Emergent Strategy by adrienne maree brown

I got accepted in to a peer learning network for those working in the creative sector and with young people called Space for Change run by this pioneering London charity A New Direction. The theme for this year’s 2024-25 group is “Equity in creative career pathways for the next generation”.  

I went to the first session with no expectations – not low expectations – just a lack of them. Probably because I was unsure about how I had ended up in my creative career, so thinking about how the next generation could get themselves onto the creative career ladder stumped me. I work with young people. Yes, they may be highly specialised in their artistic field, but in the end, they are progressing onto creative careers, or you’d really hope so, otherwise what’s all their hard work for?

The people I met at Space for Change were genuine and passionate. The discussions we had opened up my mind and I learned about a theory and book called Emergent Strategy by adrienne maree brown* (2017). I went out and bought a copy.

*She writes her name in all lower case, like I write the name of my terrier in all caps.

After reading Emergent Strategy and peppering it with sticky labels

I found the book nourishing. It’s a book that’s about embracing changing systems; looking to nature for inspiration, what maree brown calls biomimicry; not letting the apocalyptic gloom and doom stuff get you down because we can make small changes which can grow into bigger changes and maybe, eventually, start a movement.

I’m going to copy out quotes I liked from the book, and I hope you like them too:

How do we turn our collective full-bodied intelligence towards collaboration, if that is the way we will survive?

What is Emergent Strategy? “Emergence is the way complex systems and patterns arise out of a multiplicity of relatively simple interactions.” (Quote originally attributed to Nick Obolensky)

We need each other. I love the idea of shifting from “mile wide inch deep” movements to “inch wide mile deep” movements that schism the existing paradigm.

Change is constant. (Be like water.)

On fractals: How we are at the small scale is how we are at the large scale. There is a structural echo that suggests two things: one, that there are shapes and patterns fundamental to our universe, and two, that what we practice at a small scale can reverberate to the largest scale.

We hone our skills of naming and analysing the crises. I learned in school how to deconstruct – but how do we move beyond our beautiful deconstruction? Who teaches us to reconstruct?

We learned that in [community/activism] organising and relationships, accountability is key for building a lasting base; when folks see change, they feel their own investment is worthwhile.

The clearer you are as a group about what you’re doing, the more you can relax into collaborative innovation around how to get there. You can relax into decentralisation, and you want to.

Instability has become a defining feature of our times. In many ways, this instability is the new landscape of social struggle. It is useful to classify the economic and ecological disruptions that make up this “new normal” of instability into two groups: shocks and slides. (Read more at Movement Generation)

Less on point, more on purpose.

Less prep, more presence.

Low ego, high impact.

I’m learning that interdependence is not about the equality of offers in real time… that the support I’ve offered in the past, or will offer in the future, would balance this scale.

[We’re developing] a new definition of a great leader – not just one who is inspirational in speech or grand actions, but one who is inspirational in collaborative action, accountability, and vulnerability.

We are realising that we must become the systems we need – no government, political party, or corporation is going to care for us, so we have to remember how to care for each other.

I have an inner protocol in my doula work with parents and babies: ask myself if I am needed, support only as needed, do absolutely everything that is needed (change the diaper, sweep the floor, rub mama’s feet, take out the trash – no task is menial), and make space for the natural order to emerge.

How do we shift into a culture in which conflict and difference is generative?

I laugh at memes, I like the apoplectic statuses, the rants… I’ve been examining this – why I can get caught up in a mob on the Internet in a way I rarely do in life… But lately, as the attacks grow faster and more vicious, I wonder: is this what we’re here for? To cultivate a fear-based adherence to reductive common values? What can this lead to in an imperfect world full of sloppy, complex humans?

How can my real time actions contribute to transforming this situation (versus making it worse)? This question feels particularly important in the age of social media, where we can make our pain viral before we’ve even had a chance to feel it.

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. (Quote from a conversation with Jodie Tonita.)

Authentic, exciting unity takes time, and lots of experimenting.

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

An elegant step is one that acknowledges what is known and unknown, and what the capacity of the group actually is. An elegant step allows humility, allows people to say “Actually we need to do some research” or “Actually we need to talk to some folks not in this room”.

I recommend that any group of people working together over time schedule regular time for reflecting on and evaluating the work done, harvesting the lessons and applying them to future iterations of the work.

The more people who grow vision and understanding together, the more people who will feel at home in the resulting experiments.

Community is an incredible way to get access to information you might not come across on your own.

Transparency about who is doing what work helps the group relax.

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 in “visiting” the other side of the wall. People may decide to stay on their side of the wall, but it helps to understand that the wall is not a forever wall, it can be crossed, circumvented, or even brought down.

Emergent Strategy is about shifting the way we see and feel the world and each other. If we begin to understand ourselves as practice ground for transformation, we can transform the world.