Tribes Group Blogging Project – Day 22 (And 21)

Today I have the privilege of contributing to a Group Blogging Project based on the book Tribes by Seth Godin. This project was initiated and led by John Saddington of ChurchCrunch and I am glad to be a part of it. Check out this post for more info on the project.

Next, I’m giving you a list of all the days that lead up to my coverage on Day 22. If you want the full context of the conversation, and everyone’s thoughts covering the whole book, I’d encourage you to click through and read their posts:
Day 1; Day 2; Day 3; Day 4; Day 5; Day 6; Day 7; Day 8; Day 9; Day 10; Day 11; Day 12; Day 13; Day 14; Day 15; Day 16; Day 17; Day 18; Day 19; Day 20; Day 21 [Appears to not be published]

Since I can’t find Day 21 on the interwebs, I’m going to cover both day 21 and 22 which cover pages 101 – 110 in the book.

The Thermometer and the Thermostat

A thermometer only points out a fact. It tells you that something is wrong, that something needs attention, etc. A thermostat however, does what the thermometer does and more. Not only does it tell you the problem, it also works to fix it. So that brings me to my first question, which am I acting like? And second, am I empowering those around me to be thermostats, or do I silence them every time they start to point out a problem. What would happen if we held back our pride just long enough to hear the problem and see the solution they had for it as well?

Your Micromovement

You don’t have to start with a huge movement. You can start with a small, narrow movement and make it work for you if you follow a few steps.
1. Publish a manifesto – Make it known what you are trying to accomplish, whether by word of mouth, written text, smoke signals, whatever.
2. Make it easy for your followers to connect with you – That says it all, notice the word “easy”.
3. Make it easy for your followers to connect with one another – Just connecting with you isn’t going to propel your movement, they want to be able to connect with the peers of the movement, again, make it easy.
4. Realize that money is not the point of a movement – Making money the only goal will only stunt your movement.
5. Track your progress – And do it publicly so that your followers can see how they can contribute to more progress. We all like being a part of a movement that is succeeding!

And then 6 principles that I think speak for themselves…
1. Transparency really is your only option.
2. Your movement needs to be bigger than you.
3. Movements that grow, thrive.
4. Movements are made most clear when compared to the status quo or to movements that work to push the other direction.
5. Exclude outsiders.
6. Tearing others down is never as helpful to a movement as building your followers up.

I think these 11 things are such easy to understand points, that truly will help propel your movement, no matter what field you are in. In ministry, I think this is a great step by step manual on how to make a movement in your church. What pieces are you missing? A movement with little life will surely fade and die, but if we put all of these points together, we’ll have movements that we can’t comprehend right now.

That Building Down the Street

All tribes aren’t going the right direction. Some tribes have chosen to simply work towards maintaining the status quo. People aren’t a part of the tribe because they want to be, but because they have to be. When a tribe is only achieving status quo, it loses interest among it’s followers. There’s a ton of status quo in the world, what we all want to be a part of is something new and different. How do we get here as tribes, and leaders of tribes? Is it that our passion ceases to exist for what the movement is about? Is it laziness, it’s to hard to push beyond status quo?

How to Be Wrong

Can a tribe be wrong and still survive? Absolutely! Trying to avoid being wrong usually ends up being a bigger failure than actually being wrong. Many people we look at as successful today were wrong about many things. What can we do when leading a tribe to make sure we are okay with being wrong every once in a while? And it’s not just about being okay with being wrong, but learning from those times as well. What’s the best way to make that happen? I say transparency, you can’t do it on your own, but if a group of people know when you’re wrong, they’ll help keep you in line.

The Reactionary Tribe

What happens when your tribe gets stuck? You still want to move forward, but the rest of the tribe is content with the status quo. You leave. But that usually isn’t the natural response. Usually our natural response is to stand up and talk their ear off on why they need to keep following you. But the problem is, after all that talking, most are still not going to follow you and you’ve just wasted a lot of time that you could have been investing into a new, thriving tribe. Just move on to a new movement, and those that you really want following you, will. Make your time count, stop wasting it on things that aren’t going to propel your movement.

Well, there  you have it. Those are some of the thoughts passing through my head as I read this section of the book, but I want to hear what you think about it? How do you practically live this stuff out? It’s so easy to talk about in theory, but sometimes so difficult to live out, so share with everybody what your successes and failures have been, so that we can all learn from each other! And make sure you catch Day 23 tomorrow at Digital Design Solutions!