I am currently reading one of those books I think every leader or leader-in-training should read: The Starfish and the Spider, The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations, by Ori Brafman and Rod A. Beckstrom. A truly contrarian approach to the typical centralized top-down organizational approach, this book challenges your thought paradigms using models such as: Alcoholics Anonymous, craiglist.com, Wikipedia, the Apache Indians, Napster and al Qaeda to name a few – each the epitome of “successful and thriving” models of decentralization. Leaders letting leaders lead by inspiring, visioning, motivating, cheering … and then getting out of the way. Consider 12 tools conveyed in a section of the book titled, “The Catalyst’s Tools,” and notice their powerful, logical, and gut connection to Jesus’ approach to “decentralized leadership through love, presence and empowerment” of His disciples:
1. Genuine Interest in Others
2. Loose Connections
3. Mapping (& Connecting to Others)
4. Desire to Help Others
5. Passion
6. Meet People Where They Are
7. Emotional Intelligence
8. Trust
9. Inspiration
10. Tolerance for Ambiguity
11. Hands-Off Approach
12. Receding (let go)
Take a look at the following About the Book description. I hope you take the time to read it, think it, let go of it, and live it!
Book Summary
IT’S A STARFISH WORLD AND MOST PEOPLE DON’T EVEN REALIZE IT
One thing that business, institutions, governments and key individuals will have to realize is spiders and starfish may look alike, but starfish have a miraculous quality to them. Cut off the leg of a spider, and you have a seven-legged creature on your hands; cut off its head and you have a dead spider. But cut off the arm of a starfish and it will grow a new one. Not only that, but the severed arm can grow an entirely new body. Starfish can achieve this feat because, unlike spiders, they are decentralized; every major organ is replicated across each arm.
But starfish don’t just exist in the animal kingdom. Starfish organizations are taking society and the business world by storm, and are changing the rules of strategy and competition. Like starfish in the sea, starfish organizations are organized on very different principles than we are used to seeing in traditional organizations. Spider organizations are centralized and have clear organs and structure. You know who is in charge. You see them coming.
Starfish organizations, on the other hand, are based on completely different principles. They tend to organize around a shared ideology or a simple platform for communication- around ideologies like al Qaeda or Alcoholics Anonymous. They arise rapidly around the simplest ideas or platforms. Ideas or platforms that can be easily duplicated. Once they arrive they can be massively disruptive and are here to stay, for good or bad. And the Internet can help them flourish.
So in today’s world starfish are starting to gain the upper hand.
How can Toyota leverage starfish principles to crush their spider-like rivals, GM and Ford? How did tiny Napster cripple the global music industry? Why is free, community based Wikipedia crushing Encyclopedia Britannica overnight? Why is tiny Craigslist crippling the global newspaper industry? Why is al Qaeda flourishing and even growing stronger? In today’s world to answer this it is essential to understand the potential strength of a starfish organization.
The Starfish and the Spider by Ori Brafman and Rod A. Beckstrom, explores the phenomenal and unstoppable new power of the starfish organizations and will change the way you look at the world.