Spiders’ webs were first spun in low earth orbit in 1973 aboard
Skylab. Two female spiders called Arabella and Anita were part
of an experiment on the Skylab 3 mission. The aim of the
experiment was to test whether the two spiders would spin webs
in space; they did! At the time the spiders were spinning their
webs, we were beginning to talk about matrix organizations and
how to make them successful. The matrix approach grew up
alongside the emergence of project management in the early high-
tech industries including NASA. As has been said many times
before; the matrix approach is relatively easy to describe but
can be challenging in the extreme to manage. The matrix
organization evolved when horizontal relationships, say between
subject matter experts, became as important as traditional,
vertical reporting lines. Traditional hierarchies were no longer
the most efficient way to deliver business. So the lattice, web-
like matrix structure emerged. This was usually with a
functional “line manager” responsible for