tribal leadership: diagnosing organizational culture

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Diagnosing Organizational Culture

TribalLeadership.net


Diagnosing Organizational Culture

• All tribes have a dominant cultural stage.• The stage is evident from language, behavior, and

relationship structures within the organization.• Higher cultural stages outperform lower cultural

stages.• Organizations can move up one stage at a time.• “Stage Inflation” - What is the actual stage, not what

do you want it to be (people often inflate their organization’s stage by one).


Cultural MapThe Five Stages of Culture

Stage % BehaviorRelationship

to peopleLanguage

5 2%Innocent

WondermentTeam “Life is great”

4 22% Tribal PrideStable

Partnership“We’re great”

3 49% Lone WarriorPersonal

Domination“I’m great”

2 25%Apathetic

VictimSeparate

“My life sucks”

1 2% Undermining Alienated “Life Sucks”

From Tribal Leadership, Logan, King & Fischer-Wright, 2008, HarperCollins


Cultural Anatomy

Stage 1: Exterior Monad

Stage 2: Interior Monad

Stage 3: Hub & Spoke Dyads

Stage 4: Stable Partnership Triads

Stage 5: Webbed Network Team

From Tribal Leadership, Logan, King & Fischer-Wright, 2008, HarperCollins


Stage One & Two• Stage 1: "Life sucks" (2% of tribes)

– Alienated – Undermining– Often in the criminal cluster– People act out in despairingly hostile ways– Life is unfair so anything is permissibleBiggest Complaint: Personal safety

• Stage 2: "My life sucks" (25% of tribes) – Separate – Ineffective– Passive antagonism, arms crossed, and resigned– “We tried this before. Didn’t work then, won’t work now. This too shall fail.”Biggest Complaint: The Management


Stage Three• Stage 3: "I’m great (and you’re not)" (49% of tribes)

– Personal Domination - Useful (Dyadic)– Dyadic (two-person) relationships (hub with spokes) involving one-on-one

conversations.– Hoard information (where knowledge is power).– Maintain control by trying to keep “spokes” from forming relationships.– Rely on gossip and spies for information.– Use military or mafia language.– Hunger for tips/tools/techniques/practices (efficient).– Focus and talk about their personal values and interests.– People commoditized as “means.”

• Biggest Complaint: – Don’t have enough time and don’t get enough support– Surrounded by less able and less dedicated people– People who disagree with them


High Performance• Stage 4: "We’re great (and they’re not)" (22% of tribes)

– Stable Partnership - Important (Triadic)– Values guide decision making– Building the careers of people they work with – Inspires collaborative behavior that overcomes personal differences – Clusters of highly networked people who share values Biggest Complaint: Finding enough collaborative individuals to bring into existing

groups

• Stage 5: "Life is great" (2% of tribes) – Team - Vital (Triadic)– Building bridges across tribes– Clusters of groups out to change to the world – Teams of teams focused on making history – Mission, vision and/or values tells people in the organization who they are Biggest Complaint: There's so much good to do, what should we do next?


5 Stages of Culture % of Tribes at each Stage

Low Performing High Performing


What Stage is your Organization?

• What is the language and behavioral patterns?

• What are the typical relationship structures? • People trained in Tribal Leadership can

detect the Stage within a few minutes of walking into a work group

TipTake the Culture Meter Survey on triballeadership.net


NaturalGroup

ThrivingOrganizati

on?

How do you create a Stage Four or Five culture so you can leverage the full power of your tribe to have a

thriving and high performing organization?

How to Leverage the Tribal Culture?

Access to Greatness


What is Tribal Leadership?

• Tribal Leadership is a way of providing effective leadership to an organization through building a great organization of people making history together.

• Tribal Leadership starts with recognizing which stage you have, and doesn’t stop until you reach Stage Five.


What is a Tribal Leader?

A Tribal Leader is a person who • Synchronizes culture and strategy.• Consistently stabilizes and effectively develops other

people around them.• Empowers people to lead from their role and

expertise.

Ultimately, the organization produces vastly superior results!


Benefits of Being a Tribal Leader

• Unparalleled loyalty.• High performance.• Productivity and profitability.• Career advancement for self and others.• Invent “best practices.”• True leadership.


Next Steps

• Goto triballeadership.net• Take Culture Meter Survey• Download Tribal Leader Upgrade Guide

– Details about diagnosing the stage of your organization.

– How to create stable partnerships.– The role of core values and noble cause.– How to upgrade and stabilizing each stage of

culture one level at a time from where you are at.


Further Education

• Tribal Leader Upgrade Guide• Order Tribal Leadership book• Free Audio Book edition (MP3)• Tribal Leadership Workshops• Approved Tribal Leaders

TribalLeadership.net


Credits

Originators of “Tribal Leadership”• John King & Dave Logan

Compilation by:• CultureSync™ Approved Tribal Leaders

– Julian Bergquist & Sinan Si Alhir

• Additional Contributors– Gerard Hranek

tribal leadership: diagnosing organizational culture

Documents

stage of culture

harpercollins stage

organizations stage

dyads stage

stage low

stage inflation

actual stage

tribal culture