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SmartTribes: How Teams Become Brilliant Together
Are You Scaring Your People into Mediocrity?
All leaders want to outperform, outsell, and outinnovate the competition. And most teams are fully capable of doing so. The we consistently say and do things that spark unconscious fears and keep our people stuck in their Critter State. This primitive fight, flight, or freeze mode distills all decision making to one What will keep me safest?
Lying low, sucking up, procrastinating, and doing a good enough job may keep employees breathing, but it doesn’t make for vital organizations. Leaders have to get their people unstuck and fully engaged, replacing their old, limiting mental patterns with new patterns that foster optimal performance.
New York Times bestselling author and applied neuroscience expert Christine Comaford knows what it takes to move people from the Critter State into the Smart State, where they have full access to their own creativity, innovation, higher consciousness, and emotional engagement. When an entire culture maintains that state, it becomes what she calls a SmartTribe. Focused. Accountable. Collaborative. Imbued with the energy and passion to solve problems and do what needs doing, again and again and again.
Comaford brings to this book more than thirty years of company-building experience, combined with her expertise in behavioral modification and organizational development. She has helped hundreds of leaders navigate rapid growth, maximize performance, resolve internal conflicts, and execute turnarounds with the full support of their people.
Now she shares potent yet easy-to-learn neuroscience techniques that will help you do the same. You’ll learn how to move your team forward and reach your next revenue inflection point using the five key Accelerators of the Smart State—focus, clarity, accountability, influence, and sustainability. You’ll get better at anticipating and moving through your own stuck spots and those of your people.
Using her proven system, Comaford’s clients have already created hundreds of millions of dollars in new value. They’ve seen their revenues and profits increase by up to 210% annually; individuals become up to 50% more productive and 100% more accountable; marketing demand generation grow by up to 237%; new products and services created up to 48% faster; and sales close up to 50% faster. They spot changes in their markets more quickly, then pounce on them to create the future they want.
Ultimately, SmartTribes will help you and your team achieve optimal performance and engagement—brilliance—and leave competitors in the dust.
All leaders want to outperform, outsell, and outinnovate the competition. And most teams are fully capable of doing so. The we consistently say and do things that spark unconscious fears and keep our people stuck in their Critter State. This primitive fight, flight, or freeze mode distills all decision making to one What will keep me safest?
Lying low, sucking up, procrastinating, and doing a good enough job may keep employees breathing, but it doesn’t make for vital organizations. Leaders have to get their people unstuck and fully engaged, replacing their old, limiting mental patterns with new patterns that foster optimal performance.
New York Times bestselling author and applied neuroscience expert Christine Comaford knows what it takes to move people from the Critter State into the Smart State, where they have full access to their own creativity, innovation, higher consciousness, and emotional engagement. When an entire culture maintains that state, it becomes what she calls a SmartTribe. Focused. Accountable. Collaborative. Imbued with the energy and passion to solve problems and do what needs doing, again and again and again.
Comaford brings to this book more than thirty years of company-building experience, combined with her expertise in behavioral modification and organizational development. She has helped hundreds of leaders navigate rapid growth, maximize performance, resolve internal conflicts, and execute turnarounds with the full support of their people.
Now she shares potent yet easy-to-learn neuroscience techniques that will help you do the same. You’ll learn how to move your team forward and reach your next revenue inflection point using the five key Accelerators of the Smart State—focus, clarity, accountability, influence, and sustainability. You’ll get better at anticipating and moving through your own stuck spots and those of your people.
Using her proven system, Comaford’s clients have already created hundreds of millions of dollars in new value. They’ve seen their revenues and profits increase by up to 210% annually; individuals become up to 50% more productive and 100% more accountable; marketing demand generation grow by up to 237%; new products and services created up to 48% faster; and sales close up to 50% faster. They spot changes in their markets more quickly, then pounce on them to create the future they want.
Ultimately, SmartTribes will help you and your team achieve optimal performance and engagement—brilliance—and leave competitors in the dust.
