#38: The power of the Tribe

And how to build your Second Brain

Author

Karmsheel Ramsugit
November 04, 2023

Welcome explorer

You’re in the Slipstream. Your weekly view into the way of entrepreneurship, self-improvement and peace of mind.

You’re here because you understand one thing:

The only thing holding you back from becoming the person you want to be, is your lack of knowledge on how to get there!

Luckily, today’s issue is taking you one step closer.

Here’s what’s in this week’s Slipstream:

đź’ˇThe Big Idea: The Tribal network effect

🏋️Idea to implement: Creating your second brain

📖Weekly wake: What I’ve been learning this past week

Read time: 8 mins

HUMAN NATURE / PRODUCTIVITY

In Slipstream#37, I talked about the power of squads and its rise and form in the digitized jungles of today. It's power is due to a stronger underlying principle, that of network effects.

Network effects refer to the additional benefits participants receive by interacting in a particular network. There are many types, the Tribal Network Effect being one of the oldest.

We evolved by working in tribes. It made us more resilient and better at surviving. We seek a tribe to belong and grow and contribute to. This goes way beyond homo sapiens to earlier evolutionary species.

Homo sapiens evolved as a pack animal, trying to survive in a harsh environment of limited resources. The ones that built the best tribes survived to procreate, so we are all descendants of the best tribe builders.

Those who weren’t good at building or joining tribes died off. Thus, our brains are wired to join tribes.

Note, when we are not functioning healthily as part of a tribe we often experience negative mental health consequences. It's a way this evolutionary lesson has been coded into our genes. We survive and thrive better in a tribe. When you're not part of one your brain secretes/ withholds chemicals that result in you feeling bad. This is so that you can alter your behavior and put in the effort to be part of one.

What is a strong tribe?

1 - The tribe is presented as an ingredient of a person’s identity, part of how that person is perceived by others. One might think: “It’s who I am.” This forms a self-concept.

2 - Network members within the tribe are taught to be intentional about building the value of the tribe by:

  1. Adding value to other tribe members,

  2. Defending the tribe’s reputation,

  3. Receiving value from the tribe members, and

  4. Growing the tribe.

This intentional value creation and defense of a network is distinct from other types of network effects, where nodes largely contribute value and drive network effects unintentionally.

3 - In contrast to the in-group of the tribe, there is an out-group that the tribe is actively NOT. A different group, a rival, an enemy, a force to be fought.

4 - A perception of higher-status attributes of members of the tribe, creating prestige and pride. Evidence or reasoning that members of the tribe are more committed, more “right”, more justified, smarter, stronger, etc.

5 - Members of the tribe endure shared hardship or adversity, such as training for the marines, studying for tests in college, founding a company, or going through a boot camp of some kind.

6 - Tribe network members overcome a barrier to get into the tribe. There must be a believable reason for your inclusion, and some demonstration of your worth or “fitness” for inclusion. There is often a period of worrying you won’t “get in.” This creates exclusivity and belonging in the minds of the tribe members, reinforcing the other five attributes.

Not all tribes share all six of these characteristics, but the more they do, the more powerful the tribal self-identification becomes in the minds of the tribe members, and thus the stronger the Tribal network effect.

We each belong to many different tribes.  The way humans form their self-concept is through many different “identity pegs.” We are complex and multi-layered.

Reflect: What tribes are you currently part of? Which ones do you most associate your identity with?

Using Tribal Network Effects in business

There are four ways to use the lens of Tribes in business.

1 - Building a tribe for your employees

This is about creating a great, unifying culture in your company. This should bring people together around a shared set of values, goals and principles.

2 - Treat your customers as a tribe

Interact with them on social media. Create events to bring them together, allowing socialising and exchanging of ideas. Create a community for them to hang in. Gamify/ reward the best contributors.

3 - Think of your investors and partners as a tribe

Behind the corporate names are the people behind the companies. These people have preferences, likes and dislikes. Certain investors and partners can open further doors in some areas but close doors in another. Look at the second and third order consequences of partnerships and investment with particular individuals.

4 - Looks at entire markets as tribes

Look at the larger tribes you are drawing your customers and employees from. Incentivize  your current customers to leverage their tribal networks in order to lead to more customers 

Network Effects is an extremely powerful lens. In fact, the company that wrote the article specialize in this kind of knowledge and invest in companies that leverage this specific principle.

It's that powerful.

Can you afford to not think about it?

PRODUCTIVITY

I've long been a fan and practitioner of Personal Knowledge Management (PKM) for many years now, ever since I started using Evernote to archive all the content I consumed. Since then, my system has expanded to many more applications and supporting processes and which ultimately serves to boost my ability to produce content, like this newsletter!

Tiago Forte is well known in the space of PKM, having popularised his "Second Brain" model for many years now. I've taken elements from it into my own system, and recommend you do the same.

He has some well thought out frameworks that you can leverage. For example, the acronym CODE which stands for Collect, Organise, Distill and Express and represents the four essential parts of a knowledge management system.

Let’s break it down a little further.

The Collect portion of knowledge management is about collecting ideas and thoughts. This is where I find Evernote shines the best, with its versatile Web Clipper browser extension. Through this I can personally save every website I visit and Youtube video I watch.

Under the Organise section, the methodology of PARA has proven quite useful. This stands for Projects, Areas, Resources and Archives. It helps to organise your notes into a current working area and a more long-term archive. Very important when you are also creating new notes and using your system to think and produce.

Distill is the place where ideas are refined, improved and integrated with other ideas and habits in your life. It is important to repeat ideas in order to get them to stick. This is the reinforcement part of learning.

Express, the last section, serves to show that a knowledge system is incomplete if there's no output. One needs to synthesise and produce as the surest sign that the new knowledge is learnt. This is where everyone can work on writing, social media, Youtube, podcasting or even starting a newsletter! (Check below if you’re thinking of starting one) 

If you're a knowledge worker (and most of us are) then it is quite important that you improve your ability to collect, process and produce knowledge. Tiago will show you how.

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If opportunity in life doesn't knock, build a door. Don't go through life, grow through life.

Eric Butterworth
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🧠 MINDSET COACHING FOR “WANTREPRENEURS”

Friend, you’ve been dreaming about leaving corporate and starting your own business for many years now. But you still haven’t pulled the trigger on pursuing your dreams.

I’ve been there before. I know the mental barriers stopping you. If you’d like help to make the transition or just get clearer on the entrepreneurship path, book a 30-min free consult with me here. 

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Till the next time,

Keep leveling up

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