Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds

by Adrienne Maree Brown

We articulate these shared principles here, to the best of our ability, so that we can all more clearly understand the work we are doing together… We are making an honest attempt to solve the most significant problems of our day. We are building a network of people and organizations that are developing long-term solutions based on the immediate confrontation of our most pressing problems. Wherever there is a problem, there are already people acting on the problem in some fashion. Understanding those actions is the starting point for developing effective strategies to resolve the problem, so we focus on the solutions, not the problems. We emphasize our own power and legitimacy. We presume our power, not our powerlessness. We are agents, not victims. We spend more time building than attacking. We focus on strategies rather than issues. The strongest solutions happen through the process, not in a moment at the end of the process. The most effective strategies for us are the ones that work in situations of scarce resources and intersecting systems of oppression because those solutions tend to be the most holistic and sustainable. Place is important. For the AMC, Detroit is important as a source of innovative, collaborative, low-resource solutions. Detroit gives the conference a sense of place, just as each of the conference participants bring their own sense of place with them to the conference. We encourage people to engage with their whole selves, not just with one part of t...