Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds

by Adrienne Maree Brown

I love the pop star Rihanna, not just because she smokes blunts in ball gowns, but because one of her earliest tattoos says, “Never a failure, always a lesson.”

If the only thing I can learn from a situation is that some humans do bad things, it’s a waste of my precious time—I already know that. What I want to know is: What can this teach me/us about how to improve our humanity? What can we learn? In every situation there are lessons that lead to transformation.

Real time is slower than social-media time, where everything feels urgent. Real time often includes periods of silence, reflection, growth, space, self-forgiveness, processing with loved ones, rest, and responsibility.

Real-time transformation requires stating your needs and setting functional boundaries.

Creating more possibilities is my favorite aspect of emergent strategy—this is where we shape tomorrow towards abundance. Creating more possibilities counters the very foundational assumptions about strategy.

The word “strategy” is a military term, which means a plan of action towards a goal. I want to really emphasize the “a”s in that sentence—there is a practice of narrowing down, identifying one path forward, one strategy, one way, one agenda, one leader, one set of values, etc. Reducing the wild and wonderful world into one thing that we can grasp, handle, hold onto, and advance. We do this in movement all the time. I have been in countless meetings where there was a moment of creative abundance and energy, and then someone said we needed to pick one thing to get behind, or a three- or five- or ten-point plan. What came next was sometimes very compelling and visionary. Other times—often times—it was reductionist, agreeing on the lowest common denominator, the least exciting thing, because that was the only place there was unity. There was often a general sense of dissatisfaction and collective shrugging into this unity that was not invigorating. Authentic, exciting unity takes time, and lots of experimenting.

way—when we think about snowflakes, grains of sand, waves in water, stars—there is evidence that many possibilities exist for how we manifest inside our potential.

Collaborative Ideation is a way to get into this—ideation is the process of birthing new ideas, and the practice of collaborative ideation is about sharing that process as early as possible.

Reference for EUSoTL

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 born into relationships of dependence and interdependence.

recognizing that consensus does not mean or require equal status. It rather requires equal voice.

Folks need to understand that status or rank is both not accidental but also not individual, not in the way that we are socialized to think status is.

When we are in the space of collectivity, we have to reckon with what we are consenting to and not consenting to. Once we get to that space, we see some forms of status fall away as people realize they don’t have to consent to it. And

When we can stand in knowing another person’s power without feeling threatened, that can be powerful in itself. I love that part of consensus actually. Being able to really see anot...

Like—everyone isn’t the same. But everyone is valuable.

A group that is always making decisions isn’t a group that is always learning, necessarily, but learning is an essential function of making good decisions. And in order to learn together you have to be good at humility and curiosity.

We’re aiming to create a virtuous cycle of aligning, acting, and learning that results in better ideas, strategies, and ways of working that increase our impact.

to seed the kinds of networks these leaders need.

In the face of daunting challenges, we must summon the courage to believe we are the ones we have been waiting for, take risks, and experiment towards solutions.

I have a commitment I repeat to myself in key leadership moments throughout the day. “I trust myself in the face of the unknown.” While I say it, I focus on my breath, ground through my heels, feel my back, and remember that all of my skills and experience are available and have prepared me for just this moment.

Assessment Quickie

Do in Notion ? I

Assessment of Interdependence and Decentralization

Share with ITL?

Often the biggest support we need is to speak the truth out loud to those who will hold it with us from a vantage point of unconditional love.

to feel that the growth doesn’t end even if it changes form.

Sometimes what is happening in the world is so terrifying and urgent that we forget our complexity, or wonder why we would spend time on ourselves or take time for our friendships when there is so much external work to do. What

I believe it is Harriet Tubman going back to free others, because it wasn’t enough to free only herself.

Cultivate fiction that explores change as a collective, bottom-up process. Fiction that centers those who are currently marginalized—not to be nice, but because those who survive on the margins tend to be the most experientially innovative—practicing survival-based efficiency, doing the most with the least, an important skill area on a planet whose resources are under assault by less marginalized people.

You have worlds inside you. You have permission to share them.

the more I listen, the more I understand the interconnectedness of the world, and my place in it, my insignificance, my wholeness, our collective potential and beauty.

“To sit and be fully aware of the air going in and out of your nose, and nothing else, this sounds really stupid. If you haven’t tried it yet, try it. It is really stupid. Nothing your intellect can do to help you do it. This must be why so many people for so long have used it as a way towards wisdom.”

Being aware that one is thinking, noticing when thought is happening, can be liberating. The content of the thoughts becomes less important, it is the choice to be thinking vs. breathing.

seemed to truly unlock people’s power relative to their own potential.

Somatics is about being a fight for, rather than a fight against. Being in a fight for myself has led me to be honest about what makes me feel happy, strong, like I am realizing my miraculous potential.

generative somatics

The driving force of this community is the notion of shifting—there is no static or set destination, but a continual process of exploration, testing waters and learning new ways. Always learning. And leaning into the discomfort that comes with it.

One of the primary principles of emergent strategy is trusting the people. The flip of Lao Tzu’s wisdom is: if you trust the people, they become trustworthy.

a very small set of conversations that a particular group, at a particular moment in history, can have and move forward, given their capacity, resources, time, focus, and beliefs.

The goals are the north star and the way to assess satisfaction.

“Humanify! Shifting our way of being is our tangible outcome. Systems change comes from big groups making big shifts in being.”

And remember, passion is a more valuable force for action and accountability than obligation, so let the goals be inspiring, uplifting what

Invite the right people.

Gosh this would be difficult

Everyone should be able to be themselves and move their own agendas in the space if the invitation list is right.

Excellent criteria

right people doesn’t mean easy people—conflict

Trust is built when the right people are in the right room, and can bring their opinions and work into a container that advances their individual and collective goals.

There are real language barriers—both literal and cultural—that mean we often think we are hearing each other, but we actually have no clue what others are saying. We all have filters, only some of which we are aware.

When trying to determine which articulation to prioritize, go with that of the most impacted people in the room—it

Develop a spacious, adaptable agenda so the participants can shape the meeting.

Space and agency!

A meaningful full group conversation needs roughly five minutes per person. Underscheduling the amount of time a conversation needs means that energy will start to build up as people look for a way to release their thoughts and ideas into the group.

and get their whole selves in the room.

Gibrán Rivera once articulated a question to me: “What is the next most elegant step?”

I love this question