The Starfish and the Spider

Brafman, Ori and Rod A Beckstrom. 2006. The Starfish and the Spider: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations. New York, NY. Penguin Group.

Ori Brafman holds a BA in peace and conflict studies from the University of California at Berkeley and an MBA from Stanford Business School.  He is an entrepreneur who has founded a wireless start-up, a health-food advocacy group and a group of CEOs working on public benefit projects.  Rod A Beckstrom holds a BA and an MBA from Stanford and was a Fulbright Scholar.  He is also an entrepreneur and founded CATS Software, Inc., which he took public.  He has also helped start and build other high-tech firms. (book jacket) 

The thesis of this book is that organizations that are decentralized and organic in nature have a competitive advantage over those that are centralized with top-down leadership because the “harder you fight a decentralized opponent, the stronger it gets” (26).

Brafman and Beckstrom take nine chapters to develop and defend their thesis.  Central to the book is their description of the fundamental nature of the starfish and the spider.  The starfish  is a decentralized “network of cells” (35) which means that when an arm is cut off a new one grows in its place.  In fact, in some species of starfish the arm that is cut off actually becomes a new starfish.  The spider, on the other hand, represents a centralized organism with a body and a head.  If the head is cut off, the spider dies.  Each chapter deals with a different aspect of decentralized organizations including the hidden power of catalytic leadership and hybrid organizations.  The authors conclude the book with 10 Rules of operating in this new and exciting era of decentralization.

I liked this book very much and believe the authors did a very good job of developing and defending their thesis.  I am drawn to the concept of decentralization as I believe it is a key to seeing the church spread throughout the world, especially in unreached areas.  In particular, I appreciated the authors’ discussion of catalytic leadership and hybrid organizations.

A key for a catalytic leader is “letting go and trusting the community” (111).  A catalytic leader knows that what the ancient Chinese philosopher Lao-tzu said is true: “A leader is best when people barely know that he exists; not so good when people obey and acclaim him; worst when they despise him” (115).  In other words, a catalytic leader understands that he or she leads by example and that true leadership happens when followers are given ownership in the outcome.  I am currently in the process of re-writing the Mission Policy for our ministry.  I will be setting up a secure, online discussion board for our missionaries.  My goal is to let the missionaries write the new policy.  They will be given the old policy in segments and asked for input in what works and what doesn’t, thereby giving them ownership in the process.

After reading this book, I am now seeking to develop our mission department into a hybrid organization.  In the past we have been top-down and centralized.  This has resulted in too many rules which has restricted the creative talents of our missionaries.  I am now seeking to instill the vision of each missionary team being an autonomous entity that is responsible for reaching the unreached people group to which God has sent them.  They are the ones who will make it happen, not our central office.  My role is to act as a catalyst by releasing each team to pursue God’s plan to reach their specific people group thereby decentralizing our efforts.  It is my belief that this will result in the decentralized DNA that is necessary to reach entire people groups.

Comments

[john]

Fascinating notion. I must raise the question of the biblical template of leadership - Scripture clearly presents the church with a head, Jesus. I understand that all of our work in the church is under that leadership and expressing it should become "catalytic" and decentralized. I have little patience with the cults of personality.

In your estimation how does the starfish principle apply to the church, especially with a clear head in Christ?

Blessings!

John

[Eric]

John,

Thanks for the comments. I would suggest that the church originally was and should be a hybrid type organization, with Christ as the head and each unit under his leadership. At least that is the way I took it as I read the book and thought through my writing.

Blessings,

Eric