Holding Change: The Way of Emergent Strategy Facilitation and Mediation

by adrienne maree Brown

Overview

In our complex world, facilitation and mediation skills are as important for individuals as they are for organizations. How do we practice them in ways that align with nature, with pleasure, with our best imagining of our future? How do we attend to generating the ease necessary to help us move through the inevitable struggles of life? How do we practice the art of holding others without losing ourselves? Black feminists have answers to those questions that can serve anyone working to create changes in our world, changes great and small; individually, interpersonally, and within our organizations.

Holding Change is about attending to coordination, to conflict, to being humans in right relationship with each other, not as a constant ongoing state, but rather as a magnificent, mysterious, ever-evolving dynamic in which we must involve ourselves, shape ourselves and each other. The majority of the book is sourced from brown’s twenty-plus years of facilitation and mediation work with movement groups.

Includes contributions by Autumn Brown, Sage Crump, Malkia Devich-Cyril, Ejeris Dixon, Alexis Pauline Gumbs, Prentis Hemphill, Micky ScottBey Jones, N’Tanya Lee, and Makani Themba

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781849354189
Publisher:	AK PR INC
Publication date:	05/25/2021
Series:	Emergent Strategy Series , #4
Pages:	198
Sales rank:	120,869
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 8.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

adrienne maree brown is the author of Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds; Pleasure Activism: The Politics of Feeling Good; co-editor of Octavia’s Brood: Science Fiction from Social Justice Movements; cohost of How to Survive the End of the World and Octavia’s Parables; and founder of the Emergent Strategy Ideation Institute.

Table of Contents

Author's Note 1

Foreword 3

Opening 5

Assessments 21

Black Feminist Wisdom 35

Stay Black and Breathe Alexis Pauline Gumbs 39

Consensus Reflection Autumn Brown 44

Boundaries Can Be Love Prentis Hemphill 47

Facilitation as Experiments in Culture Creation Sage Crump 50

Stepping Up, Stepping In: Facilitating For Freedom Makani Themba 56

What Is Principled Struggle? N'Tanya Lee 60

To Give Your Hands To Freedom, First Give Them To Grief Malkia Devich-Cyril 64

An Invitation to Brace Space Micky ScottBey Jones 80

We Keep Us Safe: Facilitating Safer Spaces Ejeris Dixon 83

Facilitation For Movement Paris Hatcher 89

Be Open to Experimenting Inca A. Mohamed 91

Facilitation and Mediation 93

What Is and Isn't Facilitation 95

What Is and Isn't Mediation 98

Fractal Facilitation 100

Fractal Mediation 110

Intentional Adaptation Facilitation 113

Intentional Adaptation Mediation 126

Nonlinear/ Iterative Facilitation 128

Nonlinear/ Iterative Mediation 133

Interdependent / Decentralized Facilitation 135

Interdependent / Decentralized Mediation 163

Transformative Justice / Resilience Facilitation 166

Transformative Justice / Resilience Mediation 173

Creating More Possibilities Facilitation 179

Creating More Possibilities Mediation 190

A Brief Note on Visibility and Facilitation 193

Closing 197

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“adrienne maree brown is powerful both as a healer and as a thought leader. Her revelatory work, Holding Change, arrives at the intersection of activism and whole-wellness, at a time when the world needs it most. Holding Change is about improved communication, achieving conflict resolution, and making space for others while still holding one’s self in high regard. A necessary and mighty tool.”
—Patrisse Khan Cullors, co-founder of Black Lives Matter and NYT bestselling author of When they Call You a Terrorist

“adrienne maree brown is not an outsider looking into movement work but a weaver who has committed her life to our collective liberation ... She helped us advance our structure, systems, and vision in ways that allowed us to stay grounded in our north star. She is a master adapter and a gift to the movement.”
—Karissa Lewis, Rising Majority

“Adrienne is the most powerful, insightful facilitator I have ever had the privilege to witness, let alone work with ... Her technique is a powerful demonstration of how strong, innovative facilitation has the ability to help leaders build visionary movements.”
—Thenjiwe McHarris, Blackbird and Movement for Black Lives

"Holding Change is the kind of wise resource book I wish so very badly that I had when I was free and organizing.... brown is both pragmatic and compassionate in her advice, recognizing that a broken system breaks people and that we can only do the work that is needed as the people we are. That maybe we can both get to our destination of a better world together and learn to be better to each other as part of the same process." 
—Marius Mason, political prisoner