Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us

Part 4 covers sections: “The Balloon Factory and the Unicorn,” “Leaders Are Generous,” “Don’t Forget the Big Mac and the Microwave Oven,” “Climbing Rocks,” “Who Settles?,” “Fear, Faith, and Religion,” Religion Works Great When It Amplifies Faith,” “Challenge Religion and People Wonder if You’re Challenging Their Faith,” “Switching Religions Without Giving Up Faith,” “Faith Is What You Do,” “A Word for it,” “Over-the-Top Underdog Bravery,” “The Easiest Thing,” “Take the Follow,” “The Difference Between Things That Happen to You and Things You Do,” “Permeability,” “Leaders Go First,” “Watching the Music Business Die,” “Don’t Panic When the New Business Model Isn’t as ‘Clean’ as the Old One,” and “Sheepwalking”

Godin likens leaders to unicorns and the status quo to a balloon factory. The rare mythological animal (and the threat of its pointed horn) completely disrupts the stability, monotony, and predictability of the factory’s processes. This is the impact a leader can have—one individual can be the unicorn that turns uniformity on its head. A leader’s tremendous impact doesn’t require their ostentatiousness, egomania, or self-glory; in fact, the reverse is true. Leaders are more effective when they give. Generosity is conveyed through attitude, and a tribe can sense the intentions of leaders. Those who pursue selfless ends, like ex-president Jimmy Carter building houses for the poor, will always rise above leaders who try to reap the benefits of a tribe.

In 1967, Jim Delligatti, a McDonald’s franchisee, invented the Big Mac even though it broke corporate guidelines. In 1946, Percy Spencer, an engineer at Raytheon, accidentally invented the microwave oven while experimenting with radar technology. Godin uses these two anecdotes to highlight how opportunities to innovate have become more available. He asserts that society is in an era of leverage: “The top isn’t the top anymore because the streets are where the action is” (43). The ability to metamorphose an industry is in every employee’s hands: “Odds are that growth and success are now inextricably linked to breaking the old rules and setting your organization’s new rules loose in an industry too afraid to change” (43).

Chris Sharma, a rock climber, perfected a known technique and revolutionized a sport. Instead of climbing the traditional way, which involves always keeping at least one hand and one foot on the wall, Sharma uses the “dyno” to jump to handholds within reach. Godin asserts, “[P]ersistent vision can make change happen, whether rock climbing or delivering services” (44). Obe Carrion, a former US rock-climbing champion, also challenged tradition when he ran up a steep incline instead of climbing it slowly like other competitors.

Taking action risks criticism and humiliation from one’s peers, and changing the status quo can be difficult. The endeavor requires faith. However, Godin distinguishes a faith from religion. Faith breeds hope and conquers fear—it is a perennial human quality that has helped the species surmount impossible odds: “Faith is critical to all innovation. Without faith, it’s suicidal to be a leader, to act like a heretic” (45). Religion, on the other hand, imposes conformity—it exists in companies as well as organized belief systems. In other words, religion can be secular, and it exists anywhere a code of conduct is enforced. Godin does not believe religion is all bad. Whatever form it takes—the culture at a country club or business model at a Woolworth’s—he sees it as a necessary buttress for faith. Religion works best when it supports belief and helps direct one’s life. However, religion often has an adverse effect on faith: It can stifle transformation and reinforce stagnant conventions.

People often assume that if you criticize their religion, you’re criticizing their faith. Since the two often go hand in hand, whether in a church or company, it is easy to conflate them—which is partly why people get defensive. However, heretics challenge religion (or the current rules) but keep their faith. They revolutionize the status quo by establishing new religions. Godin celebrates groups who support such heretical behavior, and he urges readers to follow people like Steve Jobs at Apple and Phil Knight at Nike, who founded their own religions. Godin cites a Pew Research Study that suggests about a third of all Americans abandoned the religion they grew up with. These people, he says, simply gave up the system surrounding their faith, not faith itself. He states, “When you fall in love with a system, you lose the ability to grow” (47).

Godin makes another distinction: Faith is taking action, while religion is following rules. Demonstrating faith sometimes requires selflessness and sacrifice, but it is rewarded. Culture and society are founded on principles of faith, yet the constructed systems emerge from it can corrupt the original intention. Authorities deem leaders heretics for their unwavering faith. The 1515 Council of Trent is a timeless example of powerful entities banning heretics and their ideas—the document threatened heresy with excommunication.

Heretics are underdogs. Godin’s time at Yoyodyne, a company he founded, was an instance of “underdog bravery.” He led his team with an underdog attitude because they were challenging the status quo. He explains that his group’s efforts (and all leadership efforts) must be “over-the-top” because extraordinary endeavors require extraordinary labors. Godin delineates between reacting, responding, and initiating. Reacting is reflexive, instinctual, and can lead to danger; responding is superior because it draws on contemplation and foresight; initiating is best because it produces results without waiting for a stimulus, causing others to react and respond in turn.

It’s wise to acknowledge when someone else is a more capable leader than oneself. Godin praises the individual who defers leadership to another and waits for their time to shine. However, when a person does lead, they should be more active than passive, making things happen instead of allowing things to happen to them. The author brings up his time with realtors during the mortgage crisis when he observed the group split into two factions: One saw the crisis as happening to them, while the other saw it as a passing storm and an opportunity to change their industry. To illustrate how companies and even entire industries can resist change, Godin recalls when companies “had unalterable five-year plans, sharply controlled channels of communication, and a royal court surrounding the monarch” (51). Companies used to keep secrets from their workers and enforce rigid hierarchies that prevented employees of different levels from interacting. However, individuals have leverage in this new information era.

Aging companies, because they are complacent about both their industry status and longstanding procedures, are the first to deem start-ups as failures before they launch. For example, Microsoft grossly underestimated the potential of Google and other nascent Silicon Valley enterprises. Nevertheless, “remarkable products and services spread” (52). Godin postulates two reasons why the conventional music industry collapsed: No person came out and incited the industry to change, and companies never embraced a tribe. Those in control failed to see the potential of up-and-coming alternatives because those alternatives were initially less profitable than traditional avenues. Further, “past performance is no guarantee of future success” (53). Companies in the music industry were top-heavy, and their success hinged on their established formulae, which had nothing to do with maintaining a true fanbase. Digital streaming and the Internet revolutionized distribution while new companies encouraged musicians to join in cultural movements. Godin believes “[t]he best time to change your business model is while you still have momentum” (53).

Switching to a new formula may feel messier than the old way. Godin surmises that when labels changed from selling CDs to hosting concerts, cultivating fandoms, and selling merchandise, it probably felt like harder work. Regardless, that was where the industry was heading, and companies failed to embrace the changes. Failure occurs when leaders take no initiative and ignore that society is headed in a different direction; they know it is coming, and they know what needs tweaking, but they cling to what was profitable. Abandoning a time-tested method is never comfortable; it is even less comfortable to build a new tribe, but Godin believes “staking out the new territory almost always pays off” (55).

The author introduces his neologism sheepwalking—the result of hiring acquiescent workers, giving them rote jobs, and intimidating them just enough to keep them tractable. Such employees follow orders like automatons, displaying no desire for free will. Sheepwalkers are on the rise due to an increased demand for cheap labor that cannot be mechanized. Schools promote compliance through rote testing and control students with fear. This formula hurts both workers and organizations in the long run. Godin surmises that the alternative is too much work for companies—there is too much chaos in freedom. He urges readers to avoid sheepwalking and break away from the herd, and he advises those in teaching and hiring positions to look for “unsheep” personalities.