The Octopus Method
Ever felt like you’re the bottleneck? This episode explores how octopuses distribute intelligence to move, sense and decide without waiting for head office. It’s a biomimicry approach I developed and use in my own work.
“So much more effective than delegating.”
The Idea
Octopuses don’t run everything through one central brain. Around two thirds of their neurons sit in their arms, allowing them to sense and act locally rather than waiting for instructions from head office.
That got me thinking about what happens inside teams when every decision still has to pass through one person. If every decision, interpretation and next move has to travel through one person, that person eventually becomes the bottleneck. The design question became: what changes when intelligence sits closer to where the information is?
That thinking became the Octopus Method, a biomimicry approach I developed and use in my own work to help teams sense, decide and adapt in parallel.
Biology: Octopus intelligence is distributed throughout the nervous system, with around two thirds of an octopus’s neurons in its arms, enabling local sensing and action.
Principle: Distribute intelligence to where information is generated to increase responsiveness and reduce bottlenecks.
Application: The Octopus Method uses decentralised “lenses” to enable teams to sense, make decisions and adapt in parallel without relying on a single coordinating brain.
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