The Starfish and the Spider

The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations

centralized organization

spider - has a head that you can destroy to kill the spider
like the Incas or Aztecs or a government
has a leader
specific place where decisions are made
is coercive as there is a leader who calls the shots

decentralized organization

starfish - can remove legs and starfish still functions
like Apaches, or AA, or open-source software, or terrorist cells
no leader, no hierarchy, no headquarters
is ‘open’ and flat, and power is distributed among all people

CEO	Catalyst
the boss	a peer
command and control	trust
rational	emotionally intelligent
powerful	inspirational
directive	collaborative
in the spotlight	behind the scenes
order	ambiguity
organizing	connecting

the accordion principle - moving back and forth between two states – in this case between centralized and decentralized

principles of decentralization

when attacked, a decentralized organization tends to become even more open and decentralized.
it’s easy to mistake starfish for spiders
an open system doesn’t have central intelligence; the intelligence is spread throughout the system
open systems can easily mutate
the decentralized organization sneaks up on you
as industries become decentralized, overall profits decrease.
put people into an open system and they’ll automatically want to contribute
when attacked, centralized organizations tend to become even more centralized

Rules for the New World

Diseconomies of scale from centralization
- huge, centralized companies quickly start being less efficient and less effective than smaller, more nimble and distributed ones
Network effects
The power of chaos for creativity
- order and structure can often hamper creativity
Knowledge is at the edge, not centered
- look to the fringes for who has the most cutting edge information
Everyone wants to contribute
Beware of the Hydra response
- based on the Greek myth, where attacking a decentralized organization like a multi-headed snake creates more proliferation of snake heads
Catalysts rule
The values are the organization
Measure, monitor, and manage
- just because something is decentralized doesn’t mean you can’t measure it; just choose what to measure carefully based on the decentralized structure
Flatten or be flattened
- decentralize through some hybrid approach or be taken over by someone else who is decentralized

Why I read this book

This was mentioned on the Software Engineering Daily podcast by Ruben Harris, and he spoke highly of the novel. Also, it was a top 10 business book in 2006. Can’t go wrong, right?

One key takeaway

Some organizations are flat or decentralized, and some are hierarchical or centralized, and by understanding the difference, we can drive positive outcomes by the way we structure our organizations.

Summary

The book jumps through a few historical examples of some centralized and decentralized organizations (the Apaches are decentralized and the Aztecs are centralized), as well as weighing in on the record label and music access scene of the early aughts (which feels a bit quaint, 15 years on).

How was the book

2006 was a long time ago. I think it might be closer to the moon landing than it is to today. Don’t look that up. Facebook had just rolled over for the first time, sickly gurgling on the floor. Napster was gone, and Justin Timberlake was a few years off from regurgitating Sean Parker’s name back into the cultural vulgate. Computers existed, and AOL may or may not have still been minting new CDs to give the world free internet. I’m not sure. This review is only haphazardly researched (it turns out finding an actual timeline of the past in tech is hard, amnesiatically compelled as we are for the instant gratification of the next IPO). But, we didn’t have Uber, or AirBnb, or WeWork, or any of the now ubiquitous “share everything” companies that have democratized (and then capitalized, because isn’t that always the way we inflate and then deflate the accordion) private property.

Things are now “flatter” than they’ve ever been – global access to labor markets never higher, fractional prices to rent experiences enabling personal consumption never before seen. They even have a toilet in South Korea that shoots water then hot air up your ass to clean then pamper. I’ve sat on it. Thing is, this book, despite being one of the top 10 business books of 2006, and having a review on the back by someone who was spoken of fondly in the book (Dave Martin, where are you now?!), I don’t know if it said anything new even in 2006. Malcolm Gladwell talked about “catalysts” in 2000 in The Tipping Point, giving a more robust hierarchy of mavens, connectors, and some third category that escapes me (So many of these business books are populated with this rare ubermensch of a character type; the selfless and hard-working apostle who endeavors to make the Jesus’s dreams a reality). Friedman covered the economic aspect in The World Is Flat. Much better books have been written on open source development, on Cortes and the Aztecs (the story in this novel is plain rice cakes compared to the actual events – I think Cortes conquered the 20 million strong Aztec empire with like 30 guys with ridiculous hats and some blunderbusses), hell, even on starfish and spiders.

This book is the worst sort of business book, part simplistic animal metaphor, part survey of pop sociology and pop psychology and scant history to weave some sort of narrative that justifies its premise. Straw men were invented by business books. And I’m party to it. I bought the damn thing, thinking, if nothing else, I would come away with some actionable insight into either capital B Business or at least an increased familiarity with marine biology, but not the case. If nothing else, the book was short. And if you are looking for the Malcolm Gladwell version of the impossibly low priced supermarket brand’s version of Coke, this is your echinodermatic book!

Any other reading

The Tipping Point Malcolm Gladwell, 2000.
Give and Take, Adam Grant, 2013.