272 pages, Hardcover
First published January 22, 2013
52 people are currently reading
581 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews
January 8, 2014
On the whole, the book was pretty annoying, mostly because of all the jargon and marketing to the business community...return on investment, etc. BUT I loved the brain research in the first half and the breakdown of how communication and productivity are affected by how our brains are wired. And the point that only promises and requests at work actually lead to things being done as opposed to information sharing, personal sharing, and debating is probably my aha moment this year. worth skimming if you find it at the library!
August 3, 2018
It was interesting to an extent... It was hard to relate to like half of it because I'm not in a managerial position or anything of the sort. The author used many real-world examples of businesses that started one way and put the methods to use, which after a few months made them much stronger. So that was good. This would be good for someone who is looking to move up in their organization or really change it as a manager or something higher.
most/best I got out of this book:
"When people get a chance to visualize the change and how they fit into it, & when they are feeling included (think safety, belonging, & mattering) they can get onboard faster."
most/best I got out of this book:
"When people get a chance to visualize the change and how they fit into it, & when they are feeling included (think safety, belonging, & mattering) they can get onboard faster."
June 20, 2024
3.5 Stars. Not too bad for a leadership book. As someone who doesn’t work in a standard “selling” environment, it was nice to find a book that’s applicable to life as a whole, rather than specific work place situations. I also really liked how there was a prevalent focus on sociological and psychological studies.
June 11, 2013
Full disclosure: I didn't finish this book. I read about 50 pages and skimmed the rest. Also, I got a prerelease copy, so the book is probably a little less choppy in final form, but unless it was substantially rewritten this review still applies.
My familiarity with Christine's work is having read a few smart and inspiring interviews she's given, which gave me high expectations.
I found the book buzzword and jargon-heavy, vague, shallow, and repetitive. Many of the buzzwords were invented for Comaford's consulting group - but are really just existing concepts that didn't need to be rebranded, except that they want to "own" the concept ("Critter State", "SmartState", etc.). Read it as one big PR move/ad for Comaford's consulting group, created to hand out at conferences after giving keynote presentations to executives. Which I wouldn't mind at all if the book was an inspiring, challenging and insightful work in its own right, but it wasn't. I guarantee it was written by a ghostwriter who was given a general outline of their consulting process, which is a shame because Christine herself by all accounts seems to have a sharp, interesting mind and a depth of experience. If you're C-suite of an enormous company going through growing pains and considering hiring a consulting group to help you reframe and focus, this book is a sales pitch for you.
If you want the same ideas in a more comprehensive, less-salesy format, I highly suggest Godin's "Linchpin" (which outlines most of the Critter State vs. Smart State stuff in terms of "The Resistance" and "The Lizard Brain"), "Traction: Get a Grip on Your Business," and probably a dozen more comprehensive works on management and business dev.
Of course, your mileage may vary - there is probably an audience for this, it's just a bit shallow for my tastes, and I'm not a C-suite exec who's struggling to get my teams to align and looking for outside guidance.
My familiarity with Christine's work is having read a few smart and inspiring interviews she's given, which gave me high expectations.
I found the book buzzword and jargon-heavy, vague, shallow, and repetitive. Many of the buzzwords were invented for Comaford's consulting group - but are really just existing concepts that didn't need to be rebranded, except that they want to "own" the concept ("Critter State", "SmartState", etc.). Read it as one big PR move/ad for Comaford's consulting group, created to hand out at conferences after giving keynote presentations to executives. Which I wouldn't mind at all if the book was an inspiring, challenging and insightful work in its own right, but it wasn't. I guarantee it was written by a ghostwriter who was given a general outline of their consulting process, which is a shame because Christine herself by all accounts seems to have a sharp, interesting mind and a depth of experience. If you're C-suite of an enormous company going through growing pains and considering hiring a consulting group to help you reframe and focus, this book is a sales pitch for you.
If you want the same ideas in a more comprehensive, less-salesy format, I highly suggest Godin's "Linchpin" (which outlines most of the Critter State vs. Smart State stuff in terms of "The Resistance" and "The Lizard Brain"), "Traction: Get a Grip on Your Business," and probably a dozen more comprehensive works on management and business dev.
Of course, your mileage may vary - there is probably an audience for this, it's just a bit shallow for my tastes, and I'm not a C-suite exec who's struggling to get my teams to align and looking for outside guidance.
