The Starfish and the Spider by Brafman and Beckstrom

The book talks interestingly about decentralized organizations and their strange power: they are the starfish. The Apache tribe was given as an example of dispersed independent groups which the Spanish found most difficult to fight. Interestingly one way the US found to control the Apache was to 'give' the groups cattle. They would then need to adopt some tops down leadership to divide up the cattle favorably, thereby turning somewhat into the starfish opposite, the spider. An interesting aside is that the depicted the promoters of starfish organizations, called catalysts, tend to be very unique individuals. One person was shown to be a cultivator of weak relationships. He met 'acquaintances' daily and wanted to help them by connecting them to others that he'd met.