david hieatt

The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations is a 2006 book by 

Ori Brafman.

(Just starting reading it now.)

 

Key thought

The spider and starfish analogy refers to the contrasting biological nature of the respective organisms, starfish having a decentralized neural structure permitting regeneration.

The Mantras

1, Genuine interest in others.

2, Numerous loose connections, rather than a small number of close connections.

3, Skill at social mapping.

4, Desire to help everyone they meet.

5, The ability to help people help themselves by listening and

understanding, rather than giving advice ("Meet people where they are").

6, Emotional Intelligence.

7, Trust in others and in the decentralized network.

8, Inspiration (to others).

9, Tolerance for ambiguity.

10, A hands-off approach. Catalysts do not interfere with, or try to control

the behavior of the contributing members of the decentralized

organization.

11, Ability to let go. After building up a decentralized organization, catalysts move on, rather than trying to take control.

The ten "rules" are:

1, Diseconomies of scale- Big companies have power.

2, Network effect - every additional person makes the organization stronger.

3, Power of chaos.

4, Knowledge at the edge - information about the organization is open to everybody.

5, Everyone wants to contribute - self-motivated employees.

6,Beware the hydra response.

7, Catalysts rule.

8, *Values* are the heart of any organization or network.

9, Measure, monitor, and manage.

10, Flatten or be flattened.