This is about The Starfish and the Spider: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations (Ori Brafman),

I listened to the audiobook version because I needed it in a hurry to apply to my role as Project Coordinator - not convinced about audiobooks! but at least I could mindmap the key points while I listened.

It uses good examples of well known organisations to illustrate the theory that Leaderless organisations are like Starfish (chop off a leg and not only does a new leg grow but the lost leg often generates a new starfish). This Starfish trait is attributed to it not having a central nervous system controlled from its head (unlike a spider, where a legless spider is crippled and a headless spider is dead!).

So the authors contrast peer to peer music download sites with the big record labels and demonstrate how a well know self-help organisation is leaderless but very successful. It is interesting to understand why some civilisations resisted invasion and change, whereas others were easily conquered. It also shows how the spider organisations (think large household names with very traditional orgcharts) can be easily undermined by a very small starfish organisation with no leader and no HQ.

More importantly it is easy to understand the theory and then connect it to existing organisations you know or are involved in.

If you are interested in organisations, leadership and modern business changes this is a great book, not too long and not as dry as many management theory books.