‘Chaos’ at WikiLeaks Follows Assange Arrest via Wired.com: this is an interesting article which illustrates what happens when the balance between “Starfish” and “Spider” in a decentralized, swarmish organization becomes disrupted.
Every organization – no matter how swarmish – must have a certain level of structure in order to function on an extended basis. To use the “Starfish and the Spider” analogy, this is the “spider” part. The problem is getting the balance between decentralization and structure correct.
In the WikiLeaks example–and this is a developing issue–it appears that Assange’s pride as the “center, heart, soul” of WikiLeaks has now become rather a liability to the organization.
The key to destroying a swarm, as studies have shown, is not to eliminate members, but rather to eliminate hubs. One study of Al Qaeda suggested that in order to disrupt it, one had to eliminate 80% of the hubs while preventing the remaining members from “rehubbing.” This was assumed to be very difficult – but it appears that the US Government got pretty good at disrupting (ahem!) Al Qaeda hubs.
Now it appears that the “hub” at WikiLeaks has been taken out of play. Swarms do not just exist as vision. They also require community – and that requires connecting people, hubs. Without the ability to connect that was held by Assange alone, the result is – in the words of this article – “chaos.” One source for the article feels the organization will begin to fall apart.
If you have an org that is 100% “swarm” with a small element of connecting backbone – and then you suddenly remove the backbone – the result will undoubtedly be very chaotic indeed. Those who would like to be more swarmish must recognize that every swarm needs a certain amount of backbone – and that this backbone, like the swarm, needs to have a certain amount of decentralization to it.
To put it bluntly – if you take out the key leader – how quickly can the elements within the swarm “re-hub”?
Are you too proud to build in replaceability?
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