Engaging Emergence

Engaging Emergence:
Patterns of Change for Turning Disruptions into Opportunities

Preface

What is this book about?

This is a book on a theory and practice of change, in particular, emergent change.
The focus is on emergent change because we live in a time filled with upheaval and
uncertainty, bell weather characteristics of emergence at work. Whether in our
organizations, communities, places of worship, or at home, in our nations, our
systems, such as the economy, health care, politics, or education, or even the
weather and other aspects of the natural world, the past is not nearly as useful a
predictor of the future as it once was. Success at such times draws from a different
place within us, suggests different choices about who we engage with and how we
interact, and even what we value as outcomes. Choosing to work with emergent
change, or emergence as I’ll call it throughout the book, is to seek possibility in the
midst of uncertainty, to follow life’s energy, providing the means for working well –
compassionately, creatively, and wisely ‐‐ with whatever comes our way.

Who is its intended audience?

This book is dedicated to the many people who are facing major upheaval in their
lives ‐‐ journalists, automakers, school teachers, bankers, etc. ‐‐ who have lost jobs
or experienced the collapse of their industry. It is for those who see the rich
diversity of capabilities, cultures, aspirations, and wonder how we can become more
capable together than we are alone. It is for those looking for a source of courage,
hope, and faith despite the dire warnings of collapsing systems as they seek a path
to a livable future.

This book offers both ideas and actions for those who wish to increase their capacity
for working with uncertainty, upheaval, dissonance, and change. It is for leaders –
both formal and informal, change practitioners, activists and change agents of all
sorts who face complex, important issues, and are seeking new alternatives for
addressing them in these unprecedented times.

It provides insight into the intellectual, emotional, physical, and spiritual landscape
that emergence evokes in most of us, fostering compassion with ourselves and
others. It offers a framework for understanding the larger forces at play that create
the sense of disruption most of us are experiencing and highlights individual and
collective practices for working with those disruptions creatively. And it focuses on
what it takes to renew wisely, conserving what endures as we embrace what wasn’t
possible before.

Whether you thrive on theory and having a map of the territory, prefer to focus on
specifics you can practice, or favor the combination, this book seeks to equip you for
working well with emergence. The book provides a practical perspective of
emergent dynamics as well as key patterns for working with those dynamics.
“Patterns” are practices that surface consistently in successful change strategies.
While they may be applied in a myriad of ways, these deeper patterns appear
frequently enough when change is successful to name them as vital elements of the
work.

This book takes an abstract but useful idea – emergence – and gives it legs,
grounding it in stories of how it shows up in our lives and offers guidance into the
steps any of us can take when faced with the unknown.

Why does it matter?

As more of us work well with emergence, it increases the likelihood of a collective
shift in our capacity to meet the needs of individuals, our social systems, and our
world. In other words, our survival in an increasingly unpredictable world is at
stake and this is a promising pathway to do something about it.

What’s in the book?

The introduction puts emergent change in perspective with a short story of its
application. It tells the story of my own evolution in thinking and practice that led
to the ideas, experiences, and research that shaped its creation, including:
• My work with emergent change processes;
• A theory of emergence;
• A study of evolutionary dynamics; and
• A pattern language for change.

Read the introduction if you wish to understand the source of the ideas covered in
the rest of the book.
Chapter two offers a working definition of emergence, speaks to the outcomes that
consistently arise when we consciously engage with emergence, and names some of
the idiosyncrasies – the catches ‐‐ that make working with emergence so elusive.

Chapter three speaks to the feel of emergence, how its underlying dynamics shape
our experience. It describes the evolutionary dance between coherence and
differentiation that puts emergent dynamics in context and offers a framework for
working with those dynamics, posing three questions:
• How do we disrupt coherence compassionately?
• How do we engage disruption creatively?
• How do we renew coherence wisely?
Chapter four puts a practical twist on how to talk about emergence through making
visible choices available to us when facing disturbances. Based on this grounded
view, it offers three principles for working well with emergence:
• Seek life-energy
• Embrace mystery
• Choose possibility

If practice is your priority, this chapter is a good place to begin.

Chapter five offers a “pattern map” – one way of working with the patterns of
change described in this book, with a brief description of each pattern.

Part II ‐ Patterns in Depth describes each pattern using a template inspired by the
pattern language work of Christopher Alexander and others who followed his lead.

Here are the patterns I’ll cover in each chapter and a sense of the shift they embody:

Pattern Core shift/gift/insight
From To
Hosting: Creating space Managing the workers Creating conditions for
for the work by tuning the work to unfold
in, focusing intentions
and tending to context
Inquiring Emphasis on telling Emphasis on asking,
appreciatively: asking orienting towards a
bold questions for positive future
possibility
Inviting: attracting the Bringing the usual suspects Broadening engagement,
diversity of the system including the whole
system
Welcoming: cultivating Comfortable space, polite Creating space to go
hospitable space demeanor deeper – physically,
mentally, emotionally,
spiritually
Opening: being Keeping out disturbances, Making space for
receptive to the (Maintaining the illusion of a welcoming dissonance,
unknown closed system) connecting differences
Engaging: taking Compromising, individual vs. Breaking through,
responsibility for what collective, to belong one must individuals acting from
you love as an act of conform calling cohere into a
service differentiated whole in
which the good of the
individual and collective
are both served; to belong
is to call forth your
uniqueness
Reflecting: sensing Oriented towards fixing Oriented towards
patterns mistakes learning

