A tribe is a group of people connected to one another, connected to a leader, and connected to an idea. For millions of years, human beings have been part of one tribe or another. A group needs only two things to be a tribe: a shared interest and a way to communicate.’ Seth Godin
A golden ticket from my childhood
A favourite movie from my childhood was Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, based on Roald Dahl's novel Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. There have been three movie adaptations of the book, but the basic story has stayed the same: five lucky children find a golden ticket that lets them tour Willy Wonka's factory.
My favourite version is the one with the wild-eyed Gene Wilder as Wonka. I love the scene where he reappears after years as a recluse. The crowd gasps as he makes his way towards them with a cane, then, ever the showman, he tumbles forward into a somersault to their delight.
I have probably seen Augustus Gloop sucked up the pipe too many times to remember, and watched Veruca Salt throw too many tantrums to get everything she wants, until the machine judges her a 'bad egg' and she disappears down the garbage chute. As a child, the lesson was clear: don't become like these four. Augustus represented gluttony, Violet was self-centred and rude, Veruca personified greed, and Mike… well, not only was he spoilt, but all he did was watch television all day!
The secret on the golden wrapper
Anyway, I'll get to the point. In the 2023 movie Wonka, the young Willy opens the last chocolate bar his mother left him. Inside, the golden wrapper reveals the words:
'The secret is, it's not the chocolate that matters, it's the people you share it with.'
He then shares the chocolate piece by piece, dividing it among the many friends he has made along the way.
I just love this quote. It's a beautiful metaphor we can apply to so many situations in life, and especially to our working lives.
Why EAs need their tribe
Being an Executive Assistant in a school is one of the most rewarding roles I know. It can also be one of the loneliest. Often there is only one of us in our office, or one for each campus, sitting at the centre of everything yet with no one quite like us down the corridor to share the load.
That's why I started EAs in Education. It has always been more than a professional learning program. We are a tribe: a community of EAs and PAs who understand the unique role we play in our schools, who cheer each other on and share what we know, and who turn up for one another year after year.
In his book Tribes, Seth Godin describes a tribe as a group of people connected to one another, to a leader and to an idea. He says a group needs only two things to be a tribe: 'a shared interest and a way to communicate.' For us, that shared interest is the work we love in our schools, and our webinars, Master Classes and members community give us the way to connect.
The webinars, the resources and the learning all matter. But just like Wonka's golden wrapper says, what truly makes the difference is the people we share it with. When a member shares a template that saves someone hours, talks through a tricky situation, or simply says 'me too', that is the chocolate being passed around the room.
