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In episode 47 of “The JoyPowered™ Workspace Podcast,” JoDee and Susan discuss building a tribe with Jason Barnaby, Tribe Leader and Chief Fire Starter of Fire Starters, Inc. Topics include what a tribe is, why you should have one, and the three stages of a tribal inventory.

People often have “superhero syndrome,” and think that they’re going to blaze the trail and do it all on their own. Sometimes that’s a great idea, but it’s not sustainable; you need people to encourage and support you so you’re not stuck with just the trash in your head. It’s important to have people who will ask you the hard questions and tell you things you need to hear but don’t want to tell yourself.

Jason encourages doing a “tribal inventory,” which has three stages: admire, hire, and fire. In the admire stage, make sure you know who’s in your tribe and that they know too. Then, move to the hire stage and identify which roles you are missing; try to diversify as much as you can. Finally, the fire stage consists of cutting people out or moving them to the right roles.

Everyone can and should have a tribe. You may be part of tribes at work, church, in your neighborhood, sports, exercise, etc. Tribes exist anywhere you have a group of like-minded people who get you. Effective tribes challenge, inspire, connect, and grow with each other, and understand that true change and development don’t happen in your comfort zone.

In this episode’s listener mail, Kyle has a coworker who recently had a death in the family, but HR can’t give out the coworker’s address so Kyle can send a card; he wonders if there’s a better approach. In the news, JoDee and Susan discuss statistics on coming to work with the flu.

Mentioned in this episode:

• Purple Ink, the HR consulting firm JoDee owns
• Susan Tinder White Consulting, the HR consulting firm Susan owns
• JoyPowered™, JoDee’s first book
• The JoyPowered™ Family, JoDee’s second book
• Fire Starters, Inc., Jason’s company, which works with individuals and corporations to get them unstuck from the status quo and ignite lasting change
• Igniting the Fire Starter Within, Jason’s upcoming book
• HR Indiana SHRM, a conference that Jason spoke at
• ATD, the Association for Talent Development
• “The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable” by Patrick Lencioni
• Jason on LinkedIn, Instagram, and Facebook