adrienne maree brown emergent strategy shaping change changing worlds

For facilitators in the movement, I think there is a lot of useful things when trying to figure out bad habits and moving forward in your organizing. So again, was excited about the book, but just felt disappointed. I have been to a few of Brown's workshops through the Detroit's Allied Media Conference and am familiar with her work in Ruckus and as a facilitator. I have read other peoples reviews and am not sure why this book is popular, so i feel out of step disliking this book. Started this book when it came out and was confused so I put it down and then tried to finish it when it came up as a book for a book club. I truly believe in emergent strategy and would love to see it articulated more effectively in the future. Overall, it's worth the read! If you're on the fence, please go for it. Even so, further honing, trimming, and clarifying could also achieve another goal, which is increased accessibility for disabled readers. However, reaching an audience beyond a very small milieu already familiar with every reference was perhaps not the goal, and I understand that.

Unfortunately, you need both for an effective book: if not within yourself, then in collaboration with others who can help you realize your goal. The author herself says several times throughout the novel that she's not the analytical research type but a feeling/perceiving sort. I felt as though I understood the aspects of emergent strategy far better through these examples than the bloated descriptions in the book's beginning, and that makes me sad. The book shines in the final section, likely because it's the part of the book that illustrates examples of how to actually practice emergent strategy. The introduction was an excessive ~40 pages and encapsulated the book's overall issue: not enough organization and trimming to communicate a vitally important concept to anyone who's not on the same wavelength as the author. Countless quotes bog down the overall message and create a murkiness that I as a reader could never recover from. I never felt as though I had enough forewarning when the book would suddenly divert into a blog post or speech. As it stands, Emergent Strategy is a rather disjointed sea of thoughts, quotes (so. I say this with the utmost love and respect for both emergent strategy as concept and the author: this desperately needed an editor.

Adrienne maree brown emergent strategy shaping change changing worlds