Long Flight Home

I had a lot of time on my long flight back to Los Angeles from Puerto Rico. I read What the Dog Saw for quite a while. I read some magazine articles. I listened to the audio book Tribal Leadership. I even slept for a while. There are not many things to do when you are stuck in a seat for nine hours.

I found the free download link for Tribal Leadership on the Zappos website. I have been interested in Zappos and their CEO Tony Hsieh for some time. I think the he and the company do things differently and it works great. I would love to work for a company with a culture like theirs. Because they offered the free download link, I decided to give it a listen. It does not disappoint.

I got all the way through chapter seven on my flight. It was very interesting information. The authors of the book define 5 tribal stages:

Stage 1 is reserved for criminals or those who exhibit criminal or violent behavior.
Stage 2 is for people who believe that "my lief stinks." This is the dominant culture in twenty-five percent of organizations according to the authors.
Stage 3 is for people who believe "I’m great, and you’re not." An organization that has this stage as the dominant culture is a group of individuals who do not want to share information with coworkers and are out for themselves. It is not all bad though, because these people will out work their competitors. Salesmen are usually stuck in this stage.
Stage 4 is for the people who shift their focus to the group instead of themselves. They no longer believe that "I'm better." They now believe that "we’re better" and that "life is great." This is a big shift and is what makes an organization a great place to work.
Stage 5 is when people believe that "we can make a global impact." The authors of the book say that only two percent of organizations reach this stage and that they often oscillate back-and-forth between stages four and five. Companies that reach stage five are truly great organization.

As I was listening to the description of these stages, I began to identify which departments in my company are at which stage. I think some of the departments are in a mix of two different stages. I even think that you can break it down further and find out which stage each employee is in. I know that there are several people in my company who are stuck in stage three, but the majority of people are in stage two. I think of the people in stage three as being hoarders of information and people who have not necessarily earned respect. They try to do things their own way, but when they need something from you they expect you to drop everything and give them what they need. They are dysfunctional. I think we have a long way to go if we want to be a great company and I don't know if we have the commitment and leadership to change our culture.

I don't know when I am going to have time to finish listening to the audio book, but I need to make time. I even want to buy the book after I am done listening to it. I am also thinking about passing along the audio book to people in my company who I think are ready to listen, learn and try to take us to the next stage. There are only a few that I think are ready.