Why do I say it’s good to be common? You aren’t common and you know it. Every one of us is special.

I am a member of several tribes. There is my closest group of friends, we are a tribe from high school. My golfing buddies I do a trip with every year. My neighbours with whom a beer club was born. Plus my professional tribes ranging from technical specialties in engineering, strategy and risk to my tribe of “sole practitioners” that I hang out with every quarter.

The thread that is woven through each one of these tribes is commonality. For each there is one strong common bond that makes us want to be together and provides our focus.

Last blog I spoke about building a tribe of advocates to preach your mantra. In case you missed it, I also provided a link to a paper I have written on the subject called Pathways to Partnership.

When you are tribe building, be very clear on the commonality of the tribe and what you want the focus to be on. The commonality may first be identified as all being “volunteered” by a manager to be part of the tribe. However, you need to find a much stronger common bond to rally around. Some kind of holy grail such as the first group to make a change project stick for longer than three months.

Without a clear, strong and desirable purpose, a tribe will soon falter.