Words are the primary means
of reflecting Reflection occurs through
multiple modes – music,
art, poetry, silence,
movement, meditation,
etc.
Naming: making Meaning is defined by experts Meaning arises as diverse
meaning on behalf of entities interact in a
the whole by calling given context
forth what is ripening

Harvesting: sharing the Documenting the outcomes Sharing meaning through
stories through multiple modes of
multiple modes and expression
channels
Iterating: doing it again Change occurs through linear Change unfolds through
and again, integrating progression with a clear dynamic, accelerating,
what we know into beginning and ending nonlinear strange
what’s novel and attractor patterns
what’s novel into what
we know

It is because I believe that these patterns operate at any scale ‐‐ from individual
change to change in organizations and communities, to change across complex
social systems ‐‐ that I offer them for your use no matter what system you work
with. And while it may still require a strong stomach for riding the waves of change,
at least you will have some beacons to light the way.
One Last Item

Here’s the marketing pitch: working with emergence is fast, energy efficient, turns
disruptions into opportunities, leads to highly innovative results with broad support
and resilience over time. The catch: you have to rely on the people of the system to
make it happen.
Introduction: Changing How we Change

How do we find the gifts inherent in today’s unprecedented upheaval?

Chris, a client of mine who has taken on a complex and ambitious task– the
transformation of the corrections system in the U.S. – reflects the heart of this
challenge. He is exercising leadership not by issuing orders but by engaging in
open‐ended conversational processes that many of his peers view as very risky.
With a board asking very legitimate and traditional questions, like “What are you
doing?” and “What do you expect to achieve?” Chris is providing very untraditional
and courageous responses, saying, “We don’t know. We are making it up as we go
along. If we had the answers, why would we go to all this trouble?” While keeping
the skeptics at bay, Chris is blazing a path that is taking shape as he and the diverse
group working with him walk it.

We live in unprecedented times. With financial systems crumbling, oil prices rising
and falling, educational systems failing their students, whole industries like
newspaper publishing and auto manufacturing collapsing, it is clear that dramatic
change is happening whether we like it or not. The pathways of the past no longer
reliably guide us to understand the needs of the present, much less the future.

Since change is a given, how do we work with it to transform the systems we care
about? All around us, our social systems – organizations, communities, political
systems, economic systems, educational systems, etc. – are crying out for radical
shifts in how they operate. More and more, people are venturing into unchartered
territory, re‐imagining their systems. Leaders and change agents are struggling to
find a compass to guide them through the major changes they know are needed. And
since their tried and true ways of changing aren’t doing the job, change itself
requires an alchemical twist.

This is no easy path. Conflict and dissonance are squarely in the mix of change
today. We’ve maintained an illusion of stability in our social systems for many years
by suppressing a myriad of energies such as conflict, despair, fear, and rage, to say
nothing of deep aspirations and individual and collective passions and dreams.
These feelings simmer just below the surface for many in our systems. What will it
take to address them and their material fallout as whole industries and social
service systems stumble?

Enter the practice of working with emergence.

Handled well, everyone, including the change agent, is likely to be transformed in
the process of surfacing what has been simmering for so long. Whether it shows up
as a broken organization or the collapse of the financial system, there has been a
steady growth of experiments with change processes that engage the people of a
Peggy Holman 5/3/09 2:39 PM Page 1 of 12

peggy@opencirclecompany.com
system in creating their future. These “emergent change processes” have proven
effective in engaging the many diverse people of a system in using their differences
creatively. They engender skills and attitudes for “making stuff up” in the face of
actual or potential conflict with some degree of confidence that something good will
come of it.

People who experience such processes
• Are stretched, refreshed and energized in their own work;
• Connect with others, finding synergies and often forging unlikely
partnerships;
• Undertake breakthrough initiatives as they discover their differences add up
to unexpected ideas; and
• Over time, shape new and larger stories that hold their differences
coherently, forming a new cultural narrative that wisely integrates
conflicting perspectives and renews our sense of connection to each other
and a larger spirit of wholeness.

Over the last fifty years, a remarkable number of experiments have occurred in
businesses, schools, communities and other social systems. With names like Future
Search, Appreciative Inquiry, Open Space Technology and the World Cafei, these
emergent change processes have brought people together to radically improve their
systems. These efforts have taught us the value of participation and how diversity
and conflict used creatively can lead to breakthroughs. For example, a two‐year
conflict between the co‐managers of the Pacific Northwest’s marine waterways –
four Native American tribes and the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric
Administration (NOAA) – found unexpected answers from their differences for the
benefit of our coastal waters.

What is at the heart of emergent change?

Something fundamental is changing about who we are, what we are doing, how we
are with each other, and perhaps, even, what it all means. As it changes, it is tearing
many of us apart and in doing so, bringing together unlikely bedfellows. For
example, as the deep divides in the U.S. political system have made it virtually
impossible to work across the aisle, a nascent transpartisan movement is bringing
together Republicans, Democrats, Greens, Libertarians, Independents, and others to
use their differences creatively on behalf of the common good. We are living in
times of extremes – of climate, of financial crisis, of political perspectives. It is clear
we need to act – and quickly – but how? Change is far too important to leave in the
hands of experts. How can we make the patterns of change visible so that people
become conscious of what they already know and apply it more in their work and
lives?

