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Using Emergence to Take Social Innovation to Scale

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Attachment
emergence_web.pdf
Description

Despite current ads and slogans, the world doesn’t change one person at a time. It changes as networks of relationships form among people who discover they share a common cause and vision of what’s possible.

This is good news for those of us intent on changing the world and creating a positive future. Rather than worry about critical mass, our work is to foster critical connections. We don’t need to convince large numbers of people to change; instead, we need to connect with kindred spirits. Through these relationships, we will develop the new knowledge, practices, courage and commitment that lead to broad-based change.

But networks aren’t the whole story. As networks grow and transform into active, working communities of practice, we discover how life truly changes, which is through emergence. When separate, local efforts connect with each other as networks, then strengthen as communities of practice, suddenly and surprisingly a new system emerges at a greater level of scale. This system of influence possesses qualities and capacities that were unknown in the individuals. It isn’t that they were hidden; they simply don’t exist until the system emerges. They are properties of the system, not the individual, but once there, individuals possess them. And the system that emerges always possesses greater power and influence than is possible through planned, incremental change. Emergence is how life creates radical change and takes things to scale.

Author
Margaret Wheatley & Deborah Frieze

Comments

  • Public Comments

    • Giorgio Bertini Giorgio Bertini
      11 months ago


      NOTE: more resources on emergence and change at the Twines

      Conversations, Learning and Change Change Methods and Theory
      Social Learning Networks, Activism, The Skeptic, Collective Intelligence, Complex Adaptive Systems (CAS)

    • Giorgio Bertini Giorgio Bertini
      11 months ago


      NOTE: more resources on emergence and change at the Twine

      Conversations, Learning and Change
      Change Methods

    • Giorgio Bertini Giorgio Bertini
      11 months ago


      NOTE: more resources on emergence and change at the Twines

      Conversations, Learning and Change.

      Change Methods and Theory
      Ch...Ch...Ch Changes, Getting things done together, Collaborative Intelligence, Complex Adaptive Systems, The Radical Twine, Participation for Citizenship, Organizing and Leadership, Complexity, Networks and Self Organization, Collective Intelligence think tank, The Way Things Are, The Wisdom of Crowds, Complex Systems, Complexity

    • Giorgio Bertini Giorgio Bertini
      11 months ago


      NOTE: more resources on emergence and change at the Twines

      Conversations, Learning and Change.

      Change Methods and Theory.
      Collaborative Integrity, Polytopia

    • Giorgio Bertini Giorgio Bertini
      11 months ago


      NOTE: more resources on emergence and change at the Twines.

      Change Methods and Theory.
      Conversations, Learning and Change

    • starwalker starwalker
      11 months ago


      very interesting and not so long article. following a further pick:
      (for method of description and analysis they use see the article.)

      "Researchers and social activists are beginning to discover the power of networks and networking. And there is a growing recognition that networks are the new form of organizing. Yet much of the current work on networks displays old paradigm bias.
      ...
      What’s missing in network current analysis is an exploration of the dynamics of networks:
      • Why do networks form? What are the conditions that support their creation?
      • What keeps a network alive and growing? What keeps members connected?
      • What type of leadership is required?
      • Why do people become leaders?
      • What type of leadership interferes with or destroys the network?
      • What happens after a healthy network forms? What’s next?
      • If we understand these dynamics and the lifecycle of emergence, what can we do as leaders, activists
      and social entrepreneurs to intentionally foster emergence?
      ...
      In nature, change never happens as a result of top-down, pre-conceived strategic plans, or from the mandate of any single individual or boss. Change begins as local actions spring up simultaneously in many different areas. If these changes remain disconnected, nothing happens beyond each locale. However, when they become connected, local actions can emerge as a powerful system with influence at a more global or comprehensive level. (Global here means a larger scale, not necessarily the entire planet.)
      ...
      Think about how the Berlin Wall suddenly came down, how the Soviet Union ended, how corporate power quickly came to dominate globally. In each case, there were many local actions and decisions, most of which were invisible and unknown to each other, and none of which was powerful enough by itself to create change.
      ...
      This aspect of emergence has profound implications for social entrepreneurs. Instead of developing them individually as leaders and skillful practitioners, we would do better to connect them to like-minded others and create the conditions for emergence. The skills and capacities needed by them will be found in the system that emerges, not in better training programs.
      ...
      As leaders and communities of concerned people, we need to intentionally work with emergence so that our efforts will result in a truly hopeful future. No matter what other change strategies we have learned or favored, emergence is the only way change really happens on this planet. And that is very good news.
      complex-a
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