Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds

Chapter 9 deals with the role of conversation and collaboration in creating new ideas. It features interviews with Autumn Meghan Brown, Jodie Tonita, and Dani McClain where each interviewee discusses different aspects of their work within the context of emergent strategy. Autumn, an expert in consensus work, highlights humans’ collaborative nature and emphasizes how consensus work does not eliminate hierarchies entirely but rather transforms them. Jodie, a co-founder of the Social Transformation Project, underscores two relevant aspects of her work in leadership training and development: a collaborative network that supports leaders’ efforts and the challenges in Canada regarding leadership dynamics in marginalized communities. Finally, writer Dani McClain shares her perspective on mindfulness and meditation as tools for self-reflection and discernment in the pursuit of social change.

Chapter 10 includes a practical assessment for self-reflection and evaluating one’s embodiment of emergent strategy. The assessment consists of seven questions, each focusing on a specific element of emergent strategy, as well as accountability and one’s connection to the natural world:

Do you value small scale growth and change?

Do you adapt easily to new circumstances?

Are you comfortable with nonlinear growth and transformation?

Do you experience conflict as a generative force in your life/work?

Are you in community/relationship with people who can and do hold you accountable?

Do you see change as an opportunity?

Do you see yourself as part of the natural world? (184).