May 26, 2016
I have read so many team building, team culture and leadership books that I was dreading another one, but this was assigned to our management team. It was a really good read. I love the true and relatable stories and the humor throughout. The only thing that keeps me from giving it 5 stars is the length. It is just too long. As a manager I want to improve myself and learn new skills and techniques, but as a manager I also don't have time for lengthy books.
June 29, 2023
The book was better than expected. I scored it a 5 as it gave me some insights and ideas on how to approach change better, to better coach the teams and some structure to approach issues in the company with a positive mindset rather than a problem-solving one.
I didn’t find the entire book as good - some parts are outdated if we talk about organizational behavior and change in tech for example - but the positive parts were higher for me.
I didn’t find the entire book as good - some parts are outdated if we talk about organizational behavior and change in tech for example - but the positive parts were higher for me.
March 8, 2016
Engaging and Powerful read
I would highly recommend this book. It is full of practical advice. It lays out a system for greatness in simple language. It will become a mainstay in my book collection
I would highly recommend this book. It is full of practical advice. It lays out a system for greatness in simple language. It will become a mainstay in my book collection
October 24, 2013
It's not a groundbreaking work, but it can definitely help simplify more complex social and cognitive theories in order to implement them into business environments. It's a very light read overall.
May 7, 2014
Probably one to skip unless you have a long drive.....
January 3, 2024
Listened to the audiobook, read aloud by a female American-accent narrator (the author!) and suitable for 1.25x speed. I really like it when authors read aloud their own works for audio recordings -- it just gives it that extra something special in the experience.
This book contains lots of great insights and management techniques. I think a leader has to be careful when measuring so many parameters but the right leader will excel at it and their team will likely love it. This book is a happy marriage of leadership and EDI strategies. Enjoyable read, would recommend, and probably enjoy reading again in a couple years time.
Favourite Quotes:
"Human beings are meaning-making machines. The trouble is, we often assign meaning where it doesn’t exist."
"Stress really is about fear and how to get to the bottom of that fear and release it."
"Safety, belonging, and mattering are essential to your brain and your ability to perform at work, at home, and in your life overall."
Later: Safety + Belonging + Mattering = Trust
"The greater the feeling of safety, both mental and physical, the greater the feeling of connection with others, the greater the feeling that we’re in this together and we belong together, the greater the feeling that we personally matter and make a difference and are contributing to the greater good, and the greater the success of the organization."
"We can improve at anything but we have to want it and work at it. This means we have to not only learn and accept failure and feedback, we have to seek it. It’s how we handle failure that determines our success."
Prioritize: Do it, Ditch it, Delegate it, Defer it
"Meetings - This is where a leader will often send people into their critter state by causing fear or confusion due to lack of clarity."
"Being accountable is essential to lead, to feel influential, and to help your team feel you are worthy of trust... Accountability requires us to buck up and follow through even when we don’t feel like it. It also requires us to value ourselves and others."
"If you want to know what a person is truly committed to, look at their calendar, their credit card statement, and their behaviour. These will reveal their priorities and what they value most."
"Stepping up to be a leader isn’t about getting anything for yourself: it’s about service. The more influential you become, the more you are putting yourself at the service of your team. Real influence is about empowering others."
"The more we focus on the outcomes we want to create, the more we get in our smart state. The more we trigger the reward centre of our brain, primarily the ventral striatum, the more we move forward with eager anticipation of great things to come. The more we use our tools for focus, clarity, accountability, and influence, the more structure we lend both to ourselves and our teams to get in and stay in our smart state. And once there, we slide into the jet stream of our compelling and emotionally engaging vision, which continues to pull us forward. It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy."
"Energy management must be intentional, conscious, and a key priority. The world is full of brilliant minds unable to fulfill their mission because they burned out first. Moving through an inflection point requires intention, energy, and heart. Manage your energy and you’ll continue to surge forward. Don’t, and beware the backwards slide."
This book contains lots of great insights and management techniques. I think a leader has to be careful when measuring so many parameters but the right leader will excel at it and their team will likely love it. This book is a happy marriage of leadership and EDI strategies. Enjoyable read, would recommend, and probably enjoy reading again in a couple years time.
Favourite Quotes:
"Human beings are meaning-making machines. The trouble is, we often assign meaning where it doesn’t exist."
