This tedtalk takes a really interesting focus at low level, or tribal, leadership. The speaker David Logan makes the really interesting point that based off the tribal level you can get a far better idea of the total group is thinking. He cites a really interesting example of ‘councils’ meeting during the Super Bowl in the form of Super Bowl parties. By surveying those parties on which candidate they were going to choose in the 2008 Democratic Primary, they found despite polling saying that Hillary had a strong lead, that the people at these parties tended to rally around Obama instead. This at least suggests that by looking at the lower level and at small tribal groups, we could get a much better idea at how decisions are actually made.

The speaker than went on to describe five different stages of tribes. The first one is the most dangerous, where people severe themselves off from functional tribes and hangout with people in a similarly destressed state. The other stages are a slow position progression. This system reveals how with an effective tribal system people can become far more productive. This is very helpful especially when working in small groups. This also reveals how important it is for leaders to not just look at giant groups. They need to be able to look and understand the lower levels, whether to understand their opinions or make them more effective.