WITH A LONG TRAFFIC delay availing an opportunity yesterday to think about the evolution of Limerick's un-meeting series (Limerick OpenCoffee with Conn holding the mic), I listened to Mitch Joel wax eloquently about the starfish and the spider. Speaking in Montreal, Canada, he was talking about the way we network in Limerick, Ireland. I spent the first decade of my working life in a starfish organization, one with a purple water fountain and designated colours of ink for people with brass on their shoulders. Its organisational focus on structure and procedure caused me to crash out with anarchy coursing through my mind. The opposite is happening in Limerick OpenCoffee and the social dynamic there would intrigue most business consultants. Then there's the book.
The Starfish and the Spider tells stories about centralised, decentralised and hybrid organizations. The title refers to those life forms seen commonly crawling on the ground and how you can kill them. If you want to kill a spider, cut off its head. You cannot cut off the head of a starfish as it does not have one. If you cut off the leg of an starfish, it will grow another starfish. Nature suggests why decentralised organizations like Al-Qaeda have always been around and why terrorist groups with cells will always run a step ahead of institutionalised police forces and large government departments set up to defeat terrorism. Brafman and Beckstrom tell these stories well, offering examples of the most potent characteristics of decentralised organisations. The book featured in a Greenfields Report [4 minute MP3 file] on the Six Pixels of Separation podcast.
Limerick OpenCoffee would not have grown into a self-standing entity without respecting the need for flexibility, shared ideas through the power of electronic social network and ambiguity fostered by the un-meeting flavour of the fortnightly get-togethers. The internet provides the plumbing and free online groupings like Facebook, the Open mailing list, Ning's OpenCoffee aggregate and microblog chatter (Twitter and Jaiku have enabled a community spirit that lays bare some interesting operating principles. Some priniciples of Limerick OpenCoffee that Spider and Starfish illuminate:
1. It is an open system without central intelligence. OpenCoffee intelligence is a function of the people attending, not the organisers arranging.
2. OpenCoffee sessions easily mutate. That has happened several times with the Limerick group.
3. This essential decentralisation sneaks up on you, especially if you do not believe in it.
The authors point out five legs that OpenCoffee needs: circles, the catalyst, ideology, a pre-existing network, and a champion.
I've learned a lot about community, trust and openess by attending OpenCoffee sessions in Limerick and Cork this summer. If you haven't visited one of these sessions because of time or distance constraints, consider reading about The Starfish and the Spider and the pages of the book will suggest some of the ingredients you will personally observe when at an OpenCoffee session. If interested, you can check out Upcoming for the first OpenCoffee session of the late summer in Limerick. See See http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/243343/ for all the details.
Ori Brafman and Rod Breckstrom -- The Starfish and the Spider ISBN 978-1591841432
Previously: "From Skunkworks to Hothouse"
Photo of Conn O Muineachain learning about opera promotion from Nyle Wolfe over Limerick OpenCoffee. Photo snapped and sent using a Sony Ericsson K800i.
Bonus Link: Subscribe to the Limerick OpenCoffee calendar by RSS by adding this link: http://upcoming.yahoo.com/syndicate/v2/group/2963/912c4f7d29
