Rating: 9
Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds
Adrienne Maree Brown | 2017
Emergent Strategy is a self-help, society-help, and planet-help guide that expands on the principles put forth by acclaimed science fiction writer Octavia E. Butler in her popular novel Parable of the Sower. In this book, adrienne maree brown imagines a framework by which humanity can transform our systems and organizational philosophy: namely by embracing the constancy of change and by changing oneself. She roots the theory and practice of emergent strategy in natural systems, like water, which persistently adapts to its surroundings, and fractals, complex geometric patterns created by repeating a simple process ad infinitum. Emergent Strategy demonstrates that by accepting the flux of change in our lives we can become more resilient. That by growing our roots horizontally and together, instead of solitarily downward, we can withstand catastrophe. And that the changes we make at the individual level echo and reverberate across larger systems. So many books on climate change suggest that action must be taken at the largest scales: political reform, international agreements, and transitioning industries. While all of these endeavors are necessary for mitigating the impacts of the climate crisis, adrienne explains that these larger processes begin with the individual. Although our actions may just be a drop in the ocean, each drop creates ripples that affect a multitude of others. Emergent Strategy suggests that perhaps the best way to address climate disaster and other societal crises is for us to learn from the natural world and to “be like water.”
“How we are at the small scale is how we are at the large scale. The patterns of the universe repeat at 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.”
“There is such urgency in the multitude of crises we face, it can make it hard to remember that in fact it is urgency thinking (urgent constant unsustainable growth) that got us to this point, and that our potential success lies in doing deep, slow, intentional work.”