"Stress really is about fear and how to get to the bottom of that fear and release it."
"Safety, belonging, and mattering are essential to your brain and your ability to perform at work, at home, and in your life overall."
Later: Safety + Belonging + Mattering = Trust
"The greater the feeling of safety, both mental and physical, the greater the feeling of connection with others, the greater the feeling that we’re in this together and we belong together, the greater the feeling that we personally matter and make a difference and are contributing to the greater good, and the greater the success of the organization."
"We can improve at anything but we have to want it and work at it. This means we have to not only learn and accept failure and feedback, we have to seek it. It’s how we handle failure that determines our success."
Prioritize: Do it, Ditch it, Delegate it, Defer it
"Meetings - This is where a leader will often send people into their critter state by causing fear or confusion due to lack of clarity."
"Being accountable is essential to lead, to feel influential, and to help your team feel you are worthy of trust... Accountability requires us to buck up and follow through even when we don’t feel like it. It also requires us to value ourselves and others."
"If you want to know what a person is truly committed to, look at their calendar, their credit card statement, and their behaviour. These will reveal their priorities and what they value most."
"Stepping up to be a leader isn’t about getting anything for yourself: it’s about service. The more influential you become, the more you are putting yourself at the service of your team. Real influence is about empowering others."
"The more we focus on the outcomes we want to create, the more we get in our smart state. The more we trigger the reward centre of our brain, primarily the ventral striatum, the more we move forward with eager anticipation of great things to come. The more we use our tools for focus, clarity, accountability, and influence, the more structure we lend both to ourselves and our teams to get in and stay in our smart state. And once there, we slide into the jet stream of our compelling and emotionally engaging vision, which continues to pull us forward. It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy."
"Energy management must be intentional, conscious, and a key priority. The world is full of brilliant minds unable to fulfill their mission because they burned out first. Moving through an inflection point requires intention, energy, and heart. Manage your energy and you’ll continue to surge forward. Don’t, and beware the backwards slide."
August 26, 2023
I can't help but wonder if I would have found every part of this book useful if I were in some form of business with deliverable goods. As is, looking solely from the humanistic view, only portions of it applied. That being said, the parts that were relevant were very relevant.
The basic premise is pretty straight forward: we function best when we're operating from the prefrontal cortex and therefor intense emotions (i.e. fear) get in the way of progress. So the questions becomes: how to keep your average employee in that non-emotional state? Here is where the book has the most relevant answers.
Culture. That's really what it comes down to. Creating a culture where individuals feel seen, valued, and appreciated. One where leadership takes full accountability for their mistakes, uses them as growth opportunities, and maintains transparency so others can learn from them. One were change and adaptation are valued and we constantly evaluate opportunities for these. One where every employee feels like a part of the team- or the tribe, as she calls it.
In my current position I found a lot of that instruction to be very worthwhile and have directly referred to lessons from this book in trying to cultivate my relationships with my supervisees. Trying to foster that feeling belonging and striving to see things from others' points of view. Figuring out what motivates others and trying to frame things in that light to spark an internal desire to change. While I have a hard time imagining myself mapping out everyone's metaprograms (a term she coined), I can directly utilize a lot of the general lessons in my interactions with those I oversee. And I think that she emphasizes the right things overall.
It wasn't until the latter chapters that I started to really lose interest, simply because those don't seem to apply to anyone other than a CEO or business head. Reading about inflection points and stuck spots and money metrics kind-of made my eyes glaze over- but I could imagine someone very high up in a company potentially finding that useful.
All in all I'd recommend it to anyone who oversees individual s at work as there's enough there about human psychology to make it very useful.
The basic premise is pretty straight forward: we function best when we're operating from the prefrontal cortex and therefor intense emotions (i.e. fear) get in the way of progress. So the questions becomes: how to keep your average employee in that non-emotional state? Here is where the book has the most relevant answers.
Culture. That's really what it comes down to. Creating a culture where individuals feel seen, valued, and appreciated. One where leadership takes full accountability for their mistakes, uses them as growth opportunities, and maintains transparency so others can learn from them. One were change and adaptation are valued and we constantly evaluate opportunities for these. One where every employee feels like a part of the team- or the tribe, as she calls it.
