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Human Resources
When two tribes go to work: Combatting tribalism in the workplace
Conventional approaches to cross-cultural leadership fail to capture the realities of tribal identity in companies and can lead to costly mistakes for organizations.
During one of my classes on cross-cultural awareness for a large Scandinavian company, I used an experiential setup to create a “culture shock”. The company was in the process of integrating a recently acquired, smaller southern European supplier. As a debrief, I planned to discuss differences between Nordic and Mediterranean cultures, among others. But the culture shock that day was not the one I had anticipated. One participant from the acquired company confessed that the simulation replicated the anxiety she felt visiting the Nordic HQ for the first time. “I told myself to shut up; we were just bought,” she said, reflecting on her visit. Not much to do with north versus south Europe differences!
Something similar happened when running the class for a globally expanding Chinese technology company. Instead of delving into cultural differences between East and West, the debrief sparked a productive discussion about the contrast between the Chinese company’s corporate culture and its customers’ affiliations. The discussion highlighted the many wrong assumptions and communication pitfalls that stem from tribal differences. This led me to think that cross-cultural awareness is merely a “screen saver” for the tribal instincts that underpin our social experiences more often than we realize.
Tribal groups exist in every company. The cultural difference between corporate functions is merely one instance of the tribal instincts that rule – and sometimes derail – collaboration and productivity in organizations.
The role of evolution in tribal identity
Our brain rewards us for belonging to a tribe; an evolutionary survival mechanism. Being a member of a group enables division of labor and protection against predators. In other words, it increases the chances of our genes surviving into the gene pool of the next generation.
Tribes come in many shapes and sizes. When we speak about cross-cultural awareness, we tend to overlook the more concealed differences. Most of us experience these every day – more often than not without being aware of them.
Tribal groups exist in every company. The cultural difference between corporate functions is merely one instance of the tribal instincts that rule – and sometimes derail – collaboration and productivity in organizations. Groups might dress, speak, or behave (slightly) differently and have distinct “views” about colleagues in other departments (hospitals and physicians make for great case studies here). All too often, stereotypical tribal assumptions are exacerbated in departmental dynamics. A colleague from manufacturing might say, “The folks in sales always promise too much,” whereas a sales associate might complain that “Finance has no idea about our business.”
But what about family-owned companies? In a paper entitled The Bind that Ties: Socioemotional Wealth Preservation in Family Firms, the authors suggest that a family CEO is more likely to blame and terminate a non-family manager when performance deteriorates. Contracts protect the family manager and deflect negative performance attributions onto non-family managers, even though the family managers exercise more direct control over the decisions that led to poor performance in the first place. Blood is thicker than water and the family connections determine the ruling group.
We know how easily individuals can be primed to identify with an ingroup to the detriment of others. Social psychiatrists Henri Tajfel and John C. Turner showed in their work on social psychology and intergroup relations how easily arbitrary groups identify and become “tribes” within just a few minutes of individuals coming together. You might think this does not apply to a sophisticated, experienced population of senior executives, but unfortunately, that is a complete fallacy.
In combination, evolutionary-caused biases can blend into a powerful cocktail for social misunderstanding. Given our need to belong, most people try to find a group they feel safe in and want to be part of. But a strong group identity gives rise to the likelihood of projecting blame and negativity onto the other group – it’s not only convenient to make “them” responsible for whatever happens to us but serves to reinforce group identity.
When we make observations about another culture, we tend to anchor those observations in relation to key features of our cultural heritage.
Negativity bias as a survival mechanism
In evolutionary terms, humans were prey for animals for far longer than we were predators. Assuming the worst was a powerful strategy to help us get our DNA into the gene pool of the next generation. Instantly identifying someone or something as a friend or a foe was essential to making a fight-or-flight decision. This is why, almost unequivocally, we describe “the other” in negative terms. The labels slapped on the other group reveal how profoundly our brain is wired for threat detection. The negativity bias and assuming something to be a threat simply helped our ancestors survive in a savage reality.