There is a story of change and how to do it, generally called “change management”,
that, like many stories of our times, is no longer functioning well. And in a time of
change, when change itself isn’t functioning, well, something really does have to

change. Not only do we need a story that works with complexity, conflict, and
upheaval but we also need the means to equip as many people as possible to
activate that story in their organizations, communities, and the systems we live and
work in – health care, education, politics, economics, etc.

I have had the honor over the years of witnessing remarkable transitions from fear,
hopelessness, and conflict to renewal, commitment, and action. To transform –
literally to shift form – is a common outcome when using emergent processes. In
my first experience of such practices, I saw something that I did not know was
possible: the good of the individual and the good of the collective were both served.
Now I use this insight as a standard for assessing success. The experience sparked a
quest to discover what made such dramatic results possible. Some might call this a
search for theory. By whatever name, I believe that by making visible what is at
their core, the gifts of these practices can be integrated widely into everyday
interactions. Because they help us to bring together people who we view as
different, they are profoundly powerful practices for transforming a situation – at
any scale, in any system, no matter how broken it appears.

My search for what made these processes work came to life at the intersection of
four paths:
• A practice using emergent change processes – in which conversationsii
among diverse people lead to unexpected and lasting breakthroughs;

• A theory of emergence – a framework for how caring individual acts can
create useful collective order.

• A study of evolutionary dynamics – an understanding of how change
naturally occurs gained through exploring the mother of all change processes
– evolution.

• A pattern language for change – a means for communicating theory and
practice originated by architect Christopher Alexander and colleagues that
makes visible essential qualities of successful design.

A Practice Using Emergent Change Processes

“Emergent change processes” is one of a variety of terms used to describe a
remarkable group of methodologies that engage the diverse people of a system in
addressing their own challenges. They focus less on step‐by‐step activities and
more on creating conditions for fruitful conversations that lead to innovative
outcomes. These methods have been used to reorganize and reenergize failing
organizations; they have helped communities handle intractable and polarizing
conflicts, and currently there are numerous initiatives underway addressing
challenges like reforming the U.S. health care system or how we get the news.


Experiments with emergent change practices began appearing in the 1960’s. The
first documented “Search Conference” was at an aircraft manufacturer in Australia.
In their seminal 1996 book, Large Group Interventions, Billie Alban and Barbara
Bunker made visible 11 change practices that enabled diverse and conflicted groups
to create profoundly powerful solutions to complex problems. In 1999, the first
edition of The Change Handbook, which I edited with Tom Devane, told stories of a
range of accomplishments achieved using these and other practices, along with
insights into how they worked.

Telling a new story of how we can change our systems is the natural next step in my
personal study and practice of change. The first edition of The Change Handbook
resulted from my desire to understand why these methods worked. At the time, we
described a universe of eighteen change practices. Eight years later, the second
edition contained sixty‐one methods. At a whopping 732 pages, it was far from
complete. Even as we created the book, new practices were coming to the fore so
rapidly that important developments were not included (e.g., Theory U, Positive
Deviance). This developmental deluge made it infinitely clear to me that something
deeper was going on. My original desire to understand what made these practices
work grew stronger. And I was certainly not the only person pursing this question!
In fact, my friend and colleague, Juanita Brown, developer of the World Café, framed
the quest in a way that catalyzed the exploration for me:

What are the deeper patterns of these practices that use conversation to change
complex systems?

I have pursued this question through a variety of means – conversations with the
originators of these methodologies, my own practice, studying the work of my
friends and colleagues, analysis of the practices themselves, hosting workshops for
others. Here are some threads of what I have learned.

Years of talking with and working with the masters of the field coupled with
my own practice. The Change Handbook gave me entrée to the leaders who
originated practices for helping organizations and communities change. Through
the lens of Juanita’s question, I sought the gifts these different practices offered.
Each practice I delved into taught me something essential. Some of the lessons were
explicitly named by the people who created the approach; others I discovered
through my practice.

From Appreciative Inquiry (AI), I learned the power of affirming questions to
focus and attract, bounding a space by drawing people together around an inquiry
that matters to them. Through practicing AI, I discovered that when people share
their stories, they discover that what is most personal is also universal. When they
experience each other’s humanity, they rise above well ingrained assumptions about
each other to embrace deeper shared truths.


Dynamic Facilitation introduced me to the transformative power of reflection;
that just listening can bring the remarkable gifts of change. As people are fully
heard, they open to the larger, more complex picture painted by their diverse views
and, grounded in that bigger picture, start to co‐create new ways of seeing, thinking,
and responding.

Future Search has been seminal for many, offering the core idea of inviting the
whole system into the room. They coined the now widely used term “stakeholder”.
In practice, Future Search helped me understand the transformative power of a
lived experience of the system. I discovered that when people experience
themselves as a whole, it shifts their sense of identity and their behavior. Just as the
heart, hand, and brain are all distinct and essential parts of one body, so each of us
brings into our collective life different and essential aspects of our larger social
body.

