Tag: team building

Book Review: Tribe (Sebastian Junger)

Let’s start this off by saying that this is a subjective review – it’s just an opinion. If you have a different opinion, I would be genuinely interested to hear about it in the comments.

And going into it, I wanted to like this book, I wanted to like it so much. I had heard it recommended from several different prolific figures I follow (Sam Parr, Tim Ferriss and a few others). I had heard it was being used to formulate decisions about the types of places to live and the types of communities we try to create. I heard that it was being used as a tool to reflect on where these people wanted to live and how they wanted to live. It was a pretty big set-up, and maybe that’s part of why I felt the way I did after listening to the whole audiobook on a single bike ride.

Instead, I found that I was being thrown a slew of case studies where lessons were being pulled from unique scenarios, without much practical application outside of said specific cases. I found there to be vague assessments of “social issues” with even more vague “solutions” posited. It felt like somebody using a rough understanding of astronomy to apply an astrological solution to society as a whole. That is, I didn’t find it deeply insightful, but there are passages that would fit nicely on bumper stickers.

Junger uses war stories to give colour to the closeness we experience through incredulous circumstances where uncertainty of our own lives is in the air.

He says he has no issue continuing to use the terms or stories/anecdotes present in his book, recognizing that there has been backlash from what he says and the way he says it. While Junger is free to say what he wants, I absolutely challenge his assertion that PTSD from military action has longer-lasting ramifications than sexual assault related PTSD. I feel as though PTSD as it relates to sexual assault has been historically ignored, and that there has not been nearly enough research into the long-term impacts because it has been historically ignored. Further, I find Junger’s use of this example as a way to be dismissive of sexual assault, without adding much gusto to his argument of the severity of military-related PTSD. You don’t need to make one weaker to make another stronger.

Beyond all of this, though, I found the book to lack relevant lessons that could be applied in my life. I found it difficult to pull any deeper meaning out of Junger’s book than variations of “pressure makes diamonds”.

He applies this to a greater context, without much specifics, stating that challenges push us to limits we thought were not possible and that go against what we might think be able to collectively handle. This isn’t anything new, and I didn’t need to hear all of the stories he tells to re-affirm my belief that giving a larger challenge is one of the best ways to push us to accomplish more.

The most interesting part of the book comes when he starts to explain how the leadership qualities that get us through a traditional work-day are flipped on their head when an emergency occurs. Generally, the skill-set we see as leadership-laden is the same one that struggles heavily under drastically different circumstances.

This is not a particularly shocking revelation, but it is the closest I could find to a practical lesson in Tribe.

At the end of the day I was looking for something other than “hardship brings us closer together and provides us with fulfillment at the same time”. If this was going to be the only lesson, then I wanted some sort of practical application, other than “exist at a horrible junction in history”. I never found Junger truly offering even a partial solution as to some sort of hardship (artificial or otherwise) that could be brought into the world to create some good. Instead, he posits that we probably don’t want to all live in WWII era London Bomb shelters, something I actually agree with him on.

Final Review Score: 2/5

Notable Quotes:

“The beauty and tragedy of the modern world is that it eliminates many situations that require people to demonstrate a commitment to the collective good” (Perfect bumper sticker material, see…)

“As affluence and urbanization rise in a society, rates of suicide and depression tend to go up rather than down”

“Humans don’t mind hardship, in fact they thrive on it; what they mind is not feeling necessary. Modern society has perfected the art of making people not feel necessary” (Another great bumper sticker!)

Sebastian Junger (Tribe)

Bad Apples (#8)

In business school I was berated with the idea that bad apples spoil the bunch. That one employee could ruin an entire culture and the productivity that comes with it. (I listened to an episode of This American Life as part of a lecture, and although I enjoyed it thoroughly, the full value of it didn’t sink in for a few more years and I still have a long way to go.)

For most people seeing is believing, which is why I absolutely cannot ignore the bad apple theory – especially at times when I am working to scale a company.

I saw one individual drive down the productivity of a skilled and experienced team, increasing hourly wage costs by an average of 15% over a three month period compared to the previous year.

On top of all this, the morale of the team was absolutely crushed. Nobody was enjoying their work because a single individual was stirring the pot every day at every opportunity. They enjoyed getting other people riled up and undermining decisions.

We had hired this individual because we thought we needed the labour at the time. Looking back, we should have waited for the right individual, or fired them as soon as we realized what was going on (which was almost immediately). Instead, it stewed within an under-performing team for a full quarter.

We had turnover with other employees in that team at the end of the year, even after we gad fired the bad apple.

This was a blessing and a curse.

The curse is we had 2 remaining members (1 lead, 1 first-year employee). The blessing was it let us rebuild for the next year. We didn’t have to worry about the seeds of doubt being planted by the bad apple.

And we spent a lot of time hiring that year. We were more selective with our teams, vetting candidates we would have taken in previous years. It was a process, sometimes it felt like we had to take “somebody” to fill a spot, but this never proved to be entirely true. We could always find ways to get by, waiting to find the right fit.

We started searching earlier, but we also held out longer, waiting for the right people. We found them, trained them, gave them an incentive and because they were the right fit we saw performance levels better than any year prior (~30% wage reduction on through increased productivity).

But you don’t need to flip a team to get rid of a bad apple, you can save the bunch and a lot of time/effort/money if you act quickly.

There are two approaches you can take to this and both of them are effective for entirely different reasons. The first is to hold out in hiring, wait on candidates and sleep on decisions. The second is to hire whomever you want, while being prepared to terminate at the drop of a hat.

Either way, weed out the bad apples.