Creepy Crawlers vs Starfish
Personally, I don't ever remember seeing this happen, but there's this general belief that while young girls are playing with dolls, little boys are outside ripping the legs off frogs and toads. It's sad because we all know what happens to the froggies and bugs, they either die instantly or are crippled, causing a slow and sad demise. What I have seen though is a starfish getting one of it's triangular limbs lopped off...in Biology class actually. This is not sad. This is fascinating because the starfish regenerates itself. It doesn't rely on some centralized organ, supported by multiple limbs and systems, to survive like frogs and bugs do. Why should you all care about the difference between what happens to a frog and bug versus a starfish when you cut off an appendage? Because it is the perfect analogy for the way in which the business world is changing. This is not an inBubbleWrap analogy, it is one generated by Ori Brafman and Rod Beckstrom, who have wrote a book that a lot of very smart people are saying will have transformational power over the business world not seen since The Tipping Point. Their book is called The Starfish and the Spider: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations.
Most organization rely on a hierarchical chain-of-command structure. These companies are "spiders." On the other hand you have businesses like Wikipedia and Craigslist that don't rely on any central command or top-down strategy, yet continue to thrive without formal leadership. These are "starfish" organizations that are generally made up of smaller units capable of growing independently of each other. Craigslist Boseman Montana might flop, but Craigslist Milwaukee might grow beyond expectation. It's a decentralized organization that doesn't rely on some board of directors sitting in New York to control what happens on a daily basis.
What I find extremely fascinating about this book is the range in examples of starfish organizations. In one section the authors discuss the overwhelming success of Alcoholics Anonymous and how it has reached millions with only a shared ideology and no leader. In another section they discuss why Al Qaeda is ultimately so hard to defeat - because its cells function independently. It almost doesn't matter if you catch or kill on of the "most wanted" because there are cells all over the world preparing and plotting. This isn't a new idea either. The Apaches used the same decentralized structure to fend of the Spanish for over 200 years.
Compare the aforementioned examples to traditional business and organizations. What happens if a Ford Plant is no longer profitable? It closes and the company loses. One of their limbs is gone forever with no chance to grow. What happens if an enemy army is defeated? Just that, it is defeated, the war over. But if these companies transform themselves from a spider to a starfish...wait...let's restart that sentence. Companies and organizations have two options: 1) Become more like the starfish, or 2) Understand exactly how to compete against a starfish. The Starfish and the Spider tells us how to do both.
You might be thinking, "Yeah, easier said than done." To which the authors would reply, "Decentralization isn't easy for people who are used to the classic chain-of-command organization, but it can be (I say is) a very dangerous trend to ignore." So no, it is not easy. But GE is following suit, as is IBM, Sun and Toyota. And we haven't even talked about eBay or Napster. If your organization ignores the starfish model completely, well, I don't know what to tell you other than, "I hope you don't mind waiting in line in the unemployment line."
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