In my current position I found a lot of that instruction to be very worthwhile and have directly referred to lessons from this book in trying to cultivate my relationships with my supervisees. Trying to foster that feeling belonging and striving to see things from others' points of view. Figuring out what motivates others and trying to frame things in that light to spark an internal desire to change. While I have a hard time imagining myself mapping out everyone's metaprograms (a term she coined), I can directly utilize a lot of the general lessons in my interactions with those I oversee. And I think that she emphasizes the right things overall.
It wasn't until the latter chapters that I started to really lose interest, simply because those don't seem to apply to anyone other than a CEO or business head. Reading about inflection points and stuck spots and money metrics kind-of made my eyes glaze over- but I could imagine someone very high up in a company potentially finding that useful.
All in all I'd recommend it to anyone who oversees individual s at work as there's enough there about human psychology to make it very useful.
February 2, 2022
Great book. I think that depending on "where" you are at in your company can determine what sticks to you at the present moment. But ALL lessons are applicable, and if promoted, should be re-read to help with perspective. Does provide good insight if your organization does some of these, or could help someone to introduce a new concept to their organization.
September 3, 2018
There are some good concepts in this book and a whole lot more bad ones. Meh.
December 5, 2020
Amazing book - very useful for business leaders, founders, managers on any level.
February 26, 2022
This book talks about hos to make a good team and how to make a profit
March 2, 2022
Very practical. Lots of insights that a leader can apply on their own.
August 11, 2024
It was ok. The data in the beginning was interesting, but it didn't really flesh out. Ultimately a very corporate way to explain emotional intelligence and could've offered a lot more on the how-tos and remedies.
January 12, 2020
I though too much of the book stressed the hugeness of the success they had - I kept being like yeah yeah I get it -80x growth! and in the audiobook they read # as 'pound' instead of 'hashtag' - when they're talking about tweeting!
That aside I enjoyed the lessons about communication and how to put each of your people in their optimal state. I didn't get as much about how to make a team come together. The idea I got was 'once everybody's in the smart state hey can't help but be a smart tribe' - we'll see if that's the case.
"Generalization goes wrong when we assume we know what we don't. We've all had moments of believing 'this always happens,' 'they always act that way,' or 'here we go again." When we project reality based on what didn't work previously we don't allow for anything to change. Being present means focusing on the possibility in the current moment."
Smarttribesbook.com/audio
"If you want to know what a person is truly committed to look at their calendar, their credit card statement, and their behavior."
"Determine the outcome I'd like by using the first three questions of the outcome frame: What would you like? What will having that do for you? When will you know when you have it?"
"If you get in your critter state and you look at what is not working/ what is so hard, you're practicing negative target fixation and your brain will find all the reasons why things are so difficult. Your brain will work hard to validate your reality. Yet, if you ask 'Why is it so easy?' you'll fixate on a positive target....Try it. It's fun. It's free. it'll snap you right into your smart state."
Metaprograms:
Toward a goal (achieve)/ away from pain (solve) "What do you like at work?"
Options (choice, variety)/ procedures (reliable process) "Why did you choose X?"
General (highlights) / Specific (details) "Describe x"
Bias to action (start now) / Reflective (thoughtful decisions) "How do you solve problems?"
Validation: Internal / External "How do you know you did a good job?"
Sameness (resistance to change)/ Difference (motivated by change) "What is the relationship between your work last year and this year?"
That aside I enjoyed the lessons about communication and how to put each of your people in their optimal state. I didn't get as much about how to make a team come together. The idea I got was 'once everybody's in the smart state hey can't help but be a smart tribe' - we'll see if that's the case.
"Generalization goes wrong when we assume we know what we don't. We've all had moments of believing 'this always happens,' 'they always act that way,' or 'here we go again." When we project reality based on what didn't work previously we don't allow for anything to change. Being present means focusing on the possibility in the current moment."
Smarttribesbook.com/audio
"If you want to know what a person is truly committed to look at their calendar, their credit card statement, and their behavior."
"Determine the outcome I'd like by using the first three questions of the outcome frame: What would you like? What will having that do for you? When will you know when you have it?"
