Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds

by Adrienne Maree Brown

“Emergence is the way complex systems and patterns arise out of a multiplicity of relatively simple interactions.”2 It is another way of speaking about the connective tissue of all that exists—the way, the Tao, the force, change, God/dess, life. Birds flocking, cells splitting, fungi whispering underground.

If the goal was to increase the love, rather than winning or dominating a constant opponent, I think we could actually imagine liberation from constant oppression.

Imagination gives us borders, gives us superiority, gives us race as an indicator of capability. I often feel I am trapped inside someone else’s imagination, and I must engage my own imagination in order to break free.

All of this imagining, in the

poverty of our current system, is heightened because of s...

There isn’t enough, so we need to hoard, enclose, divide, fence up, and prioriti...

We have to imagine beyond those fears. We have to ideate—imagine a...

This is a time-travel exercise for the heart. This is collaborative ideation—what are the ideas that will liberate all of us?

Science fiction is simply a way to practice the future together.

As Toni Cade Bambara has taught us, we must make just and liberated futures irresistible.

And I think it is healing behavior, to look at something so broken and see the possibility and wholeness in it.

critical connections instead of critical mass.

leaderfull

I do believe that what we pay attention to grows, so I wanted to stop growing the crises, the critique.

The elements in this book are a way to shift my attention to the positive, to what I want to grow.

“Biomimicry is basically taking a design challenge and then finding an ecosystem that has already solved that challenge, and literally trying

to emulate what you learn. There are three types of biomimicry—one is copying form and shape, another is copying a process, like photosynthesis in a leaf, and the third is mimicking at an ecosystem’s level, like building a nature-inspired city.”

Joanna Macy speaks of the “great turning,” a collective awakening and shifting direction, away from the wanton destruction of this planet and each other, away from those practices of separation and competition

listed above, towards life and abundance.

like this visual of turning and evolving, as opposed to destroying the systems in place now.

“The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.” —Albert Camus

How do we cultivate the muscle of radical imagination needed to dream together beyond fear?

In movement work, I have been facilitating groups to shift from a culture of strategic planning to one of strategic intentions—what are our intentions, informed by our vision?

As an individual, get really good at being intentional with where you put your energy, letting go as quickly as you can of things that aren’t part of your visionary life’s work.

If you are in a leadership

position, make sure you have a circle of people who can tell you the truth, and to whom you can speak the truth. Bring others into shared leadership with you, and/or collaborate with other formations so you don’t get too enamored of your singular vision.

social justice work is about creating systems of justice and equity in the future, creating conditions that we have never experienced.

It is our right and responsibility to write ourselves into the future. All organizing is science fiction. If you are shaping the future, you are a futurist.

Some of my favorites for meditation are: “The Prison Cell,” Mahmoud Darwish;

“The Journey,” Mary Oliver; “Yes, We Can Talk,” Mark Nepo; and everything from June Jordan, Adrienne Rich, Warsaw Shire, or Nayirrah Waheed.

Most conversations need at

least 1.5 hours to adequately cover a basic orientation around the content, identify what is needed, and identify clear next steps. And that’s conservative. Add an introduction round and you have a two- to three-hour conversation. A meaningful full group conversation needs roughly five minutes per person.

I am more radical in my clarity about the apocalyptic future and my belief that connection to each other is the most important thing to cultivate in the face of hopelessness—we don’t want to cling to outdated paradigms;

we want to cling to each other and shift the