Reading about Starfish and Spiders...

At the suggestion of my friend and mentor Neil Cole, I've been reading The Starfish and the Spider: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations. It's been good reading. Eye-opening stories and good principles for us in thequest community. I highly encourage it.

Here is the Book Jacket Summary
If you cut off a spider’s head, it dies; if you cut off a starfish’s leg it grows a new one, and that leg can grow into an entirely new starfish. Traditional top-down organizations are like spiders, but now starfish organizations are changing the face of business and the world.

What’s the hidden power behind the success of Wikipedia, craigslist, and Skype? What do eBay and General Electric have in common with the abolitionist and women’s rights movements? What fundamental choice put General Motors and Toyota on vastly different paths? After five years of ground-breaking research Ori Brafman and Rod Beckstrom have discovered some unexpected answers, gripping stories, and a tapestry of unlikely connections. The Starfish and the Spider argues that organizations fall into two categories: traditional “spiders,” which have a rigid hierarchy and top-down leadership, and revolutionary “starfish,” which rely on the power of peer relationships.

The Starfish and the Spider explores what happens when starfish take on spiders (such as the music industry vs. Napster, Kazaa, and the P2P services that followed). It reveals how established companies and institutions, from IBM to Intuit to the US government, are also learning how to incorporate starfish principles to achieve success. And it will teach you: • How the Apaches evaded the powerful Spanish army for 200 years • The power of a simple circle • The importance of catalysts who have an uncanny ability to bring people together. • How the Internet has become a breeding ground for leaderless organizations • How Alcoholics Anonymous has reached TK million members with only a shared ideology and without a leader
The Starfish and the Spider is the rare book that will change how you understand the world around you. You’ll never see things the same way again.

Buy the book HERE

The Author's wiki and community about the book:
http://www.starfishandspider.com/index.php?title=Main_Page


A couple recent articles about Starfish & Spider in the news:

Amazon.com Selects Starfish and Spider as Top-Ten Business Book for 2006

USA Today: Article on Starfish Concepts'

Follow the Leader, or Think Like a Starfish?
Monday, January 1, 2007; Page A11 Washington Post

"The Starfish and the Spider: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations" describes the oft-overlooked reason Skype, Craigslist and al-Qaeda have prospered under assault from the seemingly more powerful.

The book's authors, high-tech entrepreneurs Rod A. Beckstrom and Ori Brafman, say these groups' decentralized structure makes them more nimble, whether in the marketplace or on the battlefield. User-driven, they distribute decision making among all members, who do not need word from headquarters to function. If a portion of the organization is defeated, the whole survives and recovers, as a starfish regrows an arm if it is severed.... The rest of Follow the Leader, or Think Like a Starfish? HERE




Ten Questions to find out if you have a Starfish Organization: (pg 46-53)

1) Is there a person in charge?

2) Are there headquarters?

3) If you thump it on the head, will it die?

4) Is there a clear division of roles?

5) If you take out a unit, is the organization harmed?

6) Are knowledge and power concentrated or distributed?

7) Is the organization rigid or flexible?

8) Can you count the employees or participants?

9) Are working groups funding by the organization, or are they self-funded?

10) Do working groups communicate directly or through intermediaries?



Eight Principles of Decentralization sprinkled through Starfish & the Spider:

1) When attacked, a decentralized organization tends to become even more open and decentralized. (p 21)

2) It’s easy to mistake starfish for spiders. (p 36)

3) An open system doesn’t have central intelligence; the intelligence is spread throughout the system. (p 39)

4) Open systems easily mutate. (p 40)

5) The decentralized organization sneaks up on you. (p 41)

6) As industries become decentralized, overall profits decrease. (p 45)

7) Put people into an open system and they’ll automatically want to contribute. (p 74)

8) When attacked, a centralized organization tends to become even more centralized. (p 139)