Share <Embed>

Buy New

$33.83

FREE Shipping.

Only 1 left in stock - order soon.

Sold by Blackinn and Fulfilled by Amazon. Gift-wrap available.

Turn on 1-Click ordering for this browser

Buy Used

$10.90

FREE Shipping on orders over $25.

Used: Very Good | Details

Sold by BeeMedia

Fulfilled by Amazon

Turn on 1-Click ordering for this browser

Other Sellers on Amazon

Add to Cart

$24.00
+ $3.99 shipping

Sold by: MayeBookStore

Add to Cart

$26.01
+ $3.99 shipping

Sold by: EKER Books

Add to Cart

$33.91
& FREE Shipping on eligible orders. Details

Sold by: BEST STORE BOOKS

Have one to sell? Sell on Amazon

Flip to back Flip to front

Listen Playing... Paused You're listening to a sample of the Audible audio edition.
Learn more

See this image

The Starfish and the Spider: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations Hardcover – October 5, 2006

by Ori Brafman (Author), Rod A. Beckstrom (Author)

254 customer reviews

See all 15 formats and editions Hide other formats and editions

Price

New from

Used from

Kindle

"Please retry"

$14.99

—

Hardcover

"Please retry"

$33.83

$24.00

$1.85

Paperback

"Please retry"

$14.40

$9.75

$2.29

Audible, Unabridged

"Please retry"

$0.00

Free with your Audible trial

Audio CD, Audiobook, CD, Unabridged

"Please retry"

$29.82

$21.51

$18.00

Frequently bought together

Total price: $52.53

These items are shipped from and sold by different sellers. Show details

Buy the selected items together

This item:The Starfish and the Spider: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations by Ori Brafman Hardcover $33.83
Only 1 left in stock - order soon.
Sold by Blackinn and ships from Amazon Fulfillment.
FREE Shipping. Details
Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World by General Stanley McChrystal Hardcover $18.70
In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
FREE Shipping on orders over $25. Details

Customers who bought this item also bought

Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1

This shopping feature will continue to load items. In order to navigate out of this carousel please use your heading shortcut key to navigate to the next or previous heading.

Martin Dempsey

21

Hardcover
$16.17
General Stanley…

492

Hardcover
$18.70
Andreas M.…

258

Paperback
$10.80
Ori Brafman

57

Hardcover
$15.64
Christina Dempsey

10

Hardcover
$23.83
Paul Vigna

11

in Computer Cryptography
Hardcover
$17.70

Customers who viewed this item also viewed

Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1

This shopping feature will continue to load items. In order to navigate out of this carousel please use your heading shortcut key to navigate to the next or previous heading.

Bruce Bueno de…

209

Paperback
$14.29
Peter Thiel

1,870

in Economic Policy & Development
Hardcover
$17.44
Martin Dempsey

21

Hardcover
$16.17
Andreas M.…

258

Paperback
$10.80
Ray Kurzweil

456

Paperback
$16.43
Ori Brafman

271

Paperback
$12.00

Special offers and product promotions

Editorial Reviews

New! Fast shipping!

Hardcover: 240 pages
Publisher: Portfolio Hardcover (October 5, 2006)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1591841437
ISBN-13: 978-1591841432
Product Dimensions: 6.2 x 0.9 x 9.3 inches
Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 254 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #500,393 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1164 in Books > Business & Money > Business Culture > Workplace Culture
- #2147 in Books > Business & Money > Skills > Communications
- #6708 in Books > Business & Money > Processes & Infrastructure

Would you like to tell us about a lower price?
If you are a seller for this product, would you like to suggest updates through seller support?

NO_CONTENT_IN_FEATURE

Start reading The Starfish and the Spider on your Kindle in under a minute.

Don't have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here, or download a FREE Kindle Reading App.

Customer Reviews

Write a customer review

See all 254 customer reviews

Rated by customers interested in

What's this?

Business & Economics Books

4.3 out of 5 stars

Sports Books

4.3 out of 5 stars

Religion & Spirituality Books

4.4 out of 5 stars

Is this feature helpful?

Thank you for your feedback.

Read reviews that mention

Top customer reviews

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Angela S

You don't follow a catalyst because you have to....

August 1, 2017

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

The Starfish and the Spider: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations compares centralized and decentralized organizations. A centralized organization is much like a spider; cut off its head and the spider dies. A decentralized organization, on the other hand, is like a starfish. When an arm of the starfish is cut off, the starfish generates an entirely new body.

