Tribal Leadership Analysis 1

Book Analysis:

Tribal Leadership

Leveraging Natural Groups to Build a Thriving Organization

Andrew Zimmermann

April 10, 2017

Rec 421: Supervisory & Adminis Practice

Logan, D., King, J., & Fischer-Wright, H. (2011). Tribal leadership: leveraging natural

groups to build a thriving organization. New York: Harper Business.

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Book Analysis: Tribal Leadership Leveraging Natural Groups to Build a Thriving Organization

Tribal Leadership sounds less like a book on creating and understanding leadership and

more along the lines of an anthropological study journal focusing on habits of indigenous people.

Rest assured, Dave Logan takes the reader on a riveting journey through his five stages of

building an organization that can thrive and to continue long after you leave.

Summary

The book is separated into four parts. Throughout the book the different stages are talked

about in the manner of the people within each tribes mentalities towards the tribe itself. The tribe

stages are talked about as such; one is life sucks, two is my life sucks, three is Im great,

youre not, four is were all great, and five is life is great. The first part of the book talks

about what the meaning of the tribes are along with how to differentiate the five different stages

of each tribe. The second part of the book gives the reader a rundown of the first four stages of

each tribe along with how to achieve each stage within your groups or tribes. Part three focuses

on stage four of the tribal stage structure. The author makes it clear that a stage four tribe is one

of the most volatile stages and how to maintain your organizations stage four tribal status. The

final part of this book talks about the fifth and final stage which the organization is in the highest

performance stage and running well.

Style of Presentation

Throughout the book, Logan presents the information in a very relatable way. Rather than

take a top down approach from established multimillion dollar companies, Logan relates the

different tribes to everyday groups of people from church groups to even super bowl viewing

parties. He can present the information in a way that not only caters to the upper echelon
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managers, but also to the common man who works as a starter in leadership and management.

There is also a presentation aspect to each of the chapters which makes it an easy read where

each section has their own headings and each chapter gives its own cheat sheet of key points to

reference from the chapter.

Soundness of Content

Logan references his own different research he and his team has done in attempts to make

this a reliable resource to continue to use after its first read through. Most of the time when

books reference their own research there is an air of skepticism about the reliability of the work.

The author includes his research prior to writing the book and even his continuation work post

completion giving the reader an open door into the mind of the author and his team. In the

Return to data Collection section, the author even admits that there are some cultures that do

not entirely fit within the confines of his research, most notably Amgen. They concluded that

there was a possibility of a mid-ground group between late stage four and early stage five that

well-established groups can fall into. This additional research gives more credibility to the teams

work.

Timeliness

With how this book is presented, the reader is given an in depth guide to identify where

their tribe or employees are within the spectrum presented and how to move them forward to

better their well-being as well as the company as a whole. The reason this is important is because

not only is the knowledge of where a company lies can give it the option to grow and gives the

management team a benchmark of where to start. In addition to that benchmark it gives insight

as to what is working and what is not.

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Impact on Intended Reader

The book was a wonderful read, and as a former manager I was able to use the

information in a practical review setting of my past job. What I realized was that the tribe of

tribes concept applies even on a smaller scale when the circumstances allow. For instance, the

majority of my past employees were focused within the third or fourth stage depending on how

you observed them. There was also a small clique of about 4 people who just hated life and did

not want to be at work no matter how much I tried to help them, leaving them stranded in the

second or even first stage, observation dependent. While viewing these groups of people I am

able to observe a fluidity of tribe dynamics allowing for the movement between stages. If I were

to do an observation on the group at this point in time, I would put them as a solid group three

moving down towards two due to the current management state and lack of leadership being

shown in the company. According to our text book, Effectiveness results when there is a

balance between a persons competencies, the job demands, and the organizational environment

(Hurd, 4). We can see that the slide in stages from four to three moving towards two can be

related to the change in management personnel. As I still work for the company while back at an

employee rather than a manager, the new managers competencies are extremely lacking and

therefore bringing the staff down as a whole. As the saying goes, you are only as strong as your

weakest link.

Conclusion

Through this book I can see where each of my personal tribes are on the scale, who

stands out as a natural tribal leader, and what direction they are going. I believe this book is a

very useful tool to take even into a teambuilding setting when helping others learn how to

collectively be a team and take on larger tasks. A very solid book and a very well-spoken author
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who has delivered many TEDx talks on this subject, I would highly recommend this book to

anyone looking to better themselves or their team.

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Bibliography

Hurd, A. R., Barcelona, R. J., & Meldrum, J. T. (2008). Leisure services management.

Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.

Logan, D., King, J., & Fischer-Wright, H. (2011). Tribal leadership: leveraging natural

groups to build a thriving organization. New York: Harper Business.