Tribes

A recent post reminded me of Seth Godin's visit to LifeSpring earlier this summer. This was his second trip to LSH (after the first of which he blogged about our hospital's quality policy, to the delight of the then one-year old hospital).

His visit was energizing, inspiring, and thought-provoking. We spent the morning in the communities, speaking to customers served by our hospital. After lunch, he and Jacqueline addressed the corporate office, hospital branch managers, and doctors.

What struck me was not only the content of his talk to our staff, but perhaps more importantly, the power of how he got this content across. He set a tone of urgency, but coupled this with positive momentum (the kind that makes you impatient to even be sitting there instead of out working to grow the organization) -- rather than pessimistic undertones that one usually hears when dealing with the crucial issue of maternal mortality.

He democratized "marketing" as part of everyone's job at the hospital, stating: "Your mission is not just about healthy babies -- it's about many healthy babies... We have to hurry. We don't have a lot of time."

He talked about the community visit, saying: "And this is what we discovered... Women who are pregnant have friends who are pregnant. What would happen if they each tell five other people? That's when something interesting happens. Delivering more babies leads to delivering more babies."

He ended by putting our work in greater perspective: "And the bottom line is this: This is not just a hospital. It is a movement." And challenging the entire staff: "What can we do to make people talk about us? ... We're creating a movement that changes lives."

Later on in the evening, Seth gave a speech at the Indian School of Business, where he talked about the power of tribes, creating a movement, and inspiring change. Really made me reflect on being part of the "tribe" that's working to change the world, and grateful for who's on my corner.

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From Seth's blog this week:

Needs don't always lead to demand

One of the accepted holy grails of building an organization is that you should fill a need. Fill people's needs, they say, and the rest will take care of itself.

But... someone might know that they need to lose some weight, but what they demand is potato chips.

Someone might know that they need to be more concerned about the world, but what they demand is another fake reality show.

As my friend Tricia taught me, this is brought into sharp relief when doing social enterprise in the developing world. There are things that people vitally need... and yet providing it is no guarantee you'll find demand.

Please don't get confused by what the market needs. That's something you decided, not them.

If you want to help people lose weight, you need to sell them something they demand, like belonging or convenience, not lecture them about what they need.