From NPR via EchoDitto.
The Starfish and the Spider ‘is really a guidebook for people, to help organize decentralized movements and organizations of any type’ … says Rod Beckstrom, co-author of the management book The Starfish and the Spider.
“The book’s premise is drawn from biology, Beckstrom says. He points to the fact that a spider can survive without an arm, but it would die without its head. ‘That’s how we’ve looked at organizations in the West for the last several hundred years,’ Beckstrom says, ‘top-down, spider-like — there’s a CEO, or there’s someone in control.’
“‘But the world is seeing a profusion of new organizations that are a lot more like a starfish.’ The starfish model, he says, is decentralized. And if one of a starfish’s arms is cut off, it can be regenerated.
Excerpts from Why The Tea Party Is Like A Starfish, Not A Spider : NPR.