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Kindle Notes & Highlights
A tribe is a group of people connected to one another, connected to a leader, and connected to an idea. For millions of years, human beings have been part of one tribe or another. A group needs only two things to be a tribe: a shared interest and a way to communicate.
almost everything that’s standard is now viewed as mediocre.
Whatever the status quo is, changing it gives you the opportunity to be remarkable.
everyone (every person, all six billion of us) has far more power than ever before.
What you won’t find in a factory is a motivated tribe making a difference. And what you won’t find waiting outside the factory is a tribe of customers, excited about what’s to come.
Dr. Laurence Peter is famous for proposing that “in a hierarchy every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence.”
“in every organization everyone rises to the level at which they become paralyzed with fear.”
Ideas that spread, win. Boring ideas don’t spread. Boring organizations don’t grow.
What people are afraid of isn’t failure. It’s blame. Criticism.
More than anyone else in an organization, it’s the person who’s challenging the status quo, the one who is daring to be great, who is truly present and not just punching a clock who must have confidence in her beliefs.
A tribe that communicates more quickly, with alacrity and emotion, is a tribe that thrives.
the power of a blog to disseminate a leader’s ideas.
the social graph. Who you know, how you know them, who knows whom.
When you identify the discomfort, you’ve found the place where a leader is needed.
it’s the microleaders in the trenches and their enthusiastic followers who make the difference, not the honcho who is ostensibly running the group.
Not all leadership involves getting in the face of the tribe. It takes just as much effort to successfully get out of the way.
Lean in, back off, but don’t do nothing.
A fundamentalist is a person who considers whether a fact is acceptable to his religion before he explores it.
Once recognized, the quiet yet persistent voice of curiosity doesn’t go away. Ever.
a motivated, connected tribe in the midst of a movement is far more powerful than a larger group could ever be.
Most people would like the world to stay just as it is, but calmer.
Almost all the growth that’s available to you exists when you aren’t like most people and when you work hard to appeal to folks who aren’t most people.
Change isn’t made by asking permission. Change is made by asking forgiveness, later.
Just about every system, whether it’s political, financial, or even religious, has become asymmetrical.
The lesson is that one person with a persistent vision can make change happen,
Leaning into the problem made the problem go away.
The art of leadership is understanding what you can’t compromise on.
Faith is the unstated component in the work of a leader and I think faith is underrated.
Faith is critical to all innovation. Without faith, it’s suicidal to be a leader, to act like a heretic.
a third of all Americans have left the religion they grew up with.
The easiest thing is to react. The second easiest thing is to respond. But the hardest thing is to initiate.
The status quo is persistent and resistant. It exists because everyone wants it to. Everyone believes that what they’ve got is probably better than the risk and fear that come with change.
The sooner you do it, the more assets and momentum you have to put to work.
When you hire amazing people and give them freedom, they do amazing stuff.
You don’t have enough time to be both unhappy and mediocre. It’s not just pointless, it’s painful.
Exclusion is an extremely powerful force for loyalty and attention. Who isn’t part of your movement matters almost as much as who is.
Google realized that every search (more than a billion a day) is a media channel as well. And they’ve profited by selling those channels one click at a time.
Tribes don’t do what you want; they do what they want.
The secret of being wrong isn’t to avoid being wrong! The secret is being willing to be wrong. The secret is realizing that wrong isn’t fatal.
The only thing that makes people and organizations great is their willingness to be not great along the way.
The secret of leadership is simple: Do what you believe in. Paint a picture of the future. Go there. People will follow.
The organizations that need innovation the most are the ones that do the most to stop it from happening.
You can present in a place and in a way that guarantees that the people you want to listen will hear you. Most of all, you get to choose who will understand (and who won’t).
The largest enemy of change and leadership isn’t a “no.” It’s a “not yet.” “Not yet” is the safest, easiest way to forestall change. “Not yet” gives the status quo a chance to regroup and put off the inevitable for just a little while longer.
Leadership is very much an art, one that’s accomplished only by people with authentic generosity and a visceral connection to their tribe. Learning the trick won’t do you any good if you haven’t made a commitment first.
Listen, really listen. Then decide and move on.
If your organization requires success before commitment, it will never have either.
“The traditional model for social and organizational change doesn’t work,” he told Fast Company. “It never has. You can’t bring permanent solutions in from outside.”
find leaders (the heretics who are doing things differently and making change), and then amplify their work, give them a platform, and help them find followers—and things get better.
There’s no record of Martin Luther King, Jr., or Gandhi whining about credit. Credit isn’t the point. Change is.
