The tribes we lead

Originally approached from a marketing perspective, the observations and arguments of Seth Godin resonate as pertinent for TheTransitioner and its community. Here is my transcript of this interesting and fun presentation.

What we do is we try to change everything. We try to find something that needs to be changed to make big, important, permanent change.

Creating, spreading an idea as a lot behind it. We are living through and are right at a key moment of a change in the way ideas are created and spread and implemented.

3 cycles:

1. We started with the factory idea that you could change the whole world if you had an efficient factory that could churn out change. The essence of that model requires ever cheaper labor and ever faster machines – but we running out of both.

2. We then went to the TV idea: if you could get on TV enough times, if you could buy enough ads, you could win. Push, push ideas in some more or less ethical ways. This model requires you to act like the king, telling people what to do. This method, mass marketing, requires average ideas because you're going to the masses and plenty of ads. We see that also in politics. This model doesn't work so well anymore either.

3. We are now in a new model of leadership, where the way we make change is not about using money or power to lever a system. But by leading. This is the idea of tribes. It's about leading and connecting people and ideas. And it's something that people have wanted forever. People have always had tribes: church tribe, work tribe, community tribe, etc. But now, thanks to the internet, thanks to the explosion of mass media, etc., tribes are everywhere. Internet was supposed to homogenize everyone by connecting us all. Instead what it's allowed is silos of interest. People on the fringes can find each other, connect and go somewhere.

It turns out that it is tribes, not money, not factory, that can change our world, that can change politics,that can align large numbers of people |Vincent: see B. Obama's electoral campaign?]. Not because you force them to do something against their will. But because they wanted to connect. That what we do for a living now, all of us, is find something worth changing, and then assemble tribes that assemble tribes that spread the idea and spread the idea. It becomes something far bigger than ourselves, it becomes a movement. Example of Al Gore seeking to change the world by creating a movement – thousands of people around the country that could give his presentation for him.

You don't need everyone. You just need about a thousand true fans, a thousand people who care enough that they will get you to the next round, the next round, and the next round.

And that means that the idea that you create, the product you create, the movement you create isn't for everyone. It's not a mass thing. It's instead about finding the true believers. Key concept of using tools that help authors create movements (example of the Kindle that is limited because you cannot see the comments and notes of other readers). Use tools that help organize people who want to talk about something [Vincent: socialwares].

Most movements, most leadership that we're doing is about finding a group that's disconnected but already has a yearning. Not persuading people to want something they don't have yet.

The Beatles did not invent teenagers. They merely decided to lead them. Examples of Diane Hatz/The Meatrix, Hugo Chavez, Bob Marley, Derek Sivers.

What all these people have in common is that they are heretics. Heretics look at the status quo and say: “This will not stand. I can't abide this status quo. I am willing to stand up and be counted and move things forward. I see what the status quo is. I don't like it”. That instead of looking at all the little rules, and following each one of them, every once in a while someone stands up and says, “Not me”. Someone stands up and says: “This one is important. We need to organize around it”. And not everyone will. But you don't need everyone. You just need a few people who will look at the rules, realize they make no sense, and realize how much they want to be connected.

Example of Zappos: not selling shoes but best place for people who are into shoes to find each other, to talk about their passion, to connect with people who care more about customer service, than making a nickel tomorrow.

The behavior required is to be able to say, “I can't do this by myself. But if I can get other people to join my Climb and Ride, then together we can get something that we all want. We're just waiting for someone to lead us.” Thus, this evolving spiral:

1. Tell a story [Vincent: good, beautiful, true] to people who want to hear it.
2. Connect a tribe of people that are desperate to be connected to each other.
3. Lead a movement.
4. Make change.

Three important questions:

1. Who exactly are you upsetting? If you're not upsetting anyone, you're not changing the status quo.
2. Who are you connecting? For a lot of people, that's what they're in it for. They are in for the connections that are being made, one to the other.
3. Who are you leading? Focusing on that part of it, not the mechanics of what you're building, but the who, and the leading part is where change comes.

Good example of Blake at Tom's Shoes: product (shoes) that tells a story .
[Vincent: things are more then products, they carry/are linked to an history, a story, a form of consciousness that can be expressed and needs to be expressed - reminds me of fair trade].

You do not need permission from people to lead them. But in case you do, here it is: they're waiting, we're waiting for you to show us where to go next.

What leaders have in common:

1. They challenge the status quo, what's currently there.
2. They build a culture, a way of knowing that you're in or out [Vincent – vessel membrane?]
3. They have curiosity. Curiosity about people in the tribe. Curiosity about outsiders. They're asking questions.
4. They connect people to one another. What do people want more than anything? They want to be missed the day they don't show up. They want to be missed when they're gone. And tribe leaders can do that.
5. They have charisma. But you don't need charisma to become a leader. Being a leader gives you charisma. Charisma comes from the leading.
6. They commit, to the cause, to the tribe, to the people who are there.

Challenge for each individual to create a movement. Something that matters. Start. Do it. We need it.

I propose to dig further into Change-Leadership-Vision-Memes in the Conscious Science group.