The Working Network

Things worthwhile about The Starfish and The Spider

• The first 27 pages.
• The discussion of the Catalyst -- especially in contrast to the CEO.
• The notion of attacking decentralization by centralizing them (if you really must act offensively)
• The (imho more enlightened notion) of attacking decentralization by decentralizing yourself -- gosh, what a thought...
• A reasonable chunk of the Hybrid Companies and the Sweet Spot sections "...enough decentralization for creativity, but sufficient structure and controls to ensure consistency." (Easier said than done.)
• Honorable mention to "Diseconomies of scale": "... as counterintuitive as it sounds, it can be better to be small." (I've heard my manager say this a thousand times. He's right. And just because you're in Microsoft doesn't mean you can't act small. In fact you can act, be, and benefit from small even in the belly of the beast. But, it takes a fairly enlightened hierarchy to support it.)
• And to close, "The Values Are the Organization" (If you have to be told what your corporate values are, then they're not.)

The Starfish and the Spider: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations by Ori Brafman, Rod Beckstrom Read more about this title...