Presentation at Mastering SAP in Melbourne (May 2017). People naturally form tribes. It is just what we do. When we bring together teams to work in a department, or on a program or product this team of teams will become a tribe. However, not all tribes are equally effective. Just like with regular teams it is the culture of the tribe that dictates its effectiveness. When we look to improve the performance of these teams of teams, we often get so focused on improving technical skills and individual performance that we can easily forget to help the teams involved bond, foster a sense of belonging, shape their values and instil respect for one another. To maximise the effectiveness of any team of teams, we need to take the time to build a culture beyond the team’s individual identity to create a sense of tribal unity. Based on her debut book, Tribal Unity: Getting from Teams to Tribes by Creating a One Team Culture, Em Campbell-Pretty will share the proven patterns she has been successfully applying in the field over the past five years. Peppered with tales from the trenches this session will be full of practical ideas to help you lead a team of teams towards tribal unity.

1. From Teams to Tribes:
Creating a One Team Culture
Em Campbell-Pretty
Partner, Context Matters

3. FAST FORWARD….

5. “Birds flock,
fish school,
people tribe.”

7. 5 STAGES OF TRIBAL CULTURE
Stage 1:
Life
sucks!
Stage 2:
My life
sucks!
Stage 3:
I’m
great!
Stage 4:
We’re
great!
Stage 5:
Life’s
great!
Source: Tribal Leadership by David Logan
“What makes some tribes more effective than others is culture.” - David Logan

8. “Businesses often forget about the culture, and
ultimately, they suffer for it because you can't
deliver good service from unhappy
employees.“
– Tony Hsieh, CEO, Zappos

9. A tribe is a group of people connected
to one another, connected to a leader
and connected to an idea.
- Seth Godin

10. A tribe is a group of people connected
to one another, connected to a leader
and connected to an idea.
- Seth Godin

11. CREATE TEAMS…
“…create a team that acts as a team, one in which
the members support one another and work
together to achieve the results you need.”
- Christine Comaford, Smart Tribes

12. OF 7 PEOPLE ± 2…
“…if a group is so large, or its
life is so short, or its members
so dispersed and out of touch
with one another that it cannot
operate as an intact social
system in carrying out its work,
then prospects for
effectiveness are dim.”
– J. Richard Hackman,
Leading Teams
Image Source: http://scrumreferencecard.com/scrum-reference-card/

13. WHO VISUALISE THEIR WORK…
“…make all necessary
information visible when
people need it, enabling
effective collaboration and
improvement through
understanding how the
work works.”
– Marcus Hammarberg &
Joakim Sundén,
Kanban in Action

14. COMMUNICATE DAILY…
“The key is to focus on
only enough information
sharing to solicit requests
from parties who need
something and promises
from parties who will fill
the need.”
– Christine Comaford,
Smart Tribes

15. AND INSPECT AND ADAPT ON CADENCE
“Retrospectives
enable whole-team
learning, act as
catalysts for change,
and generate action.”
– Esther Derby and
Diana Larson,
Agile Retrospectives

17. This just wont work for
us we don’t have small
teams!

18. ACCELERATE CULTURAL CHANGE WITH SELF-SELECTION
“Self-selection is a facilitated
process of letting people self-
organize into small, cross-
functional teams. Based on
the belief that people are at
their happiest and most
productive if they can choose
what they work on and who
they work with…”
-Sandy Mamoli & David Mole,
Creating Great Teams

20. CREATE AN AWESOME TRIBE: A TEAM OF TEAMS…

21. WITH A SHARED IDENTITY…
“…the latest neuroscience research shows
that our very sense of survival depends upon
a sense of belonging. When that sense of
belonging isn’t there, even in the workplace,
fear kicks in.”
- Christine Comaford, Smart Tribes

22. AND SHARED EXPERIENCES
“…vulnerability-based trust cannot be achieved
overnight. It requires shared experiences over time…”
- Patrick Lencioni

23. USE A DAILY COCKTAIL HOUR
“When people share rhythms with others
they develop stronger emotional bonds and
are more likely to pitch in for the common
good.”
- Bob Sutton, Scaling Excellence

