Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds

by Adrienne Maree Brown

This one seems so simple and old school, but having community to learn with is actually really crucial for human development. It means we learn to see ideas, not just through our own singular and limited perspectives, but to see how different experiences create different ways of thinking about things, of comprehending and applying ideas. Loretta Ross teaches us that, “When people think the same idea and move in the same direction, that’s a cult. When people think many different ideas and move in one direction, that’s a movement.”116 Studying together with a respect for our ecosystem of ideas is movement. I love to innovate in isolation, but when I try to exert those isolated concepts on others, I can become oppressive and controlling pretty quickly. Luckily I have good people around me who attend to or ignore me appropriately until I grow my ideas with others.