When we make observations about another culture, we tend to anchor those observations in relation to key features of our cultural heritage. We merely project our own cultural background onto the other. In her 1961 novel Seduction of the Minotaur, Anaïs Nin’s character Lillian is reminded of the Talmudic adage when she says: “We do not see things as they are, we see them as we are.” What’s more, cultures have invisible rules that are impossible to detect with the naked eye.
In another class simulation I ran, one group was told that visitors who don’t follow rules, visible or not, can be expelled. One expelled student asked if the other group “actually enjoyed kicking us out.” This perception of schadenfreude accompanies a sense of superiority in the majority or dominant group. This realization is often a painful moment of self-awareness and heartfelt learning, leading to a productive discussion on how much empathy we have with the minority and how much – or how little – we are willing to adjust and accommodate when we feel powerful.
If we “stick” with colleagues in our own department instead of reaching out to those from other departments, we are effectively staying in our comfort zone or silo, rather than engaging with the “enemies” across the hallway. But, as Gillian Tett explains in The Silo Effect: The Peril of Expertise and the Promise of Breaking Down Barriers, “Silos can go hand in hand with tunnel vision. And breaking down silos can spark innovation in unexpected ways.” How much value do we leave on the table by staying in the comfort zone of our tribe?
As hard-wired as these evolutionary behaviors are, we can do something about them. The first step is to be aware that tribalism comes in many forms, such as age, gender, religion, function, and so on.
How to stop tribalism in the workplace
As hard-wired as these evolutionary behaviors are, we can do something about them. The first step is to be aware that tribalism comes in many forms, such as age, gender, religion, function, and so on. Developing a sense of tribal, often subconscious dynamics in organizations and seeing the potential challenge of cultural differences in and outside the organization is a good starting point. More actively, this is what leaders can do:
Assume positive intent
What helps with any tribal segregation is to work actively against our propensity to label negatively. Assuming positive intent is a powerful thought experiment to soften the tribal boundary. Very few people are motivated to annoy colleagues intentionally. Encouraging ourselves and others to cultivate a mindset of positive intent is a very powerful antidote to tribalism.
Break down siloes
Leaders can actively role-model collaboration between groups. However, leaders must be constantly mindful of the three defining characteristics of a group identified by Lisa Kwan in The Collaboration Blind Spot:
- Identity of the group (for example, Sales, Legal),
- Control over resources (for example, budget, space, people),
- Legitimacy: Why does the group exist? (For example, to generate revenue, to protect the company from legal risks).
Anyone who asks groups to collaborate while ignoring the three pillars might be in for an unpleasant experience. In a global FMCG company, the Sales and R&D departments were asked to collaborate. Nimble local competition was threatening to steal market share with snacks more attuned to popular local flavors. To combat competition quickly, consumer insights from the salespeople combined with engineering skills from the R&D colleagues were supposed to produce local gems faster. Despite a meticulous project plan and a convincing strategic rationale, collaboration stalled and even became counter-productive. Everyone was dragging their feet, not sharing data, and dumping unusable formats. It was not until the identity and legitimacy of each group was emphasized by the regional area president that the groups began to work together productively.
Communicate a sense of belonging across groups: Humans want to belong. And leaders want to communicate a sense of belonging across different groups in an organization. What helps is to apply the multiple perspectives resulting from each group’s definition. This has proven to be a good strategy for conflict resolution and when giving uncomfortable feedback.
Role of empathy
When working to break down silos and communicate a sense of belonging across groups, another outcome of the evolutionary process comes in handy: empathy. Empathy is not only necessary to break down siloes; it is vital to a sustainable organization. Creating an empathic culture in the workplace begins at the top, through leaders actively modeling empathy. This is done by publicly engaging with and recognizing team members’ different perspectives, trying to view the world through their eyes, and responding to their challenges and problems with genuine empathy.
Establishing a culture where everyone behaves towards others in this way will go a long way towards creating meaningful connections in the workplace; thereby breaking down tribalism and helping to build stronger, more connected teams better equipped to deliver lasting organizational success.
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