In naming the principles of The World Café, Juanita Brown was the first person I
know to make explicit the importance of creating hospitable space – cultivating a
spirit of welcome – physically, intellectually, emotionally, and even spiritually. In
addition, through experiencing the World Café, I came to appreciate the fractal
nature of conversation. In other words, when focused on an intention, small groups
– each having a unique experience – uncover similar insights. This enables the heart
of an inquiry to surface rapidly and broadly.

From Open Space Technology, which I consider my “home base”, I learned that
when people take responsibility for what they love, they connect more deeply with
themselves and in doing so, act in service to something larger than themselves.
From Harrison Owen, creator of Open Space, I came to appreciate generosity of
spirit – sharing what we know and what we are learning so that we all grow. He
taught me to strive for simplicity of design by continually asking what is one less
thing to do while remaining whole. My practice with Open Space has brought many
lessons. One key insight: pay attention to the essence – finding coherence among a
diverse group often rests in uncovering what is at the heart of each perspective. I
also learned about the importance of invitation and including the stranger, both the
stranger outside and the stranger within ourselves.

All of these practices introduced me to the notion of following the energy, accepting
that mystery is an essential part of the equation. By definition, if we know the
outcome before we begin, there is no transformational change. These methods have
also taught me that envisioning a desired future is an essential aspect of bringing it
into being.

Studying the work of others. There are infinite ways to shape this inquiry into
deeper patterns of change. Friends and colleagues have done so through a variety of
windows: What enables conversations that matter? What are the principles of self‐
organization? What are the patterns of the art of hosting? How does a coup or
revolution do its work? I have looked at the work of long‐time practitioners and

students fresh to the field in their own quest. In particular, Juanita Brown, Harrison
Owen, David Cooperrider, Diana Whitney, Solomon Asch, Lorne Rubis, Jim Rough,
Tom Atlee, Sandra Janoff, Marv Weisbord, Chris Corrigan, Michael Herman, Anne
Stadler, Mark Jones, and Candi Foon have profoundly influenced my work.

In particular, the community of practice called Spirited Work that met in Open
Space four times a year for seven years, taught me countless lessons that will show
up in these pages. Along with my dear colleagues Anne Stadler (who conceived of
and created Spirited Work), Mark Jones, and Candi Foon, I began to understand
these practices are more than methodologies for effective meetings but are
informed by deeper philosophies and life practices. Having shifted from an
orientation of discrete meetings to an orientation of an ongoing community of
practice, we began to understand the implications for what it means to live
consciously in and as a complex, adaptive system. I learned from Anne to welcome
disturbances, that they are the source of transformative gifts. I learned to
appreciate that transformative change doesn’t happen by planning A to B to C to D.
Rather, transformative change comes through disturbances. And while we may not
be able to control the disturbances, we have a choice in how we meet them. I
uncovered a framework for inviting emergence that, while the specific results are
not predictable, does consistently move a group towards its intention. We – the
stewards of Spirited Work ‐‐ carried with us the question, what does it mean to live
one’s life in open space? It provided much of the base for the work that follows.
And yet, I knew there was more to uncover.

Affinity analyses of change practices. Gathering the work of many master
practitioners into one place – The Change Handbook – makes it possible to draw
their stated principles together and look across them. An affinity analysis is a fancy
name for clustering like items together and naming the clusters. It is a bottom‐up
design activity. In my search for patterns, I have done this type of analysis multiple
times and in different combinations, looking broadly across very different types of
practices and narrowly among those practices that I find most emergent. I have
included in some or many iterations: Appreciative Inquiry, Bohm Dialogue, Council
circle, Consensus, Conversation Café, Dynamic Facilitation, Future Search, Graphic
Facilitation, Human Systems Dynamics, Leadership Dojo, Nonviolent
Communication, Open Space Technology, Playback Theatre, Scenario Thinking,
Search Conference, Theatre of the Oppressed, Whole Scale Change and World Café. I
brought in principles from kindred others: principles of emergence, as defined by
Steven Johnson, Angeles Arrien’s Four Fold Way, Dick Beckhards’ change formula,
Dick Axelrod’s Terms of Engagement, the Center for Ethical Leadership’s Gracious
Space, Stuart Kaufman’s principles for self‐organizing, Tom Atlee’s principles to
nurture wise democratic process and collective intelligence in public participation,
Nancy White and Gabriel Shirley’s social architecture for online environments, and
the International Association for Public Participation's Core Values.

Each review of these practices surfaced new insights, about the role of disturbance
in change, the nature of listening to oneself and others, the importance of inquiry,

clarity of intention and a positive perspective. A handful of common patterns also
surfaced with each pass. I developed a working set of patterns: centering, clarifying
intentions, inviting the diversity of the system, cultivating hospitable space, asking
bold affirmative questions, being receptive to what emerges, taking responsibility
for what we love as an act of service, and doing it again…and again.

I knew I was on a useful path, but that there was something more.

