Trying to Cut the Head off a Starfish:

Eric Wilson - 2013

We can learn a lot from a starfish (or at least the book “The Starfish and the Spider: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations” by Ori Brafman & Rod A. Beckstorm).

The title of the book creates a wonderful analogy for social movements and organizations – almost like an Aesop’s Fable (only darker).  If you were to cut the head off a spider, it dies; but if you cut off a starfish’s leg, it simple grows a new one.  Even more remarkably, the leg you cut off has the potential to grow into an entirely new starfish.

 Traditionally, most organizations – and sadly many social movements – become top-down organizations like the spider.  Conversely, what happens when there is no one in charge?  What happens when there is no hierarchy?  You would think there would be disorder or even chaos, but – in many arenas – a lack of traditional leadership is giving rise to powerful groups that are turning society upside down.

 This is the starfish model – a decentralized, almost “leaderless” organization.  Their success and basic premise is that more-autonomous groups have a better chance at survival than do those which have a traditional top-heavy hierarchy.  In the starfish model social movement, there are small units which can organize and grow independently of any central direction.  This makes it difficult for opponents to defeat them or exert control over them.  They each have mechanisms and advocates who activate the smaller groups.  Rather than a traditional hierarchy, they are formed around a circular philosophy of coordination.  They each depend on a collective identity and common objective or ideology as a basis for remaining together
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 The starfish analogy and the examples in the book may be drawn for any social movement – partly as an example to aspire to and partly as a cautionary tale about how a decentralized organization can turn away from the qualities that made it a success – as in the case of the Apache Indians.