, this band is pretty boring - but they're competent. So, wouldn't you like to come with me to hear them?"
Bands, movies, TV shows, ideologies have Tribes form around them - why not a faith tribe?
Is faith more than just "average stuff" for us? I hope so. I believe so.
Faith Tribe...I like it.
Bill Hybels' Ax.i.om: Powerful Leadership Proverbs and
Seth Godin's Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us
Tribes has an interesting (and pretty common sensical, if you ask me) premise: we all want to belong to something bigger than ourselves - and generally when we "join" we want to be with like-minded (or like-interested) people. We form tribes.
We form tribes around common interests: The Deadheads who followed the Grateful Dead, Trekkies, Star Wars fans, comic collectors, train nuts (heh, I am one), sports teams.
We form tribes around common ideologies: the emergent church, the One campaign, politcal parties, social issues...
We form tribes around the things that are important to us.
Tribes are different from organizations. Tribal bonds are very strong - sometimes (and wrongfully, but realisticly) stronger than family ties. Saturday golf outings, first day of buck season hunting camp, every night at the bar after work, whatever. Tribal bonds are strong. Sundays are given over to tailgating and game watching because the fan tribe bond is very strong.
Organizations are really just a collection of people who do something together. Tribes are a collection of people who ARE together - you know, they exist because they exist together. Get a workplace to be a tribe, and productivity and staff unity goes up. Get a group of political supporters to be a tribe, and watch the unlikely candidate win the election. Get a group of church goers to be a tribe, and watch the community be transformed.
Godin doesn't give the 10-steps to tribehood checklist that too many people try to force-fit into books like this. Just the guidelines.
Tribes are about common passion and communication. He gives all kinds of examples of leveraging communications (from the photocopied biweekly newsletter to Twitter) but he asserts that the METHODS of communication aren't nearly as important as the CONTINUAL and OPEN communication. From leader to tribe, from tribe to leader - from tribe member to tribe member.
I went to a Wovenhand concert a couple weeks ago - not because I'm a huge fan, but because someone from the Wovenhand tribe is a good friend of mine - and HE asked me to go. And I'm slowly joining the tribe...
And that's how tribes work - word of mouth - what people are saying about...
Average stuff is taken for granted, not talked about, and certainly not sought out. (page 32)
When was the last time I told somebody, "Hey, this band is pretty boring - but they're competent. So, wouldn't you like to come with me to hear them?"
Bands, movies, TV shows, ideologies have Tribes form around them - why not a faith tribe?
Is faith more than just "average stuff" for us? I hope so. I believe so.
Faith Tribe...I like it.
Comments