Tame the Primitive Brain: 28 Ways in 28 Days to Manage the Most Impulsive Behaviors at Work

Day 15

We Are Tribal

All Together Now . . .

Ora no Azu nwa.

—Igbo proverb

Today you’ll tame:

• That lot—over there! Them!

Some probably find the Walmart cheer—which Sam Walton, the company founder, wrote—cultish and freaky. Others probably find it embarrassing. Yet many may find it motivating. However you feel about it, if you want to join the tribe at Walmart, or get inside the head of a “Walmartian,” then you had better:

Give me a W! Give me an A! Give me an L!

Give me a squiggly!

Give me an M! Give me an A! Give me an R! Give me a T!

What’s that spell?

Walmart!

Whose Walmart is it?

It’s my Walmart!

Who’s number one?

The customer! Always!

Tribe: Call it a clan, a gang, a network, a family, or a company; whatever you call it, whoever you are, tribes are everywhere. In groups, companies, departments, teams, markets, professional disciplines—anywhere people with a common purpose or common experience gather—tribal behaviors will certainly be on display.

And wherever there is a tribe, there will be those excluded from it, bound up with all the ill feeling and impulsive behavior that results from that. You may be working in a team or a group or a company that doesn’t “get” you; and you don’t “get” them. Perhaps this is evident from the in-jokes told, shorthand spoken, and acronyms used, mutual understanding of certain business practices, and so on; some or all of which cause you on a very basic level to feel uncomfortable, intimidated, annoyed, given the cold shoulder, or put ...