Strategic stance for a vibrant future in uncertain times

Strategic stance for a vibrant future in the face of uncertainty

SOCIUS reads: Emergent Strategy by Adrienne Maree Brown

Author: Julia Hoffmann

“What time is it on the clock of the world?” Grace Lee Boggs

“Everything is falling apart, but also, new things are possible. […] We are in a time of new suns. We have no idea what could be, but everything that we have been is falling apart. So it’s time to change. And we can be mindful about that.” Adrienne Maree Brown

How can a strategic approach succeed in uncertain times and a world of uncertainty? We live in times marked by simultaneous crises and collapses (climate crisis, growing inequalities, increasing political polarisation, mental health crises, etc.). What kind of strategic attitude is there that recognises this world and helps us to work together for a vibrant future?

The architect and systems designer Buckminster Fuller once explained

“You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.”

In a way, the American activist and author Adrienne Maree Brown For me, it's the attitude and practice of strategic approach that she describes in “Emergent Strategy. Shaping Change, Changing Worlds”. Published in 2017, the book is the first in a series that describes an inspiring approach to change and transformation work in networks, groups, movements and ecosystems. Adrienne Maree Brown is rooted in the Black movement and has been working as a facilitator, mediator, author and podcaster for many years. Her warm, pragmatic and curious view of what we can learn about strategy from nature and ecosystems is easy to read and also comes highly recommended as an audiobook (the English version is read by the author herself).

The roots of emergent strategy include the Movement for Black Lives, the Occupy movement, Adrienne's own experiences and those of her family, thinkers such as Margret Wheatley, Grace Lee Boggs, Octavia Butler, as well as all the people and “woes” (people with whom we work on excellence), friends and partners who accompany her in her transformations.

What is “emergent strategy”?

Adrienne Maree Brown relates the words “emergent” and “strategy” to each other:

Emergent derives it from Nick Obolensky: “Emergence is the way complex systems and patterns arise out of a multiplicity of relatively simple interactions.” (Obolensky, 2014, Complex Adaptive Leadership: Embracing Paradox and Uncertainty. Burlington, VT.)

She describes Emergent Strategy as follows, using an example:

“Birds flapping their wings, birds in a flock together, is a relatively simple interaction; but birds all doing that together and avoiding predation can become the most complex, gorgeous patterns of murmurations, migration, survival. So we’re all emergent beings — humans are an emergent species amongst emergent species.

And the strategy part comes in — I think what we mean by strategic is: able to adapt to changing conditions, while still moving towards our vision of freedom and the future and being in that practice. So that’s what emergent strategy is. It’s like, how do we get in a right relationship with change that allows us to harness and shape things, towards community, towards liberation, towards justice?”
(Adrienne Maree Brown, OnBeing, 2022)

Emergent strategy is an attitude and practice that can be expressed in many ways:

Emergent Strategy began as an approach to adaptive and relational leadership,
which then grew into personal actions, practices and collaborative organisational practices, with a particular focus on relationships that enable adaptation,
and then transformed into strategies that enable movements for social justice,
as well as into a practice that invites people to be in “right relationship” with each other and to consciously embody change,
to a philosophy of being in love with the world and oneself.
Emergent Strategy is many things at once: a place for strategies, methods and tools, a community, a practice, an attitude and a lens through which to view the world.

Core principles and elements

In her book, Adrienne describes the core principles and elements of emergent strategy. For me, what makes it special is that what she describes feels natural and intuitive. I practise this way implicitly. The concrete naming and systematisation helps me to design such types of strategic work in my work as a facilitator.

This video briefly shows you the core principles:

https://youtu.be/TJbHo6leP4I?t=5

Practical examples from application

Which frameworks support us in adopting an emergent strategy approach? Adrienne describes these principles for the beginning of a meeting. We last used these principles in the initiative “Facilitate Belonging. How do we maintain spaces of belonging?” applied:

Listen from the inside out (your gut feeling is important!)
Look out for others, look out for yourself (community care & self-care)
Give space – Take space
W.A.I.T. – Why am I talking?
Be open to learning: about unknown possibilities and truths, about the world, about yourself.
Start with the best intentions and take the effect seriously.
Notice differences and see if you can integrate them into your idea of ’us“.
Take with you what belongs to you here and now, and leave the rest behind.
Confidentiality – Take what you have learned with you, leave the details here.

The book contains a further series of practical tools for facilitators.

My key takeaways

From the very first moments of listening and reading, I had the feeling that I had found the formulation of a related and inspiring approach and attitude that describes a very human and pragmatic approach to strategic transformation work in this day and age. For self-organised teams, networks and movements, Emergent Strategy seems to offer a suitable attitude for developing and navigating strategic orientation in a focused yet adaptive manner.

The fact that nature, imagination, reality and experiences of structural discrimination, and somatics/embodiment have played such a major role in the derivation of emergent strategy makes it such a relevant contribution for me to look at change work in networks, ecosystems and movements and to work together meaningfully for a vibrant future.

This is what “emergent strategy” sounds like”

In addition to numerous quotations, stories, a toolbox section and inspirational material, this entertaining book also includes a playlist. Here is a brief excerpt of what emergent Strategy sounded like in 2017: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6GG5I0DaMdZTkTYZ6ZNyO4

Curious? Find out more here