Unite the Tribes: Ending Turf Wars for Career and Business Success

by Christopher Duncan

Book Overview

No matter what business you're in, at the end of the day, it's all about people. Workers are people, and so are managers. Every day, millions of people wake up, get dressed, and go to work. The fact that all of them do different jobs and have different levels of authority has been used for ages to divide us. The truth of the matter, however, is that we're all just trying to make a living and provide for the ones we love-and that's a powerful common...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1430251107
• ISBN13: 9781430251101
• Release Date: December 2012
• Publisher: Apress
• Length: 340 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Should be required reading...

Do you work at a company where most of the energy is spent fighting each other instead of the competition? Unite The Tribes is an extremely good book that outlines a program for learning how to focus the company to conquer the real enemy, your competitor who would rather you didn't exist. This should be required reading in most all large corporations.

Very timely reading material for the serious employee

After reading some of the reviews, I was pleased to see that many readers were also finding great value and answers to common problems in this book. However, I was dumbfounded that one reviewer stated that in her company someone would be fired for following the advice of this book. To be blunt, that's just plain scary as the advice in this book centers on the approach of bringing people together in order to set and accomplish company-wide goals. In fact, the entire premise of the book is that if you stop thinking of only yourself and think of ways to help everyone reach their goals, everyone ultimately wins out in the end - both the company and each individual.I personally believe that the main reason for such a sharp decline in customer service over the past few decades can be attributed to one element - employee apathy. I also believe that this apathy - which leads to poor job performance, which ultimately results in an inferior product - is caused by corporate environments where people feel under-appreciated, overworked and that everyone is simply out to satisfy their own personal agendas - at the expense of the company's well-being. This is specifically the problem that this book addresses - as the title "Unit the Tribes" suggests - bringing people together in the name of a common goal where in the end everyone wins. While this book doesn't pretend to have all the answers, I was very impressed with the stories and advice related from someone who's obviously been in a myriad different fields for over 30+ years. Give me this type of person's advice over a "consultant" who's all about theory with no real experience to back it up. My advice is that if you're looking to become a more productive and happy employee, buy this book today. Even better, if you're a manager, then you owe it to your team to purchase a copy for each member of the team and make it required reading.

Great advice for Corporate America!

Mr. Duncan hits the nail on the head over and over again with his pillars! Anyone working at any level of corporate America can benefit from this book. I`m a department manager for an international distribution company and I see, everyday, the unneccesary struggle not only between departments, but within departments as well. Mr. Duncan`s suggestions help alleviate those struggles and help reiterate why we get up every morning and pursue the careers we`ve chosen. All companies serve a customer of some sort and the further removed you are from the customer, the more difficult it is to see exactly how much of an impact each and every person has on whether or not your customer chooses to do business with you or your competition. This book brings that hieracrchy into focus for everyone on the ladder no matter where you happen to fall. Thank you Mr. Duncan for your honest approach and useable information for us folks in the real world!

This is the "Art of War" for the modern corporate world!

This book is a great personal tactical manual for career success and job satisfaction reminiscent of a sort of "Art of War" or "Book of Five Rings" for people in the modern corporate world. I think that no matter what problems you're having at work or how much you hate (or like) your job, this book has solutions to the job situations you're facing. Christopher Duncan presents a clear analysis of typical work situations and problems encountered on the job and then enumerates effective tactics to deal with these problems and create a work environment that is productive and satisfying. His strategy involves using effective personal tactics and strategy to facilitate an effective work environment, deal with coworkers and bosses, and to motivate people. However, his approach is not the usual "personal success at the expense of others" approach; instead, it also has the goal of getting people to work together (unite) effectively for common success. It provides strategies to motivate and redirect the activities of coworkers (even the "problem" ones), to get the team, department, or company working together effectively, and to replace internal competition between groups (tribes) with competition against other companies in the marketplace. To this end his book is also an effective field manual for leadership that allows anyone to analyze their job situation and develop effective plans and tactics to transform their career into a path of personal success and job satisfaction.In part I like this book because I have already used some of the same tactics enumerated by Duncan effectively in my own career and I know they work. However, this book has really made me take a look at my work situation and approach it in a whole new frame of mind. I've had a range of employment experiences, having worked for corporations, non-profits and for government bureaucracies. I'm always looking for effective strategies to deal with the people I work with and to manage the job situations I encounter. Duncan has organized a lot of very practical strategies and tactics into a sort of job combat manual, which I like, but he's gone beyond a mere laundry list of tactics to provide a clear vision of what goes wrong at work and how to fix it to the advantage of yourself and your entire team, department and company. I recommend this book to anyone looking for job success, but more importantly I want to make sure everyone I work with reads this. This is the kind of book you stick on the desks of your co-workers and your boss so that they will get the message too. I also ordered the companion CD from the website listed in the book and have been playing it in the car on the way to work in the morning. It's a great way to run over a few tactics so that I am prepared for whatever the day throws at me.

real information for a real world

Duncan has dropped the political correctness and gone straight for the real deal on corporate and interpersonal dynamics. He hits the nail on the head of human nature and shows you how to motivate your people and eliminate any divisiveness within your ranks. Having specialized in building and managing elite corporate technical teams for years, I found his observations and advice to be spot on. He makes the ideas and core concepts of "Uniting The Tribes" not only accessible but also digestable so that you have something meaningful to apply to your world straight away when you put the book down. It doesn't matter if you are in management or a single performing role, the information has value and if properly applied will yield results. It's all in the Pillars. Well done Christopher.