24. AND CHAPTERS TO GLUE THE TRIBE TOGETHER
If each squad was fully autonomous and
had no communication with other
squads, then what is the point of having
a company? Spotify might as well be
chopped into 30 different small
companies.
- Henrik Kniberg & Anders Ivarsson,
Scaling Agile @ Spotify

25. THEN CELEBRATE AS A TRIBE (NOT A TEAM)
“When you’ve celebrated moving from 1 to 2, and then from 2 to
3, you gain confidence that you can make the next advance.”
- Chip & Dan Heath, Switch

26. A tribe is a group of people connected
to one another, connected to a leader
and connected to an idea.
- Seth Godin

27. CONNECT AT THE GEMBA …
"Farming looks mighty easy when your plow is a
pencil and you're 1,000 miles from the corn field."
— Dwight Eisenhower

28. USE WHAT YOU LEARN TO SERVE THE TRIBE
“To lead is to serve. Every
single outstanding leader that
ever was, is, and shall be
understands that greatness is
found in serving. “
- Keni Thomas,
U.S. Army Ranger,
Blackhawk Down

29. “…the only way to systematically
ensure that you have great
people at every level is to ensure
that you have great leaders at
every level – leaders who make
the people around them better”
- James Parker,
CEO Southwest Airlines
REMEMBER LEADERSHIP IS A TEAM SPORT

30. “Vulnerability is the last thing I
want you to see in me, and the
first thing I look for in you.”
Brené Brown
BE VULNERABLE

32. A tribe is a group of people connected
to one another, connected to a leader
and connected to an idea.
- Seth Godin

33. “Vision pulls people not only to take action by also to care about the outcome,
to take personal ownership of it, and to bring their “A game” every day”
-Christine Comaford, Smart Tribes
COMMUNICATE THE VISION
World Leaders
in Agile Data
Warehousing

34. CREATE SHARED UNDERSTANDING

35. SUSTAINING TRIBAL UNITY
If tribes are the most powerful vehicles within
companies, cultures are their engines.
- David Logan

36. QUANTIFYING CULTURE WITH EMPLOYEE NPS
On a scale from 0 to 10, how likely are you to
recommend working in ______ to a friend or colleague?
Why?
Employee NPS data
makes the people side of
the business far more
transparent and subject
to learning and
experimentation.
- Fred Reichheld,
The Ultimate Question 2.0
Source http://www.netpromotersystem.com/about/measuring-your-net-promoter-score.aspx

37. LET BARTLET BE BARTLET

39. I don’t assume what worked for me will work
for you, but I do want to inspire you as you
contemplate what an intentional culture of joy
could look like in your world.
- Richard Sheridan, Joy Inc.

40. 1. “A tribe is a group of people connected to one another, connected to a leader
and connected to an idea.” – Seth Godin
2. Create small, mission-capable teams, who visualise their work, communicate
daily, and, inspect and adapt on cadence.
3. To create a team of teams invest a sense of shared identity, shared experiences
and foster cross team communication.
4. Leaders need to connect with the tribe at the “Gemba”, use what they learn
there to serve the tribe and have the courage to be vulnerable in front of the
tribe.
5. “What makes some tribes more effective than others is culture.” - David Logan
6. Create an environment where people feel safe to be themselves at work.
RECAP

41. Check out my blog posts on:
• Facilitating Self-Selection: http://bit.ly/FacilitatingSelfSelection
• Unity Day: http://bit.ly/UnityHour
• Cocktail Hour: http://bit.ly/CommunicationCadence
• Chapters & Squads: http://bit.ly/SAFeSpotify
• Leading by Serving: http://bit.ly/AgileTeamOfLeaders
• Leading Through Vulnerability: http://bit.ly/LeadingVulnerability
• Book Cubs at Work: http://bit.ly/AgileBookClub
• Quantifying Culture: http://bit.ly/TeamNPS
WANT TO KNOW MORE?

42. GET THE BOOK: TRIBAL UNITY

44. How to Connect with Me
E: em@contextmatters.com.au
M: +61 429 302 439
B: www.prettyagile.com
Li: linkedin.com/in/ejcampbellpretty/
@PrettyAgile