Workshops on patterns and a pattern language. At conferences, including the
Nexus for Change (www.nexusforchange.org), I held sessions with other
practitioners to discuss these deeper patterns. In 2008, I co‐hosted a workshop
with Tom Atlee at the National Coalition for Dialogue and Deliberation (NCDD) on a
“Pattern Language for Conversations that Matter”. I had known of Christopher
Alexander’s seminal work on pattern language as a means for design but had never
fully appreciated its subtle brilliance until we began to prepare. We delved into
Alexander’s work and discovered a broad and deep practice that has grown around
his work over the last thirty years. While Alexander and his colleagues were
defining patterns for shaping buildings, towns, and communities, the tech world has
embraced his work to design software. There is a pattern language for a sustainable
economy and another for information and communication. Our workshop focused
on patterns for interactions in human systems. We defined a pattern as a
description of a vital design element in a lifeserving system that explains something
we need to do to generate the phenomenon it defines. For example, bringing a
“positive perspective” generates positive possibilities. Our definition of a pattern
language: a system of interrelating patterns that together define a high quality vision
of what we want and can guide us in wise design choices.

At the workshop, five groups identified patterns that they saw as essential. No
pattern appeared in all five maps. Four patterns were in three of the maps:
clarifying intentions, inquiry, inclusion, and opening. I knew these elements were
essential but not complete. And I knew that understanding how they related to each
other was as important as understanding the elements themselves.

It was time to look into another arena. With seminal works like Meg Wheatley’s
Leadership and the New Science, and Harrison Owen’s nod to biologist, Stuart
Kaufman’s work on complexity, I had been following the literature on the sciences
studying complexity, chaos, complex adaptive systems, and related fields for years.
Most fruitful for me has been the emerging understanding of emergence.

A Theory of Emergence

Steven Johnson offers a definition of emergence that I find tremendously clarifying.
“Agents residing on one scale start producing behavior that lies one scale above
them: ants create colonies; urbanites create neighborhoods; simple pattern‐
recognition software learns how to recommend new books. The movement from

low‐level rules to higher‐level sophistication is what we call emergence.” (Johnson,
2001)iii In other words, contrary to the popular story that change starts from the
top, we are beginning to understand how change actually happens from the bottom
up. How does this reconcile with everything we know about the power of position
and money and leadership to affect change? When it comes to human systems,
there is much to learn by working at this edge. In fact, terms like “bottom up” or
“top down” cease to have meaning as we start working from a perspective that looks
far more like a network of connections among diverse interacting individuals.

As our frame of reference shifts, consider some illustrations of that new story of
change. It is not that our traditional story disappears, rather it is integrated into a
larger context:

(in no particular order)
Traditional Framing Traditional Framing Plus
Strive for Stability Stability exists in a dance of dynamic
tensions
Build/Construct/Manage Support/Invite Emergence
Difference and dissonance as problem Diversity and dissonance as resource
Predictable, controllable Mysterious, surprising
Handle logistics Cultivate hospitable conditions
Pay attention to the mainstream Pay attention to the dance between the
mainstream and the margins
Process design Container creation and process design
Hierarchy Network
Focus on outcomes Focus on intentions, hold outcomes
lightly
Charismatic leader Shared, emergent, flexible leadership
Work solo Work in community
Incremental part by part Whole system via
macrocosms/microcosms
Top‐down or bottom‐up Multi‐directional
Classical Jazz/improvisation
Restrain disturbance Welcome disturbance
Declare/Advocate Inquire/Explore
Follow the plan Follow the energy
Manufacture Midwife
Focus on the form of things Focus on the unfolding of things
Be sure there are no surprises Experiment

Johnson speaks of how our understanding of emergence has evolved over the last
several decades. In the initial phase, seekers grappled with ideas of self‐
organization without having language to describe something they could sense was
there. This phase was much like the surprise that indigenous people experienced
when Columbus’ sailing ships landed. The ships’ shapes had no meaning for them

because they were outside of their world view.iv As language emerged – complexity,
selforganization, complex adaptive systems – a second phase of understanding
emergence began in which people started coming together across disciplines to
understand the nature of this pattern. Whether they were dealing with biology,
physics, economics, or other realms of inquiry, the pattern described the
phenomenon they were seeing. Mitchell Waldrop’s book, Complexity, tells the story
of the Sante Fe Institute and its role in this new field coming into being. (Waldrop,
1992)v According to Johnson, sometime during the 1990’s, we entered a third phase
in which we “stopped analyzing emergence and started creating it.” (Johnson,
2001)vi This book is all about what it takes to create conditions for emergence.

Thanks to the popular writings of Meg Wheatley, Mitchell Waldrop, Stuart Kaufman,
Elisabet Sahtouris, and others, the language of emergence is making its way into our
consciousness and our language. It is being integrated into an increasing number of
fields. Practitioners of emergent change processes have been working with
emergence in organizations and communities since the 1960’s. Now we have
language for it that ties it with developments in economics, biology, physics, and
other fields.

This book marries what we know about emergence with the activities practitioners
of emergent change have been exploring for the last fifty years. It seeks to make
conscious the capacities that already exist in and among us. It gives us language that
makes visible the patterns that work so that more people can apply them with less
need for formal training. All of us have examples in our lives of using the ideas that I
am naming in this book. By giving them form and context, they become more
available to all of us.

