What do starfish have to do with the Future Force Integration Directorate?

Annie Gammell

FFID Public Affairs

What do starfish have to do with the Future Force Integration Directorate?

This is something you might wonder upon learning that a group of students in a Training and Doctrine Command class called “Starfish” recently visited the FFID and its subordinate unit, the Army Evaluation Task Force. Soldiers of the AETF demonstrated capabilities of some of the new-technology systems they are testing and answered questions from the visitors, as they often do.

However, the connection between the students and this visit lies in a book entitled “The Starfish and the Spider: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations,” written by Ori Brafman and Rod Beckstrom.

Brafman accompanied the group, which consisted of 11 students, mostly civilians assigned to various TRADOC organizations, and two of their class leaders – Steve Rotkoff, deputy director of the University of Foreign Military and Cultural Studies, Red Team University, at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., and Dean Nowowiejski from the Department of Joint, Interagency and Multinational Operations, Command and General Staff College, also at Fort Leavenworth.

Giving an overview of his book, author Brafman explained that a trait shared by a starfish and a spider is that they both have multiple appendages. If a spider loses a leg, it must survive with fewer legs, and the leg that was cut off will die. If its head is cut off, the spider will die. 

A starfish, on the other hand, can survive if any of its arms is cut off. It has no head, and it does not have a central brain. Its major organs are replicated in each of its arms. When separated from the whole, each arm can eventually grow into another starfish, which is an advantage of being decentralized, Brafman said. 

In the book, he discusses organizations that operate in a decentralized manner, like starfish, and gives examples of some that are currently functioning and thriving in business, institutions and governments.

 

 

According to Rotkoff, TRADOC Commander Gen. Martin E. Dempsey read Brafman’s book and liked the concept of decentralization. To find out how the Army could apply the principles mentioned in the book, he decided to train some individuals throughout the command on how to apply the principles and see what happens.

The first “Starfish” course began in Augusta, Ga., Feb. 1 and will continue for eight weeks, Rotkoff said. He explained that it consists of three phases – an academic phase consisting of reading, an application phase when students visit organizations that are already applying “Starfish” principles, and a third phase where students learn to build a circle of trust or a network. 

He said the FFID visit was part of the second phase, because FFID and the AETF are already embracing “Starfish” principles.

The stated purpose of the visit was to “establish an extended network across Army domains, which, in turn, allows Starfish-empowered leaders to create and exploit opportunity and distribute the power to act to the level of greatest understanding” by exposing students to a “variety of organizations that have embraced the Starfish approach to problem solving.”

AETF Soldiers conducted a cordon and search of a building on a range at White Sands Missile Range, N.M., using the Small, Unmanned Ground Vehicle while the Starfish group observed. They were also briefed on several other parts of the current capabilities package AETF Soldiers are testing, including the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, Class I, Block 0; the Non Line-of-Site Launch System; and Tactical and Urban Unattended Ground Sensors. When the cordon and search ended, Starfish students talked with Soldiers to find out how they are influencing the way the Army is being modernized.