"If you get in your critter state and you look at what is not working/ what is so hard, you're practicing negative target fixation and your brain will find all the reasons why things are so difficult. Your brain will work hard to validate your reality. Yet, if you ask 'Why is it so easy?' you'll fixate on a positive target....Try it. It's fun. It's free. it'll snap you right into your smart state."
Metaprograms:
Toward a goal (achieve)/ away from pain (solve) "What do you like at work?"
Options (choice, variety)/ procedures (reliable process) "Why did you choose X?"
General (highlights) / Specific (details) "Describe x"
Bias to action (start now) / Reflective (thoughtful decisions) "How do you solve problems?"
Validation: Internal / External "How do you know you did a good job?"
Sameness (resistance to change)/ Difference (motivated by change) "What is the relationship between your work last year and this year?"
July 29, 2014
I had high hopes for this book however I found it to be a 200ish page ad for Mrs. Comaford's company. In that, it did succeed as I think her, and her company, would be wonderful to work with. Sadly, this book really doesn't give a lot of information. Almost every case study is "x was wrong, we looked that Y (short, 3 sentence descriptions) as the issues and 14 months later - success!".
There are a few interesting paths forward that I hadn't heard about: like meta programming. Overall though, skip the book and maybe hire her instead.
The TL;DR - learn how to talk to people, don't be a dick, gain trust, give trust and be respectful. This is the basic message of the book - which I do agree with and thus the 2 stars and why I'd hire her.
There are a few interesting paths forward that I hadn't heard about: like meta programming. Overall though, skip the book and maybe hire her instead.
The TL;DR - learn how to talk to people, don't be a dick, gain trust, give trust and be respectful. This is the basic message of the book - which I do agree with and thus the 2 stars and why I'd hire her.
April 21, 2014
The content here seems to all line up. The "critter state" seems similar to Seth Godin's "Lizard Brain". The concept of a high performing team (tribe) resonates well. However, the book is pretty geared towards Christine's system which can feel a bit of a pitch at times distracting from the content. She shares neuroscience mapped to her five key Accelerators of the Smart State: Focus, Clarity, Accountability, Influence and Sustainability.
If this would have stuck to the material and dropped the sales pitch to hire her company as a proven management consulting firm it would have been a lot better.
If this would have stuck to the material and dropped the sales pitch to hire her company as a proven management consulting firm it would have been a lot better.
June 6, 2014
Comaford details the differences between the limbic/emotional system that she calls the critter state and the rational/strategical smart state. Emotional responses are shown to be 400% stronger than rational ones in behavioral analyses. As the brain deletes, distorts, and generalized all input, the author points out that focus through being present, engaged, truthful, and managing priorities is the best way to be a member or leader of a SmartTribe. In addition, engaged employees focus on outcomes instead of problems and rely on feeling safe, a sense of belonging, and that they matter to their management.
February 5, 2015
While the book starts okay, it quickly degenerates into generalized business/leadership jargon that feels like a commercial for the author's company, or to increase traffic for her website. Bottom line: safety, belonging, and mattering are critical to build good teams. Increase your communication, clarify goals, and take time to understand each person's personality so you can use language that helps them understand what you want them to do.
There, saved you the trouble of having to read through this informational.
There, saved you the trouble of having to read through this informational.
December 21, 2014
Bad. Bad. Bad. Jargon laden and the parts that are not is common knowledge for readers of Harvard Business Review or those familiar with the startup-y culture. Way too long and almost no content. Also annoying are constant referrals to her consulting company and what it can do for you. This would be a great book summarizing a bunch of new ways of thinking about organizational culture ... if it was written in 1995. I gave up after about page 100
March 5, 2015
I have this book on my work book shelf for quick reference. Very good for managing teams and personal leadership development. Enjoy the resources available online also. Recommended for anyone in a management role, small business or larger corporation.
November 15, 2020
Definitely wisdom to be found in this book. But perhaps too much. She introduced so many different principles and frameworks that it got a little overwhelming...and thus demotivating to apply. The best chapters were about how to influence others.
October 26, 2018
Stop using the word tribe when you are not native / first Nations or describing native and first Nations people!
August 27, 2014
Interesting,easy read and applicable in many aspects of my life.
Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews