I recently finished reading a book called The Starfish and the Spider by Ori Brafman and Rod Beckstrom. The book's premise is one that I have been interested in for a while (and have written about in the past) - the concept that decentralized, so-called "leaderless organizations" are perhaps preferable to highly centralized, hierarchical, command and control organizations in certain situations and industries. Brafman and Beckstrom use the analogy of a starfish and a spider to describe and explain the concepts of centralization and decentralization. "If you cut off a spider's head, it dies. If you cut off a starfish's leg, it grows a new one." Traditional top-down, command and control, highly centralized organizations are spiders, while the less traditional, decentralized organizations are the starfishes. Brafman and Beckstrom provide several examples of starfishes - the Apache Indian tribe, Wikipedia, YouTube, Alcoholics Anonymous, eBay, and craigslist, to name just a few. It's an interesting book, though to be honest, I thought that they could have elaborated further on some of their concepts. Regardless, it is a fairly quick read and worth the investment of time.
One of my favorite sections in the book describes the importance of catalysts in starfish organizations. They started the section explaining what a catalyst does using the beautiful analogy of the element iron. Take a container and fill it with nitrogen and hydrogen - nothing happens. Add the element iron to the mix and you get ammonia (through a complex chemical reaction known as the Haber process - I am confident that it is more complicated than I describe, but the analogy worked for me!). Iron, in this case, is acting as a catalyst. Note that the chemical formula for ammonia (NH3) does not contain iron - iron is an important part of the chemical reaction, but it does not constitute any portion of the final end-product, ammonia. Brafman and Beckstrom go on to tell the story of several "catalysts" (in this case, specific individuals) who played an important role in the formation and subsequent function of several starfish organizations throughout history.
As I thought about it more, iron is really a fascinating element. It is one of the most common elements in the Earth's crust (fourth most common, by some reports) and comprises the major portion of Earth's metallic core. Found in its natural state, iron is actually quite brittle. However, with a relatively straightforward metallurgical process, iron can be turned into one of the strongest substances, steel. Iron is absolutely essential for life on Earth - it is an important co-factor in photosynthesis, the process by which plants convert solar energy into chemical energy for growth. As part of hemoglobin, iron makes life possible for air-breathing animals, including humans (iron is an important co-factor in the chemical compound, hemoglobin, which carries oxygen through our blood stream). Iron makes our blood and the planet Mars red.
When we talk about leaders who show a lot of resolve, we say that these leaders have an "iron will." Margaret Thatcher was known as the "Iron Lady" when she was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. The ancient Roman emperor, Julius Caesar was said to "rule with an iron hand."
Iron is a symbol of strength. Iron is a symbol of life. Iron is a symbol of change. Leonardo da Vinci said, "Iron rusts from disuse; water loses its purity from stagnation ... even so does inaction sap the vigor of the mind." In other words, iron, while one of the strongest metals (as steel) is subject to weakening by exposure to moisture and air - iron rusts and eventually falls apart. Left to rust, iron loses its strength. Only through continued care and use does iron stay strong.
Iron is a fascinating element. We should all be like iron - in more ways than one.
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