Book: Tribal Knowledge

I found my reading of John Moore’s Tribal Knowledge extremely rewarding. There were so many good thoughts in the book that seem to apply directly to ministry applications (find some of those here). So many in fact, it’s almost hard to know where to begin.

The book is broken into three main sections: brand(ing), customer experiences, workplace. With 47 chapters in a book only a little over 200 pages you can see how each would be quick snippets of knowledge from the Starbucks play book.

What is interesting about the Tribal Knowledge described in the book is that they are the result of creating a certain kind of cultural ethos and less about selling a commodity. Even in the company mantra the hope is to change the way people drink and appreciate coffee. For Starbucks, then, profits are a by-product of developing and implementing this cultural ethos.

Because they are committed to developing a certain kind of cultural ethos everything is an intentional process for them. I was surprised to learn that this went as far as the color schemes in their stores, which represent different phases of the coffee bean development. (And silly me just thought it looked cool.)

It’s this kind of intentionality that has a lot to teach us who are in ministry. What if instead of haphazard piecemeal processes and projects we developed a heightened intentionality to our ministry? What if we were intentional about creating a certain kind of cultural ethos in our local churches that would permeate our communities and bring certain (positive) images to mind when someone thought of the church? What if we were intentional about doing what we do best - becoming the best at something? (A phrase that comes to mind, though I’m not sure of its source but its surely not original to me, is that when everything is important nothing is important.)

Whether one is a coffee addict or hates Starbucks - the corporate “machine” - this book will surely spark some creative thinking about your own processes, I know it did for me. For me this is what reading is so often about. It’s an opportunity to find diverse “conversation” partners to brainstorm, discuss best practices, learn new ideas, and so forth. So if you’re involved in ministry (or business) I think there is a lot that can be gleaned from Starbucks’ Tribal Knowledge.

Has anyone else read the book? What are your thoughts?