Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds

by Adrienne Maree Brown

Once there were kings and queens all over the earth. Someday we might speak of presidents and CEOs in past tense only.

We learn that tests and deadlines are the reasons to take action. This puts those with good short-term memories and a positive response to pressure in leadership positions, leading to urgency-based thinking, regardless of the circumstance.

Science fiction is not fluffy stuff. Afrofuturism is not just the coolest look that ever existed. The future is not an escapist place to occupy. All of it is the inevitable result of what we do today, and the more we take it in our hands, imagine it as a place of justice and pleasure, the more the future knows we want it, and that we aren’t letting go.

We are living now inside the imagination of people who thought economic disparity and environmental destruction were acceptable costs for their power.

The vision of an organization is the furthest it can see.

When new people come in, make sure they are already deeply aligned with the vision (they could easily say “This is MY vision”), or take the time to orient and align. If you bring on a number of new people, it may mean revisiting the vision. I recommend an annual check in on the vision—is this still the furthest we can see?

Identifying what your group can do well, is passionate about, and is needed—that’s the sweet spot. That’s your mission.

One metaphor I use for mediation is that there is a wall, and the goal is to get on the same side of the wall, and look at it together. Sometimes to do this each side has to take turns “visiting” the other side of the wall.