A revelatory examination of how the wildfire-like spread of new forms of social interaction enabled by technology is changing the way humans form groups and exist within them, with profound long-term economic and social effects-for good and for ill.
With accelerating velocity, our age’s new technologies of social networking are evolving, and evolving us, into new groups doing new things in new ways, and old and new groups alike doing the old things better and more easily. You don’t have to have a MySpace page to know that the times they are a changin’. Hierarchical structures that exist to manage the work of groups are seeing their raisons d’être swiftly eroded by the rising technological tide. Business models are being destroyed, transformed, born at dizzying speeds, and the larger social impact is profound.
I’ll keep you posted.
Here’s a clip from the author, Clay Shirky where he quips…
Standing from today, looking to the future… you will make more accurate predictions… by asking…
Not what’s the business model but rather… do the people that like it take care of each other?
…that turns out to be the better predictor of longevity.
I am reading the corporate focused book through the lens of… what is relevant to the way we form our social movements and organizations?
The Premise:
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.
Principles of Decentralization:
- when attacked a decentralized organization tends to become even more open and decentralized
- it’ easy to mistake starfish for spiders
- an open system doesn’t have central intelligence; the intelligence is spread throughout the system
- open systems can easily mutate
- the decentralized organization sneaks up on you
- as industries become decentralized, overall profits decrease
Asking the right questions is key to identifying if an organization is a starfish or a spider.
The Right Questions:
- Is there a person in charge?
- Are there headquarters?
- If you thump it on the head, will it die?
- Is there a clear division of roles?
- If you take out a unit, is the organization harmed?
- Are knowledge and power concentrated or distributed?
- Is the organization flexible or rigid?
- Can you count the employees or participants?
- Are working groups funded by the organization or are they self-funding?
“Few people… have had much training in listening. Living in a competitive culture, most of us are most of the time chiefly concerned with getting our own view across, and we tend to find other peoples speeches a tedious interruption of our own ideas.” S.I. Hayakawa
The practice continues >>>With each and every person with whom you speak, bring your deepest and most respectful quality of listening.
In addition to continuing to practice your own deep listening, observe the quality of listening going on around you: in your team meetings, in conversations among colleagues, in coalition gatherings and public meetings.
What do you see?
And what, as an agent of transformational change, can you do to help deepen the quality of listening in these forums?
One of my dear loves, Tammy, recently shared this Margaret J. Wheatley article with me. It is one of the most inspiring and relevant articles on supporting and sustaining new leaders I have read. excerpt…
So the need for new leaders is urgent. We need new leadership in communities everywhere. We need leaders who know how to nourish and rely on the innate creativity, freedom, generosity, and caring of people. We need leaders who are life-affirming rather than life-destroying. Unless we quickly figure out how to nurture and support this new leadership, we can’t hope for peaceful change. We will, instead, be confronted by increasing anarchy and societal meltdowns.
Thus, new leadership becomes a central and pressing challenge of our time.
I believe that the old leadership paradigm has failed us and that our current systems will continue to unravel. This has changed what I do and who I choose to support. I no longer spend any time trying to fix or repair the old, or to improve old leadership methods. I spend all of my time now supporting those giving birth to the new, those pioneering with new approaches to organizing and leading. In communities all over the world, there are many brave pioneers experimenting with new approaches for resolving the most difficult societal problems. These new leaders have abandoned traditional practices of hierarchy, power, and bureaucracy. They believe in people’s innate creativity and caring. They know that most people can be awakened to be active in determining what goes on in their communities and organizations. They practice consistent innovation and courage-wherever they see a problem, they also see possibility. They figure out how to respond. If one response doesn’t work, they try another. They naturally think in terms of interconnectedness, following problems wherever they lead, addressing multiple causes rather than single symptoms. They think in terms of complex global systems and yet also understand this world as a global village.
“Everyone has been made for some particular work, and the desire for that work has been put in every heart… Let yourself be silently drawn by the stronger pull of what you really love.” Rumi
Often times as change agents we are met with resistance when we introduce concepts like “purpose”, that may not seem directly related to the objective at hand (ex. strategic planning). It is our challenge to articulate the benefits of investing up front in the discovery of shared purpose, the bond that channels the teams collective energy. The dividends of these investments become clear when you hit the eventual difficulties of organizational life and can draw upon this shared story to help re-orient and continue walking in unison, rather than breaking down and fragmenting. In other words, going slow at first so you can go fast later.
All human systems derive meaning, direction & power from their purpose. Purpose is the seed crystal or central tone around which energy organizes. Purpose is a living field of energy from which you can draw.
Our work as agents of change is not only to stay grounded in our own purpose and power, but to assist others in doing so as well.
As individuals, we seek to access and deepen our connection to our purpose.
In working with teams and organizations, it is dedication to our shared purpose that helps individuals overcome egotism and build institutional power.
In working with coalitions, networks and movements, it is again shared purpose that helps leaders transcend organizational egos to build collective power.
Harriet Tubman invites us to “always remember.”
Remember.
Remember why you’re here.
Remember what you stand for.
Remember what you live for.
Six-party talks on North Korea’s nuclear program resume at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing. The talks involve North and South Korea, host China, the United States, Japan and Russia.
