Research on how our brain functions is making it increasingly clear that we humans are largely motivated by unconscious tribal instincts.
In order to be comfortable and motivated to perform our best, we need an environment friendly to our natural, tribal instincts.
I myself became painfully aware of this thirty years ago, when the company I worked for introduced the "Matrix" as a more efficient means of staffing projects than the traditional hierarchical method.
Rather than having employees more or less permanently assigned to operating units, departments, or workgroups, the Matrix method assigned project managers, software people, and hardware people to respective "pools," and upper management staffed projects by appointing a manager from the project manager pool and having them select people from the hardware and software pools based on biosketches of their expertise and experience.
The aim was laudable: to eliminate the tendency of permanent internal groups to "build empires" and compete for company resources rather than cooperating and doing what was best for the company overall.
It was not known at the time that the "empire building" phenomenon occurs because of our predisposition to form tribes and try to dominate others, but the harmful results of the behavior had become obvious.
Unfortunately the Matrix method also had a fatal flaw: it was too inimical with the tribal programming it was trying to circumvent.
Our tribal programming prevents us from feeling comfortable and functioning well when we are deprived of our identity as a known, productive, and appreciated member of a group - a tribe - and treated instead as an interchangeable part; we do not like the feeling of being pawns moved about by a faceless management, and consciously or unconsciously find some way to rebel against it.
In my case, after giving the Matrix method a fair chance to overcome my negative gut reaction, and still finding it unpalatable, I sent out resumes, found another job, and resigned abruptly in the middle of a significant project.
Today, the extent that our innate tribal programming governs our behavior and performance - and the consequent importance of having a "tribal-friendly" work environment - is gradually becoming recognized, and enlightened companies are adapting to the challenge.
One example of this is the many "team-building" projects, seminars, workshops, and retreats that have come into vogue over the last decade.
Team-building is actually "tribe-building," for it instills a sense of common purpose, common goals, and a common "enemy" to defeat - the "hated" competition.
It works because we are predisposed to function well in such an environment, especially when our efforts are visibly recognized and rewarded by the tribe.
At its best team, building encourages management and employees to work harmoniously together for their mutual benefit, and discourages the internal "empire building" that is so counterproductive.
The extent that our behavior is governed by tribal instincts - tribal programming - is only beginning to be realized.
It is quite possible that nearly all of the ills affecting human organizations are the direct result of our tribal programming, and that they can be cured, or at least treated, only when we come to understand that programming - and acquire tribal insight.
In order to be comfortable and motivated to perform our best, we need an environment friendly to our natural, tribal instincts.
I myself became painfully aware of this thirty years ago, when the company I worked for introduced the "Matrix" as a more efficient means of staffing projects than the traditional hierarchical method.
Rather than having employees more or less permanently assigned to operating units, departments, or workgroups, the Matrix method assigned project managers, software people, and hardware people to respective "pools," and upper management staffed projects by appointing a manager from the project manager pool and having them select people from the hardware and software pools based on biosketches of their expertise and experience.
The aim was laudable: to eliminate the tendency of permanent internal groups to "build empires" and compete for company resources rather than cooperating and doing what was best for the company overall.
It was not known at the time that the "empire building" phenomenon occurs because of our predisposition to form tribes and try to dominate others, but the harmful results of the behavior had become obvious.
Unfortunately the Matrix method also had a fatal flaw: it was too inimical with the tribal programming it was trying to circumvent.
Our tribal programming prevents us from feeling comfortable and functioning well when we are deprived of our identity as a known, productive, and appreciated member of a group - a tribe - and treated instead as an interchangeable part; we do not like the feeling of being pawns moved about by a faceless management, and consciously or unconsciously find some way to rebel against it.
In my case, after giving the Matrix method a fair chance to overcome my negative gut reaction, and still finding it unpalatable, I sent out resumes, found another job, and resigned abruptly in the middle of a significant project.
Today, the extent that our innate tribal programming governs our behavior and performance - and the consequent importance of having a "tribal-friendly" work environment - is gradually becoming recognized, and enlightened companies are adapting to the challenge.
One example of this is the many "team-building" projects, seminars, workshops, and retreats that have come into vogue over the last decade.
Team-building is actually "tribe-building," for it instills a sense of common purpose, common goals, and a common "enemy" to defeat - the "hated" competition.
It works because we are predisposed to function well in such an environment, especially when our efforts are visibly recognized and rewarded by the tribe.
At its best team, building encourages management and employees to work harmoniously together for their mutual benefit, and discourages the internal "empire building" that is so counterproductive.
The extent that our behavior is governed by tribal instincts - tribal programming - is only beginning to be realized.
It is quite possible that nearly all of the ills affecting human organizations are the direct result of our tribal programming, and that they can be cured, or at least treated, only when we come to understand that programming - and acquire tribal insight.
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