Leadership Lessons from “Tribal: How the Cultural Instincts That Divide Us Can Help Bring Us Together

In heavy industry, we often talk about optimizing processes and maximizing equipment efficiency. But what about optimizing our most fundamental human dynamics? Human beings are wired for connection. That’s the central idea behind Michael Morris's groundbreaking work on tribal psychology: Tribal: How the Cultural Instincts That Divide Us Can Help Bring Us Together. In the book, Morris reveals how our natural instincts to form groups can transform operational hurdles into powerful drivers of success. For business leaders, these same instincts hold incredible potential to build thriving teams and organizations—if we know how to harness them.

Here are actionable insights from Tribal to help you lead with purpose, foster connection, and create a culture that thrives.

The Hidden Tribes in Your Operation

If you're running a mining or manufacturing operation, you already have tribes – whether you acknowledge them or not. The maintenance crew that takes pride in keeping equipment running. The production team that celebrates output records. The safety officers who've built their identity around protecting workers. These natural groupings aren't a bug in your organizational system – they're a feature of human nature that you can leverage for unprecedented collaboration.

Here's how to transform these inherent divisions into advantages:

1. Lead with Empathy and Transparency

Trust is at the heart of any successful tribe. Morris highlights the importance of open communication and genuine care in creating strong bonds.

Action Steps for Leaders:

• Communicate Regularly: Keep employees informed about changes, challenges, and successes. Transparency builds trust and alignment.
• Practice Active Listening: Show employees you value their input by listening attentively and responding thoughtfully.
• Be Authentic: Share your own challenges and growth journey to make your leadership relatable and human.

2. Understand Ingroup vs. Outgroup Dynamics

One of the biggest challenges of tribal instincts is the tendency to form ingroups (people like “us”) and outgroups (those who are “other”). While this instinct can create strong internal loyalty, it can also breed silos and competition within an organization.

Action Steps for Leaders:

• Break Down Silos: Encourage collaboration across teams by creating cross-functional projects or job shadowing opportunities.
• Be Inclusive: Ensure that no one feels like an outsider in your organization by promoting equity, diversity, and inclusion.
• Frame External Competition: Shift the focus to external challenges (e.g., competitors or market opportunities) to unite your team around a common goal.

3. Foster a Shared Identity

Morris explains that shared identity is the glue that holds tribes together. In the workplace, this means creating a strong sense of “we” rather than “us versus them.”

Action Steps for Leaders:

• Define a Compelling Mission: Articulate a clear and inspiring purpose for your team or organization. Employees are more likely to feel connected when they see how their work contributes to something bigger.
• Celebrate Wins Together: Recognize and celebrate milestones as a group to reinforce a sense of collective achievement.
• Use Storytelling: Share stories that highlight shared values and the impact of your team’s efforts, fostering pride and connection.

4. Redirect the Competitive Spirit & Turn Conflict into Collaboration

Instead of letting your maintenance and production teams battle over scheduling, unite them against external benchmarks. At one mining operation, leadership successfully redirected inter-departmental friction by creating a shared dashboard comparing their site's overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) against industry leaders. Suddenly, former rivals became allies in the pursuit of world-class performance.

Action Steps for Leaders:

• Encourage Healthy Debate: Create a culture where people feel safe voicing differing opinions and debating ideas without fear of judgment.
• Focus on Shared Goals: In moments of conflict, redirect the team’s focus to the overarching mission or objectives.
• Model Resilience: Show how to navigate disagreements constructively and lead by example in managing emotions.

5. Create Meaningful Cross-Functional Bonds

In manufacturing, the gap between the shop floor and management can seem unbridgeable. One automotive parts manufacturer tackled this by creating mixed-level innovation teams. When engineers and operators collaborated on process improvements, they didn't just solve technical problems – they broke down tribal barriers through shared challenges and victories.

Action Steps for Leaders:

• Facilitate Cross-Functional Projects: Assign diverse teams to work together on high-impact projects, ensuring representation from all levels and departments.
• Rotate Roles Temporarily: Allow employees to step into roles outside their usual scope, fostering mutual understanding and respect.
• Conduct Joint Training: Implement workshops or training sessions that bring together employees from different functions to solve problems collectively.
• Highlight Collaborative Wins: Publicly recognize and celebrate successes that result from cross-functional efforts, reinforcing the value of collaboration.

6. Build Rituals That Matter

Skip the generic team-building exercises. In high-stakes industries like ours, rituals need to connect to real work. Consider the power of joint pre-shift briefings where maintenance and operations teams plan together, or celebration ceremonies that honor cross-functional achievements in safety and productivity.

Action Steps for Leaders:

• Create Meaningful Rituals: Implement regular team-building activities or recognition ceremonies that align with your company’s values.
• Use Visual Symbols: From a shared team logo to desk decor that reflects core values, visual cues reinforce identity and pride.
• Honor Milestones: Celebrate anniversaries, promotions, and other key moments with symbolic gestures that show appreciation.

Making It Work: Practical Steps for Leaders

Start with these actions:

• Map Your Tribes: Identify the natural groups in your organization and understand their unique identities, priorities, and pain points.
• Find Common Ground: Look for shared challenges that can unite different groups. Environmental compliance, safety goals, or competitive pressures often provide natural rallying points.
• Invest in Connectors: Identify and empower people who naturally bridge different groups. These individuals are worth their weight in gold for building cross-tribal collaboration.

The Bottom Line

In industries where margins are tight and competition is fierce, we can't afford to let tribal divisions hold us back. But neither can we ignore human nature. The key is working with these deep-seated instincts rather than against them.

When managed skillfully, tribal psychology can transform from a source of friction into a catalyst for excellence. The most successful leaders in mining and manufacturing will be those who understand and harness these powerful social instincts to create more cohesive, high-performing organizations.

Remember: Your company's tribes aren't going anywhere. The question is whether they'll work against each other or together toward shared success. The choice – and the opportunity – is yours. What steps will you take today to lead your tribe toward greater unity and success?