Issue No. 21 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting focuses on a new revolution you might have missed—what happens in movements without a hierarchy. According to this week’s book, “a lack of traditional leadership is giving rise to powerful groups that are turning industry and society upside down."
And just for fun, post this quotation on your staff bulletin board. Robert Byrne said, “There are two kinds of people, those who finish what they start and so on…”
Cut off a spider’s head and the poor guy is dead meat. Slice a leg off a starfish and the separated leg rejuvenates into a new starfish. There’s a new sea change afoot of decentralized organizations (starfish) that are giving the top-down centralized organizations (spiders) a run for their money.
For an entertaining, but highly informative and important look at why the Apaches, the Quakers, Alcoholics Anonymous, Skype, eMule, Wikipedia, craigslist and other “open source” movements have changed and are changing the world, be sure someone on your team reads this week’s book. Check out The Starfish and the Spider: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations, by Ori Brafman and Rod A. Beckstrom, and you’ll be dropping insights from their principles of decentralization into every conversation.
The nonprofit and ministry world is not unaccustomed to leaderless movements. Just check out the number of small group Bible studies most mornings at your local Starbucks or Denny’s. Yet your vision will explode with new ideas and opportunities once you understand why when MGM (a spider) won their Supreme Court decision against Napster, they really lost.
Your Weekly Staff Meeting Questions:
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1. What is it about Wikipedia and craigslist—free services—that make them so appealing to millions of people?
2. Are there any centralized programs or services that we could decentralize and give away in the starfish mode?
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Insights from the Management Buckets Workshop Experience
This was brilliant! The new COO of a New Orleans ministry was blessed by the serving spirit of his one-day-a-week volunteer accountant. This never-miss-a-week servant had a faithfulness record of 14 years. They treated him like staff—almost.
When the newly arrived COO noticed that his volunteer zealot didn’t have a regular desk assignment, he bought a new desk, chair and computer and blessed the socks off his appreciative volunteer. This unpaid staff member now has a regular, permanent place to call home—and guess what? He was so grateful, he now frequently comes in more than once a week!
In our Management Buckets Workshop Experience, we hassle you incessantly until you break down the idiotic hierarchy of paid staff versus unpaid staff. The Volunteer Bucket is one of 20 Critical Competencies Required for Leading and Managing Today’s Nonprofit Organization. Email me for the 2007 workshop dates.
Your Weekly Staff Meeting Questions:
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1. Here’s your assignment this week: Each of us will call a key volunteer and ask what our organization can do in the next seven days to create a better working environment for that person.
2. Think of your own volunteer role at your church or another organization. What did they do to bless your socks off?
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