Estimated reading time: 2 minutes 58 seconds.
TODAY’S IDEA:
You lead. Your tribe communicates.
— From: Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us by Seth Godin
Seth Godin asks “What does it take to create a movement?” Take, for instance, “microfinance as a tool to fight poverty.” And he cites the answer he got from the Acumen Fund regarding Mohammad Yunus, Founder of Grameen Bank, “the problem (and its solution!) were recognized more than thirty years ago.”
So why did it take so long for the idea to get traction?
“There’s a difference,” says Seth, “between telling people what to do and inciting a movement. The movement happens when people talk to one another, when ideas spread within the community, and most of all, when peer support leads people to do what they always knew was the right thing… Great leaders create movements by empowering the tribe to communicate.”
That’s how Skype grew all over the world. That’s how Wikipedia grew. That’s how social movements spread. Communication is key, and real leaders know how their tribe communicates and enable them to do so.
The book tells a story that Jacqueline Novogratz, founder and CEO of Acumen (a non-profit global venture capital fund whose goal is to use entrepreneurial approaches to address global poverty) shared with Seth about Unicef spending a lot of money in creating posters to promote child vaccinations to the mothers of Rwanda. “The posters were gorgeous—photographs with women and children with simple messages written in Kinyarwandan (the local language), about the importance of vaccinating every child. They were perfect, except for the fact with a female illiteracy rate exceeding 70 percent, words written in perfect Kinyarwandan made little difference.” Jacqueline noticed “that the way messages spread in Rwanda was by song. One group of women would sing a song for other women, both as a way of spreading ideas and as a gift. No song, no message.”
The bottom line to all this? “Your tribe communicates. They probably don’t do it the way you would; they don’t do it as efficiently as you might like, but they communicate. The challenge [for you as a leader] is to help your tribe sing, whatever form that song takes.”
Here’s a video (17 min) of a TED Talk Seth gave called “The tribes we lead.”
ACTION
TODAY: No matter how big or small your tribe, you are indeed a leader. Stop for a moment to think how your tribe communicates and how you can motivate and enable this communication to take place better. OR… want an even better action for today? Watch the video above, at the 16:40 minute mark Seth says that to start a movement it only takes 24 hours. Go start your movement!
FUTURE: Make a list of the various tribes that you lead: your family, your company, your team, your friends, other social circles, internet groups, and more. What is the way in which each group communicates? How can you motivate and connect them? How can you enable, elevate and empower (3 Es) this communication for your movement to gain steam?
This post goes out with much gratitude to Seth Godin for his wonderful books, for being a ruckus maker and starting a movement, and–especially–for the tribe he leads, the altMBA. It was out out of the communication from within the tribe that this blog was born. I’m a proud alumna! Here’s a conversation Seth and I had on Facebook Live where I talk about my altMBA experience.
Know someone who leads a tribe? Please share this post with them via email, Facebook or Twitter! Curious about the altMBA? Hit me up and I’ll gladly share my experience and answer your questions.