“By understanding our shared tribal tendencies, we can help lead each other to become better individuals,” explains Dave Logan in a powerful TED talk.

Logan’s book Tribal Leadership (click here for a free audiobook) is a tool that transcends being just a book about business. It is a book that helps to understand the world and the tribal cultures that inhabit it.  He and his team have come up with five different tribes that each have their own world view.
5. Life is great
4. We’re great
3. I’m great
2. My life sucks
1. Life sucks
A tribe is made up of 20 to 150 people. Your tribe is who fills your phone contacts, your texts, your emails; it’s whom you spend your time with. I have several tribes in my life; my work tribe, my advertising tribe, my church tribe and my blogging tribe. While my different tribes are unique, they are all similar in that they all want to make the world a better place, which according to Tribal Leadership is a sign of a well functioning tribe. Being a member of these tribes makes me feel connected to my community and to the world. It makes me feel connected to something larger than myself.  While these tribes are filled with unique and diverse voices, we are all striving toward a common good.
Gangs and terrorist cells inhabit the tribes that believe “life sucks”.
All of this makes me wonder about those two young brothers in Boston who apparently murdered innocent people and maimed many others. I wonder if they were part of a tribe that didn’t see the world as a beautiful, diverse place filled with people striving to make it better. Or were they alone with no tribe to council them. Or were they sucked into thinking hate-filled strangers hiding in the dark crannies of the Internet were their tribe. If one believes “life sucks”, then does one believe life has little value and therefore makes it easy to take someone else’s life?
No one knows why these brothers terrorized a city that from all accounts had embraced them. I hope for justice, but not vengeance. I pray for compassion and wisdom for all involved. I hope their act doesn’t fuel the fear of others into thinking that all Muslims or immigrants are all part of terrorist tribes.
I pray that someday we will all see the interconnectivity of all our tribes. As Spring wraps its warmth and beauty around the world; as runners jog down our streets; as parents push their babies in strollers in flower-filled neighborhoods; I hope that we all see Spring as a time to heal and as a time of new beginnings. A time for all tribes to see we all need to strive to make the world a better place. May we all believe “life is great.”