Create your own Tribe!

Becoming a master is a growth-process, enduring on this level is an art!

Secret 3: maintaining positive relationships. The professional who is doing everything on his own, without any feedback, encouragements, amendments, critique or support will possibly slowly start to lose inspiration and substance. Therefore, Chris and I belief that it is essential to create and maintain good relationships.

I have, next to my wife Sylvia – who is my best pal –, some buddies who know me for a long time and who know me really well. Last week Sylvia and I visited an old friend and mentor of ours, Pastor Heinz Schreckenberg, who knows and guided us personally and us as a family for over 30 years. Nowadays we only see him ones a year, but it is an absolute boost and encouragement every time that we see him.

An interesting and increasingly present platform for relations as a professional is the phenomenon ‘the Tribe’. Here are some ideas on how to create and build a tribe...

For starters, try to concretely picture the vision that you have for your new tribe. There are a few general visions/goals, such as:

                - Inspiring each other by sharing new trends

                - Visiting companies or organizations of the various tribe-members

                - Encouraging each other in difficult times

                - Developing your skills together

                - Providing each other with constructive and critical feedback

                 

Following, it is absolutely necessary to find at least two fellow initiators. Two further professionals from within your profession, who are prepared to invest in the development of this tribe, and who are willing to do so for at least the next three years. Together you can define the goals, decide about the form, the structure, the place, the frequency of the tribe-meetings etcetera. At the same time, the three of you can start with creating lists of 10 to 30 further professionals from within your profession who you would like to invite into this new tribe. The beginning, and especially the first tribe-meeting is of vital importance for the future of this new tribe. Try to find a permanent place, ‘a clubhouse’, something that really fits the tribe. When you invite the first participants, do so elegantly and personally, and try to communicate it via 2 channels (e.g. phone, mail, letter).

Next, ensure that all the tribe-members are all active members! By, for example, organizing small inter-vision-groups (4-5 people), or arrange it so that there will be 2 or 3 different tribe-members who will give a short ‘ted-alike-talk’ (motivation-inspiring 20 minutes presentation) during the meetings.

Endure! A tribe, normally, needs for about a year (or for at least 5 meetings) to develop its own identity. Therefore it is essential that you give the tribe at least two years to grow. Obviously the tribe needs good leadership. So, like mentioned before, it is important to have at least 3 initiators, who keep on inspiring and supporting each other during these first few years.

Finally, be bold enough to dissolve the tribe after 3 years or so, when you all get the impression that the tribe really does not seem to have the potential to become more than just a nice meeting-place. Generally, within new tribes there is a strong and exiting awareness throughout the group: that the initiative has to be enjoyed as long as it exists, and that everybody shares responsibility for the tribe!

A fun and inspiring book in regard to Tribes is ‘Tribes’ by Seht Godin. His Ted-talk about tribes is also absolutely worthwhile for viewing (www.ted.com).