This morning, I had almost two hours to
listen to Seth Godin's audiobook "Tribes" while having my breakfast,
exercising, and commuting to work. I’ve gotten a lot from it already even though I was
only halfway through it when I stopped.
Seth's premise that a group needs only
two things to be a tribe - a shared interest and a way to communicate - got me
nodding and agreeing but it also got me thinking about the importance of making
the big small.
Making the big small?
You can't help it. You have a need to
belong.
But as your organization grows, the
harder it gets to forge relationships where the need to belong is met. The
solution to that problem is to form small communities within the organization
where there could be a:
Connection -
Personal and small enough where everyone
can greet you by name
Personal and small enough where they can
visit you in the hospital when you're sick
Personal and small enough where you can
open up your life
Culture -
Joined together by common interests, strengthened
together by shared values and kept together by a unifying goal.
How do you create small communities
within your organization around your goal where everyone would have their need to
belong met?