With the ties between the practice of whole system change a theory of emergence
clearer, I found myself searching for something more to help make these ideas more
accessible, how emergence relates to our everyday experience when uncertainty
and disturbance are most prevalent. Looking to how change naturally occurs
seemed promising.

A Study of Evolutionary Dynamics that Inform How Change Occurs

When cosmologist, Brian Swimme, speaks of evolution he sometimes paints a
remarkable image: “Earth, once molten rock, now sings opera.” (Swimme and Berry,
1992)vii Just think about this amazing journey over billions of years. What made it
possible? The slow, incremental shifts, the wrong turns and extinctions, the
nourishing times of stability, the rapid and unexpected collapses and explosively
creative responses. You could say that evolution is the mother of all change
processes, using a remarkable range of strategies. As our mothers often do,
evolution has much to teach us about the patterns of change. We know there is both
repetition and infinite variation. Isn’t it useful that babies are born looking more or
less like their parents, yet each is as different as every snowflake? It is both violent

‐ storms, volcanoes, wars – and nourishing – a livable biosphere for a remarkable
variety of life to flourish, years of peace and prosperity to invent and grow strong.

The word “change” is our term for all of these different forms. There is incremental
change, such as aging, which brings remarkable shifts, many predictable, many
unexpected. On occasion, there is discontinuous change, a complete reordering of
our personal world (leaving for college, having an epiphany or a serious accident) or
our larger world (a company going out of business, the industrial revolution taking
off, a volcano erupting, a meteor hitting causing the dominant species to go extinct).
There is even a sort of “anti‐change”, the energy spent to maintain stability (riding a
bicycle, building a barricade to keep something in or out). The better we
understand the different dynamics of change, the better we can design processes
that are consonant with the deeper patterns that evolution, itself, uses.

In a sense, evolution invites us to see "change" as an ongoing process, a 14 billion
year story in which we play an increasingly conscious role. And just as we can track
cosmic, geologic and biological evolution, it is also possible to follow the trail of
evolution across human practices of change. War and force have been common
means through the centuries. Nonviolence has also had a long history of
development. Think of Lysistra – perhaps the original "Make love not war" action ‐‐
the Boston Tea Party, Gandhi’s Satyagraha movement for India’s liberation, and
Martin Luther King’s approach to civil rights. When, in the 1960’s social scientists
began experimenting with bringing together diverse groups to address complex
issues in real‐time, another branch of nonviolent change in human systems
appeared: emergent change processes. With the advent of the Internet, such
practices are making the leap from face‐to‐face to electronic forms. As this occurs,
the networked nature of how we self‐organize is becoming clearer. The remarkable
success of the Obama campaign demonstrates what happens as people connect to
each other using the power of clear intention and commitment, friendship and
community outreach, and tools for going to scale.

Among these infinite ways that we change, the research into how evolution makes
change helped me move away from the jargon of change processes to a generalized
view. For me, the insight at the heart of our research is that emergence happens as
diverse entities interact in a given context. In other words, we can create the
conditions for emergence to produce generative outcomes by inviting the varied
people of a system to engage each other hosted in a hospitable environment with a
question that matters to them.

I felt close to ready to share this story. I now had a general understanding of how
emergence unfolds – by diverse entities interacting in a given context; what it is – a
stable, unprecedented system that arises from that interaction, and how it works in
practice – creating a nutrient space to work through inquiry, welcoming, inviting
diversity, to name a few patterns. Now, how could I share what I was learning, help
it all make sense to someone who doesn’t live and breathe emergence in social

systems so that they could apply it to the upheaval in their lives, organizations, and
communities?

A Pattern Language for Change

The NCDD workshop convinced me that a pattern language was a promising means
to share broadly the ideas of how we can change our systems. I spoke with an
architect friend, Mira Jean Steinbrecher, who told me people came to her with
patterns they wanted in the houses she designed with them. I read stories of
software developers who used patterns to increase the essential qualities of their
work, such as functionality, usability, reliability, performance, and supportability.

Was it possible to describe the core work of change practitioners so that
without years of developing a deep knowledge of theory, someone could take
initiative in their workplace or neighborhood, to hold a conversation that mattered;
a conversation in which something intractable changed for the better?

That became a goal: use a pattern language to express deep theory so that it
is available to anyone with a good head and a good heart, to use a saying of Harrison
Owen, creator of Open Space Technology.

One other aspect of Alexander’s pattern language made it attractive to me.
Key to every pattern that Alexander and his colleagues name is a notion Alexander
calls a “quality without a name” or QWAN. This indescribable something is essential
to change! And the moment it is labeled, it ceases to be QWAN. So without labeling
it, I offer a description which points in its direction.

