The Starfish and the Spider: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations

By Ori Brafman, Rod A. Beckstrom

Understanding the amazing force that links some of todays most successful companies. If you cut off a spiders leg, its crippled; if you cut off its head, it dies. But if you cut off a starfishs leg it grows a new one, and the old leg can grow into an entirely new starfish.

Whats the hidden power behind the success of Wikipedia, craigslist, and Skype? What do eBay and General Electric have in common with the abolitionist and womens rights movements? What fundamental choice put General Motors and Toyota on vastly different paths? How could winning a Supreme Court case be the biggest mistake MGM could have made?

After five years of ground-breaking research, Ori Brafman and Rod Beckstrom share some unexpected answers, gripping stories, and a tapestry of unlikely connections. “The Starfish and the Spider” argues that organizations fall into two categories: traditional spiders, which have a rigid hierarchy and top-down leadership, and revolutionary starfish, which rely on the power of peer relationships.