A renowned Columbia Business School professor and cultural psychologist explains the deep roots
of tribalism--and how great leaders harness our tribal psychology to move people and change
cultures for the better. We've all heard pundits bemoan the rise of tribalism but few have
offered answers about how to manage our tribal psychology to create positive change. Now
pioneering cultural psychologist and acclaimed Columbia Business School professor Michael
Morris decodes tribalism in this erudite but accessible and hopeful book. Ours is the only
species that lives in tribes groups glued together by their distinctive cultures that can grow
to a scale far beyond kith and kin. Morris argues that our psychology is wired by evolution in
three distinctive ways to enable this. First the peer instinct to mesh with those around us
to conform to what most people do. Second the hero instinct to give to the group to emulate
those who are most respected. Third the ancestor instinct to maintain tradition to follow the
ways of prior generations. These tribal instincts enable us to form shared goals and work as a
team to acquire specialized skills and innovate to improve them and to transmit the
accumulated pool of cultural knowledge onward to the next generation. Countries churches
political parties and companies are tribes and tribal instincts explain our loyalties to them
and the hidden ways that they affect our thoughts our actions and our identities. Rather than
deriding tribal impulses for their irrationality great leaders tap into them. For example Lee
Kuan Yew used government officials' peer instinct to cleanse the Singaporean port of
corruption. Sallie Krawcheck leveraged hero instincts to fix the strained merger between
patrician Merrill Lynch and plebian Bank of America. Coaches of dynastic sports teams like the
NBA's Golden State Warriors and New Zealand rugby's All Blacks rouse ancestor instincts to lead
their teams to glory. The most powerful way to move people is through their ties to tribes.
Policymakers across the world have tapped into these instincts to reduce unhealthy habits of
consumption promote environmental conservation and tackle many other problems that had
resisted previously attempted remedies. And managers teachers and activists have channeled
them to transform organizations. By weaving together deep research current and historical
events and stories from business and politics Morris offers a counterintuitive twist to how
we think about tribalism giving us the tools to address our own tribes in a new light.
