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Newsletter -August 2011
Tribal Conflict
Every organisation has its tribes, and they sometimes engage in conflict, ranging from passive resistance to out and out tribal warfare.
The most easily recognisable tribes are functions or the business units that make up these functions. Each tribe has it’s own reality and sees others not just as different, but often as obstructive.
How can you differentiate between tribes?
There are 3 basic things that characterise tribes:
Tribal values: the key things the tribe does; what it is proud of; how it measures its contribution; why the tribe does it’s job.
Tribal rules: these define how they do the job, which is usually linked to the tribe’s values. However, when you see a contradiction between the espoused values and the rules, believe the rules because they are the tribe’s reality.
Language: the jargon that is used. For example, the further a tribe is from customer contact, the more technical and jargon oriented the language is likely to be.
Other types of organisational tribes
While functional/business unit tribes are easily recognizable, other types of tribes can be harder to identify. What appears to be conflict between two business unit tribes may really between two other types of tribes such as those below:
Generalist Tribes: know a little about a lot of things; often deal with customers and have no specific depth of expertise.
Specialist Tribes: know a lot about a specific area; may have little contact with customers and have little knowledge of the wider organisation.
Innovators: create new ideas to improve business products or operations.
Traditionalists: protect the status quo.
Other common tribes are management and Personal Assistants. The latter tribe are critical in the communication chain and have the power to impact heavily on the relationship between tribes.
Often what may appear as conflict or co-operation between members of two business unit tribes may in fact be conflict or co-operation between members of two informal tribes such as:
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Friendship tribes
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Gender tribes
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Mission tribes e.g. committee or project team
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Common interest tribes e.g. golfers
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Community tribes e.g. Rotary, church
Value clashes
Confusion and conflict often arises between tribes due to value clashes. While each tribe has values that represent their priorities, each individual also has their personal values.
As a way to attempt to synchronise values, organisations often have a set of Umbrella Values, as a guide for all individuals and tribes to follow. Typical Umbrella values are:
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Customer satisfaction
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Innovation
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Respect
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Quality
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Integrity
The link between values and rules
Below is an example of how differing values and rules have the potential to cause conflict between Innovators and traditionalists.
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Innovators
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Traditionalists
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Value
Creators of new ideas to improve business products or operations
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Value
Protectors of the Status quo
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Rules
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Advertise your failures and see if anybody can use the idea for something else
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Don’t ask permission; apologise later if necessary
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Flexibility is the key; be ready to change course at any point
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Why are we still doing it this way?
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Rules
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Learn to recognise and work with the values and rules of the tribes you deal with and you will go a long way towards minimising conflict and maximising co-operation.
Understanding how tribes operate is a key leadership competency. To learn more about leadership, go to:
www.developmentinpractice.com.au/solutions/leadership.html
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