Change occurs where there is the life energy to call forth something new.
Such aliveness exists where there is dynamic tension. In the old story of change,
tensions and disturbances are something to be avoided. They are disruptive and
unwelcome. By suppressing them, they often become fixed, stuck. Something goes
dead. We learn how to walk around these dead zones, sometimes forgetting they
are even there. I think such deadening leads to alienation, greed, intolerance, and
inaction or violence, characteristics present in many of our current crises. What if
tensions became a source of curiosity, something to be embraced? Where there is
tension, there is inevitably a competing energy – male/female,
mainstream/alternative, progressive/conservative. What if rather than treating
these tensions as win‐loose conflicts, we treat them as partnerships, each with
something to offer? Framed in this way, such dynamic dances lend themselves to
stability, but one that is always in motion – alive. There is a concept in biology that
when a system reaches equilibrium, it is dead. And chaos and complexity theories
suggest that life gravitates to the boundary between order and chaos. Needless to
say, following life energy requires and calls out from us a different quality of
attention. It develops an understanding that we can be different or disagree AND be

connected. Alexander’s QWAN points to this dance of dynamic tensions. It, too, is
part of a new story of change.

With the choice of the pattern language to share the concrete aspects of working
with emergence, I was ready to write. For those who prefer to begin with the
practical details, I encourage you to start with chapter 4 ‐ A Practical View of
Working with Emergence. For those who wish to dive into a theory of applied
emergence, read on.

i See The Change Handbook, Berrett‐Koehler, 2007.
ii I use “conversation” in an expansive sense. At root, it means “to turn together”. While words are
most common, any form of interaction – poetry, prose, silence, visual arts, music, and movement can
also be forms of conversation.
iii Johnson, Steven. Emergence: The Connected Lives of ants, brains, cities, and software. New York:
Scribner, 2001, p. 18.
iv Zinn, Howard. A People’s History of the United States. New York: HarperCollins, 2003.
v Waldrop, Mitchell M. Complexity: The Emerging Science at the Edge of Chaos. New York: Simon and
Schuster, 1992.
vi Johnson, pg. 21.
vii Swimme, Brian and Thomas Berry. The Universe Story. New York: HarperCollins, 1992.

What is Emergence?

For most of us, the notion of emergence is tough to grasp. This makes sense, because it,
too, is still emerging. When something new arises, we have no simple, short-hand
language for it. We stumble with words, images, analogies to communicate this whiff in
the air that we can barely smell. We know it exists because something does not fit easily
into what we already know. It disrupts, creates dissonance. When scientists from
different fields talked with peers about this odd phenomenon of some unexpected leap in
their work, order arising out of chaos, it seemed isolated, elusive. They didn’t have the
word "emergence" to describe it.
The Santa Fe Institute was born out of a hunch that brought together biologists,
cosmologists, physicists, economists and others to explore these odd notions all pointing
in similar directions. Though their language was different, it was close enough that they
knew they were on to something and they were no longer alone.
As they continued meeting, they started to give it language and a name to their
experience: emergence. They called it into being, midwived its birth. While it has
aspects of the familiar – mom’s nose, dad’s eyes -- it is its own being, with properties that
don’t exist in its parts. It isn’t just the integration of the best of the past and best of
what’s new. It is something more – and different.
The story of emergence is still early in its unfolding. We have struggled with its
existence, described some of its properties and given it a name. We are in the earliest of
stages in understanding what it means to social systems – organizations, communities,
and sectors such as politics, heath care, education – and how to apply it to support
positive changes and deep transformation.
In social systems, when life-energy flows, it moves us toward possibilities that serve
enduring needs, intentions and values. Forms change, conserving essential truths while
bringing novelty that wasn’t possible before; originality that serves those essential needs,
intentions, and values more fully.
The Nature of Emergence
Emergence is a natural phenomenon, an unfolding of change over time. And it isn’t

necessarily a positive experience. Erupting volcanoes, crashing meteorites, and other
such events have brought about emergent change, such as new species arising to fill the
void left by those made extinct. Wars also often leave offspring of novel, higher-order
systems. The League of Nations and United Nations were unprecedented social
innovations from their respective world-wide wars. So emergence most definitely has a
dark side. In human systems, it will likely show itself when strong emotions are ignored
or suppressed for too long. Emergence is always happening; if we don’t work with it, it
will work us over.

When we do work with emergence, people often speak of a magical quality to it, in part,
because it is impossible to predetermine outcomes. It can’t be manufactured. It is filled
with surprises, frequently producing unexpected results. It often arises by drawing from
individual and collective intuition. It tends to be fueled by strong emotions – whether
excitement, anger, fear, or grief. And it is rarely seen as flowing logically from A to B.
It feels much more like a leap of faith.
When sponsors experience an emergent change process for the first time, they often don’t
sleep well the last night. They are looking for signs of the answers they seek in the day’s
work and finding none. I can hear their unspoken thoughts: “Will I have wasted the time
and money of a group of caring, committed people?” Yet at the end of the gathering, I
consistently hear the message, as they are giddy with excitement, “I never could have
imagined this great result!”
Remember Chris, my client who was seeking a way forward for the field of corrections?
When a diverse group from the system came together using an emergent change process
to advise his organization on how to proceed, they broke through together into a powerful
question to guide their next step -- one that excited them all:
How do we reduce the prison population in half while maintaining public safely in eight
years?
No one could have predicted this focus. It arose out of interactions among deeply caring,
knowledgeable, diverse individuals who came together in a nutrient environment around
a question that mattered to them.
This example points to one key insight that makes working with emergence possible:
Just because specific outcomes are unpredictable, doesn’t make working with emergence
impossible. It just requires a shift in orientation. With clear intentions and a well-set
context – framing what is relevant to the situation, including the physical, emotional,
intellectual, and even spiritual aspects - we can engage creatively with emergence and
generate terrific results. An intention provides direction, invokes an aspiration, without
tying it to specific results. This distinction between intentions and outcomes helps handle
some of the anxiety many of us feel when facing the unknown.
The Study of Emergence
Peter Corning offers a brilliant essayi on emergence, pulling together a multitude of

