Tribal Systems

In reading Seth Godin's book "Tribes" about leadership, he highlights the fact that in today's connected world it is easier for tribes to form and leaders to emerge.  Systems and technology have made it much easier to communicate with each other.  Email and social networks and cell phones have allowed us to create micro-clusters of people across borders. 

In the past groups were formally organized to effect a change.  Unions were formed and leaders appointed.  In todays world it seems that micro-organizations or tribes are what rule the day.  Small niche businesses are not looking to provide goods and services that have mass appeal.  They are trying to create products and services that appeal to smaller groups.  There a many more micro-tribes today because of technology and networking.  

I am fascinated by the phenomenon called facebook.  I signed up and within a couple of days I had 50 people from my past request to be linked to me.  Over 2 years later I have over 500 friends and I have probably only requested 50 of them. I was looking in my cell phone and I have almost 700 people in my cell phone!!! I remember 5 years ago my cell  phone could only hold 200 numbers!

These micro-tribes have crept into our society and networking has become more prevalent.  Company's want to be remarkable to their niche and don't worry about the rest of the world.  Micro-tribes are the new way of doing business.  It is back to basics with relationships.  It truly is who you know...and in what micro-tribes they are.  We are all part of a woven fabric.  Many of our tribes overlap creating a spiderweb of connections.  I predict that the 6 degrees of seperation rule will drop to 5 or even 4 with the proliferation of these micro-tribes.