Published in 2006, Brafman and Beckstrom explore and explain the increase in the number of decentralized organizations. Their discussions of organizations such as Alcoholics Anonymous, Napster, and Al-Qaeda make the concepts of decentralized organizations not only pertinent to today’s economy and culture, but also understandable. The traditional top-down hierarchy of centralized organizations creates levels of bureaucracy that make change within an organization slow-going. By the time the change is implemented, it is out of date and in need of modification. These spider organizations have a command and control which dictates the movement of the organization; those employed must comply or risk being out of a job. A decentralized organization creates an environment where there is no head; all are equal and free to contribute to the changes and sustainment within an organization, acting as a form of distributed leadership. In this starfish organization, the members of the group must convince all other members to move and change; the collective make changes happen. Norms, not rules, control a starfish organization.

The internet has changed how we view the world, the next generation of professionals and work-force employees will have grown up with access to knowledge, and the ability to contribute to that knowledge freely. Employees are looking for the catalyst for change to get the starfish moving, and then having that catalyst get out of the way so the employees can make the organization successful. This book is a key addition to professional reading lists for leaders and managers at all levels, educators and students, as well as employees within any organization.

Comment 3 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?

Yes

John Seale

Great read, new ideas.....a must-read for Christians!

January 3, 2013

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

This book was very inspiring – I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. The concepts really resonated with me and reassured me as I felt like they made intuitive sense. Perhaps it’s my postmodern upbringing, but I have a tendency to shy away from very centralized hierarchical structures. Hearing about the reality of the starfish organization refreshed me that there is another, potentially better, way. It also helped me to understand a number of things, from the reality of the “war on terror” to why it’s so tempting for me to want to contribute on Wikipedia or Yelp. After reading this book, many things seem to make more sense to me now, and I am encouraged to try to apply some of these principles. I’m encouraged to try to consider how I can be more like a catalyst or a champion myself.
It’s also hard not to see the parallels between these concepts of decentralization and the Christian faith. Jesus was the first decentralizer of the faith, giving the task of the furtherance of God’s mission to his disciples. As one commentator has said, at the end of the Gospels the disciples say, “Okay Jesus, let’s go, we’ve got your back!” and Jesus responds by saying, “Nope, you go, and I’ve got your back!” It was a fundamental shift that allowed Christianity to grow exponentially, especially as the Apostles began to relinquish control. The same is true today – the Kingdom can grow exponentially to the extent that control over it can be given over to the King. As we grab control and try to centralize it along our means, we limit it. In reality, God has given to every man the essential tools of the faith – the Scriptures containing everything necessary for faith, and the Holy Spirit to understand and apply them. As we release those things, the Kingdom grows.

Comment 4 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?

Yes

Daniel Im

Being a Futuristic Organizational Leader

October 18, 2012

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

Ori Brafman and Rod Beckstrom are both authors, entrepreneurs, and MBA graduates from Stanford. Brafman is not only interested in thinking and writing about leadership and organizational dynamics, but he also is a practitioner who has put many of his principles into practice. For Beckstrom, his areas of specialty are cybersecurity, global issues, and organizational strategy and leadership. Furthermore, he has diverse leadership experience that ranges from being a CEO to working for the US Homeland Security.

The Starfish and the Spider is a compelling book that uses the symbolism of a starfish and a spider to describe the importance of decentralization in life, culture, and economics.

The thesis is that every organization needs to move towards decentralization, in some manner or form, if they are to not only exist, but also thrive in the future - in other words, the rules have changed.

Spanning across the book, the authors outline eight principles of decentralization, which they use to explain their thesis:

1. "When attacked, a decentralized organization tends to become even more open and decentralized" (Location 290)
2. "It's easy to mistake starfish for spiders" (Location 415)
3. "The intelligence is spread throughout the system" (Location 467)
4. "Open systems can easily mutate" (Location 474)
5. "Because the decentralized organization mutates so quickly, it can also grow incredibly quickly" (Location 489)
6. "As industries become decentralized, overall profits decrease" (Location 534)
7. "Put people into an open system and they'll automatically want to contribute" (Location 825)
8. "When attacked, centralized organizations tend to become even more centralized" (Location 1524).

Upon explaining these principles, the authors end by addressing how an organization can embrace both decentralization and centralization along a continuum, along with ten projections for how organizations need to operate in order to thrive in the future.

The genius of this book is that the authors recognize who their primary audience is - spider organizations. Although they favor decentralization, they make sure not to alienate their primarily spider audience by proposing the concept of a decentralized sweet spot. So my primary question is, how do I help my centralized organization, Beulah, find its decentralized sweet spot? "The decentralized sweet spot is the point along the centralized-decentralized continuum that yields the best competitive position" (Location 2094).

This was an easy and engaging read, illustrating a very important concept to thrive as an organization into the future. Thus, I give this book a 5 out of 5.

Comment 3 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?

Yes