Why All Your Smart Friends are Talking about Seth Godin: Tips from “Tribes”
Unity in Diversity by Untitled blue
Why All Your Smart Friends are Talking about Seth Godin: Tips from “Tribes”
2008 was a pretty great year for Seths. 20th Century Fox made “Family Guy” creator Seth MacFarlane the highest-paid writer-producer on planet earth, Seth Rogen proved moreover that he’s worth his (considerable) weight in box-office gold, and Seth Godin’s book Tribes became a consensus must-read in business and innovation circles.
Ok, so the latter Seth might not exactly be a household name just yet, but I’m sure some of your friends are talking about him…at least the smart ones are.
If you haven’t read Tribes, buy it or stea-…I…uh… mean borrow it from a friend… YESTERDAY.
Seriously.
I just finished the book and it speaks to me on several levels AND I want to share with you some of the more critical points and highlights that will help you grow as an innovator and as a leader.
Innovators (all individuals, really) now have more power than ever to start a movement. “Geography used to be important. Now, the internet eliminates geography.”
With today’s tools, a good idea has the realistic ability to scale in ways that were once unfathomable. Just ask David Axelrod.
Chris Anderson’s book Long Tail is a good example of this phenomenon.
Tribes are the people or factions that others (be they marketers on Madison Ave or our closest friends and family) use to group us and with whom we choose to identify ourselves.
“Existing tribes are bigger but more important, it means that there are now more tribes, smaller tribes, influential tribes, horizontal and vertical tribes, and tribes that could never have existed before. Tribes you work with, tribes you travel with, tribes you buy with. Tribes that vote, that discuss, that fight.”
Knowing your tribe and knowing yourself are critical to success, but you must be the one to lead.
Given all the power of movement, “all of it is worthless if you don’t decide to lead.” Godin argues that “The market needs you (we need you) and the tools are there, just waiting. All that’s missing is you, and your vision and your passion.”
Pretty inspirational stuff…but it’s all quite true
Think about it. Microfinance as a tool to fight poverty and the effort to recognize and stem global warming have both become movements in the relatively recently. But both problems and both solutions were recognized more than 30 years ago. So why did it take so long for the idea to gain steam?
The short answer is leadership.
AND great leaders create movements by empowering the tribe to communicate. They establish the foundation for people to make connections, as opposed to commanding people to follow them.
“Ideas that spread, win.” Boring ideas don’t spread. Boring organizations don’t grow.
I say, leverage the power of the internet. “The web connects people. That’ what it does. And movement takes connected people and makes change.”
The world is changing and so is the way we do business. “Top management wants heretics who will create change before change happens to them.”
I don’t know about you. I am not interested in punching the clock from 9 to 5 for the next 20 years of my life. Working in an environment that’s static is… well…boring.
Seth lays out the following steps to create a movement:
1. Publish a manifesto
Give it away and make it easy for the manifesto to spread far and wide. It doesn’t have to be printed or even written. But it’s a mantra and a motto and a way of looking at the world. It unites your tribe members and gives them structure.
2. Make it easy for your followers to connect with you.
It could be as simple as visiting you or emailing you or watching you on television. Or it could be as rich and complex as interacting with you on Facebook.
3. Make it easy for your followers to connect with one another.
Great leaders figure out how to make these interactions happen.
4. Realize that money is not the point of a movement.
Money exists merely to enable it. The moment you try to cash out is the moment you stunt the growth of your movement.
5. Track your progress.
Do it publicly and create pathways for your followers to contribute to that progress
Here are some do-or-die principles to consider:
1. Transparency really is your only option.
Every failed televangelist has learned this one the hard way. The people who follow you aren’t stupid. You might go down in scandal or, more likely, from ennui. People can smell subterfuge from a mile away.
2. Your movement needs to be bigger than you.
An author and his book, for example, don’t constitute a movement. They may inspire a movement, but it is one way communication. And the message itself does not impact real people. Real impact affects people in a tangible way. Changing the way people apply to college, for example…that’s a movement.
3. Movements that grow, thrive.
Every day they get better and more powerful. You will get there soon enough. Don’t mortgage today just because you are in a hurry.
4. Movements are made most clear when compared to the status quo or to movements that work to push the other direction.
Change we can believe in… But can we do it? Yes we can.
Sound familiar?
Doesn’t get much more simple than that, but the message is ridiculously powerful.
5. Exclude outsiders
Exclusion is an extremely powerful force for loyalty and attention. Who isn’t part of your movement matters almost as much as who is. Do you know your tribe?
6. Tearing others down is never as helpful to a movement as building your followers up.
It’s petty and wasteful to lament about what other people or organizations are doing. Positivity is powerful.
Seth finishes the book with a story about Peter Diamandis of the X Prize:
“Peter told me that when he first broached the idea, everyone thought it was stupid. He had no instant support, no one applauding or eager to sign up at first blush. It was his leadership and commitment that made it occurs, not the idea itself (which was nothing but an update or the prize that Lindbergh won more than half a century earlier). The idea wasn’t the point. Organizing the tribe was.”
I had the privilege to interview Peter at one point and as Seth said, his charisma and presence is contagious. Leadership is hard to ignore.
What will you do with the unprecedented amount of tools and tribes at your fingertips? Will you lead, follow, or simply get out of the way? How many of us innovators are hesitant to lead?
How many of those great ideas that you’ve kicking around in your head are you willing to let simmer and fizzle out?
For the fortunate few who are as educated and gifted you are, the time is NOW. You should not only feel encouraged to lead, but I argue that you should feel obligated to do so.
February 19th, 2009 at 12:35 am
Great read. Inspiring stuff.
reply