Matthew Thompson
133005882

What is the main concept or characteristic of Tribes, Good to Great, the Butler article, and the videos we watched in class? Well there is one key ingredient that each of these sources highlighted and that was a strong culture. A company’s, a group’s, or an association’s core values were essential to its culture and those values would dictate whether or not they would be successful. So how do successful organizations create core values? First, in the book Tribes, Seth Godin explained that there need to be a group of people, who are all connected to each other, a leader to which they are all connected to and an idea that connects them all together. However, in Good to Great, Jim Collins shows that an organization’s tribe must be filled with the right people. The tribe must not only be connected through a shared interest and communication, but from a passion within each person that is for a greater cause. Therefore, the wrong people within an organization should be let go, while the right people should be brought in and put into the right seats. Getting a tribe together that has these core values is easier said then done. In Good to Great, it explains that there needs to be a leader in place that decides the direction in which the bus is going. Nevertheless, a highly capable leader cannot do this. Instead, a tribal leader that endures personal humility and personal will can.
When a tribal leader possesses a strong personal humility and a strong personal will, a tribe is committed to a much higher purpose. It creates an ambition amongst the organization that is not about the money, the personal success or the sheer fact of being number one, but instead on long-term results and sustained greatness. So how does Butler factor into the equation. After reading the Butler article, it is made evident that Butler University is created on these principles set forth by Tribes and Good to Great. Butler has created a winning culture, but not by having the best players. Alternatively, they have created a winning culture by only accepting players into their tribe that are willing to demonstrate and understand Butler’s five core values. Their players are deemed to be average, but year in and year out, they are competing with the best. They have followed the same culture for over a hundred years and it has seemed to work for just about every one. The principles established by Tribes, Good to Great, and the Butler article can be applied to things all over the world. First, every person in the world is part of a tribe. There are similar people all around the world that share a common interest, but they are all waiting to be brought together by a single leader. The main contributors to connecting people into their respective tribes are companies. It doesn’t matter if you are a person who works for the company or a consumer of the company because either way you are part of different tribe. Now what separates one tribe from another in the real world is stated above, but how is it seen in the real world. Apple is a successful company because of the tribes it created both in an outside of the company. Inside the company, the employees were and still are driven by a level 5 leader, Steve Jobs, and now even after his death are still setup for long term success. Outside of the company, Apple has created a following and therefore a tribe because of its innovative products and its advertisement of those products in a way the makes people believe in what the company believes. Apple is just one example of how these concepts are applied throughout the real world, but it may one of the most notable ones.