I’ve just been reading ‘The Starfish and the Spider: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations’, which is a ‘business’ book that contains some interesting lessons for the City of Sanctuary movement. The basic argument is that decentralised, non-hierarchical and non-bureaucratic organisations (‘starfish’) can have significant advantages over traditional institutional forms, in which power and resources are concentrated at the centre of the organisation (‘spiders’).

City of Sanctuary immediately struck me as a clear example of a ‘starfish’ model, which includes the following features:

It is decentralised – each local City of Sanctuary group is independent and free to make its own decisions, plan its own activities, and have control over its own resources. Groups are mutually accountable, so that key decisions affecting the whole movement are made by local group representatives at national network meetings, rather than a separate managing body.

It is based on a shared vision – City of Sanctuary groups share a vision of building and celebrating a culture of hospitality for people seeking sanctuary. It is this shared vision and ethos (summed up in our core principles) that gives the movement its identity, rather than a legal or administrative structure.

It is flexible and adaptive – there is no single, centrally administered ‘plan’ for the City of Sanctuary movement as a whole. Instead, each group is free to experiment, to develop new ideas, and to explore new directions. This means that the movement is in constant ‘research & development’, and can respond quickly to changing circumstances or opportunities.

Information and expertise are widely distributed – local groups include volunteers with a great variety of skills and experience, and have access to many different information networks. Useful information is not concentrated at the ‘centre’, but can circulate freely between different groups.

Leadership is widely dispersed – instead of one chief executive or management committee the movement has many kinds of leadership, and local groups develop the skills, experience and confidence of their members.

Of course ‘starfish’ organisations are not guaranteed to succeed. The ‘success factors’ for decentralised organisations that may be most relevant to City of Sanctuary include:

1, Passing on the vision to new members

Because City of Sanctuary relies on a shared understanding of our aims and methods to create a coherent movement, it is essential that we keep communicating that vision to new members and supporters. Because new people are getting involved all the time, we need a continuing conversation about what City of Sanctuary stands for. We need people who can communicate their enthusiasm and articulate their vision, to keep the movement growing and reaching new people.

2, Sharing learning and information

To make the most effective use of the range of expertise throughout the movement, local groups need to actively share information with each other, including learning from their experiences of successes and failures, useful contacts etc. This can take place at national network meetings, national conferences, through the website, email and phone contacts etc.

3, Shared responsibility

Local groups play an essential role in the success of the movement as a whole, by sharing their experience and expertise, participating in national decision-making, supporting national events and promoting the movement generally.

4, Supporting infrastructure

It is a great advantage for a decentralised organisation like City of Sanctuary to have some shared resources and national support networks that help the movement to grow, avoid duplicating effort, and provide new groups with initial practical support. This currently includes:

1. our national website, which offers a free Web-platform for all local groups
2. supportive organisations such as Refugee Action, the Refugee Council, Quakers and others that offer free meeting and office space, publicity networks and useful contacts
3. the national City of Sanctuary charity that employs the national co-ordinator to develop shared resources, facilitate shared communication and decision-making and organise national conferences and events.

It is important that the infrastructure developed to support the movement is effective, relevant and doesn’t undermine the autonomy of local groups, so feedback on what support would be most useful is always welcome. You can also leave your suggestions about key ‘success factors’ for the movement in the comments below.