Tribal Council

I see that yet another season of Survivor has begun, they are in South America somewhere. I've always wished they would do a real Survivor, say in Siberia in January, but then again there would be no shots of scantly clad tribe members waltzing around, which I suppose would effect ratings.

There is a book floating around the office by Seth Godin (a great and funny author, try the Purple Cow- easy quick "bathroom read".) This book is called 'Tribes: We Need You To Lead Us'. In this book, Seth Godin refers to tribes as "a group of people connected to one another, connected to a leader and connected to an idea." Just like in Survivor, there are two tribes who need to rely on one another, (here's the dysfunction in Survivor), they all are connected to a leader, but everyone on the tribe believes the leader is themselves and they are all connected to an idea: to win a million dollars by backstabbing, lying, mistrusting and bullying their way to the tribe's end. Not quite a typical environment for the rest of us.

In businesses it is very clear in describing the qualifications of a tribe in the office. Co-workers are connected to one another, they are all connected to their boss and in typical businesses, that's where it all stops. As far as be connected to an idea, yes they all have ideas, but are they the same idea across the board? Nope.

Business people who work together seemingly have different goals; some just come in to collect a paycheck, some are just hanging out on that rung til the next rung is available, some a true top performers keeping the company's value and mission close to heart and some are going through the motions. It all depends on what type of person you are. Are you a thermostat or a thermometer: click here to find out.

In Survivor they vote out the perceived weakest link; at work we tolerate and accept the behavior, voting out co-workers or sending them to Exile Island would be great; unfortunately it's not the real world.

Hoping not to have my torch snuffed out,

Jason