Excerpts from a Starfish and Spider book review by a member of one of Bob King's Army Leader Training Classes who considers the book a "Must Read":

"The book uses examples that span the business world, primarily, but also social organizations, and political movements.  Terrorist organizations, such as Al Qaeda and the Animal Liberation Front are discussed for their decentralized characteristics. While few overtly military examples are given, it is easy to draw parallels with situations those in the military profession have encountered." 

"The authors discuss “hybrid” organizations which attempt to embrace the best of both centralized and decentralized leadership by finding a “decentralization sweet spot”.  For example, e-Bay is a largely decentralized community of buyers and sellers, and yet the secure transaction piece that e-Bay provides through PayPal is highly centralized, structured and controlled to safeguard users’ financial information.  Without secure transactions, e-Bay users would be less confident in the rest of the system.

This book has challenged the way I look at organizations, and provided insight into why some organizations thrive and others fail.  It lays bare some of the weaknesses of too much centralization and hierarchical layering, and yet does point out some of the weak points and fault lines in a purely decentralized system as well.  In the chapters covering hybrids, military officers will recognize similarities in the examples provided with their own services.  The stereotype of the overly rigid chain of command does not mesh with the amount of leeway commanders and subordinate leaders are given in accomplishing missions from a higher headquarters.

This book will also likely serve as a catalyst in sparking ideas among future IO planners on how best to influence decentralized organizations.  It also provides several clear examples of methods that have spectacularly failed and led to worse, unintended consequences."