sources to provide both a history and evolution in perspectives on this subject:
• It has come in and out of favor since the 1875. According to philosopher David Blitz,
the term was coined by the pioneer psychologist G. H. Lewes, writing “…there is a
co-operation of things of unlike kinds. The emergent is unlike its components …and
it cannot be reduced to their sum or their difference.” By the 1920’s, the ideas of
emergence fell into disfavor under the onslaught of analysis as the best means to
make sense of our world. As interest in complexity science and the development of

non-linear mathematical tools has grown providing the means to model complex,
dynamic interactions, the ideas of emergence – how whole systems evolve has
revived.
• It is intimately tied to studies of evolution. Herbert Spencer, an English philosopher

and contemporary of Darwin, described emergence as: “an inherent, energy-driven
trend in evolution toward new levels of organization.” It is the sudden changes in
evolution – the move from ocean to land, from ape to human. I think of emergence as
the learning edge of evolution – in which evolution itself enters the unknown and
unfolds into something novel.
• Professor Jeffrey Goldstein, of Adelphi University, articulated common

characteristics of emergence. Those widely agreed upon are:
o radical novelty -- at each level of complexity entirely new properties appear

(e.g., from autocracy- rule by one person with unlimited power to democracy
– government in which the people are the primary source of political power)
o coherence – a system of interactions having a sufficiently stable form over
time that we name it (e.g., elephant, biosphere, Sally)
o “wholeness” – not just the sum of its parts, but also very different and
irreducible from its parts (e.g., humans are more than the composition of lots
of cells)
o dynamic – always in process, continuing to evolve (e.g., everything)
o downward causation – organizing and shaping the behavior of the parts (e.g.,
roads determine where we drive)
Emergent systems increase order despite the lack of command and central controlii. They
are open systems that extract information and order out of their environment, bringing
coherence to increasingly complex forms. This occurs through some alchemy among
diversity, organization, and connectivityiii. In emergent change processes, this is
accomplished by paying attention to bringing together diverse people, setting clear
intentions, creating hospitable conditions, and engaging them in a mix of interactions that
foster a variety of connections. Think of it as an extended cocktail party with a purpose.
In a sense, emergence is a perspective that tracks the evolution of systems - how wholes
change over time. Single cell organisms increase in complexity and multi-cellular
creatures emerge. Humans have an emergent capacity of self-consciousness and are now
tracking evolution. And our evolution seems to be moving towards increasing self‐
management. Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States indirectly tells
this story. Zinn paints a depressing picture of the forces of wealth and power
crushing the rise of ordinary people throughout history. Yet, in stepping back from
his account, it is clear that our social systems are slowly, steadily moving towards
increasing numbers of people taking responsibility for the choices that affect their
lives.


Our attention shapes the nature of what emerges by naming what is unfolding. Did the
industrial revolution – an emergent stage of social evolution – exist before it was named?
What do we call the era we are in now? We seem to be on the verge of something with
even greater self-organizing tendencies. It doesn’t yet have a name to call it into being.
For now, I call it a renaissance. This act of naming is a pattern of emergent change – as
something is named, its potential to take shape so that it can be realized increases.
Emergence is a process – a continual, never-ending unfolding, a verb. It places as much

emphasis on interactions as it does on the elements interacting. Most of us focus on what
we can observe – the animal, the project outcome, the noun. Emergence requires us to
pay attention to what is happening – the disturbance when two people interact, the
stranger arriving with different cultural assumptions that ripple through the organization
or community. Emergence is a product of interactions among entities. And since
interactions don’t exist in a vacuum, the nature of the context also matters. That is why
just bringing diverse people together won’t necessarily lead to a promising outcome. The
initial conditions that set the context – how the invitation is issued, the quality of
welcome, the questions posed, the physical space – all influence whether a fight breaks
out or warm, unexpected partnerships form.
One last aspect of emergence: there is a distinction sometimes drawn between weak and
strong emergence. Weak emergence describes new properties arising in a system. A
baby is wholly unique from its parents, yet is basically predictable in general form.
Strong emergence occurs when a novel form arises that was completely unpredictable. It
has qualities that can’t easily be traced to the system’s components or their interactions.
Think of a xxxx. It is this form that gives emergence some of its unnerving, leap-of-faith
quality.
The Promise of Emergence
After years of working with emergent change processes, there are some outcomes that we
know how to consistently generate. While specific results are unpredictable, there are
types of outcomes that dependably occur when hospitable conditions are created:
• People come away stretched, refreshed, and inspired to pursue what matters to them.
More, they know they are not alone. They are now part of a larger community of
people who also care and -- whether or not they have clear language for it -- they can
act knowing their work serves not just themselves but a larger whole dedicated to a
shared intention.
Another consequence of this realization is increased courage to act, knowing you

have mentors, supporters, and fans. I have been part of an initiative since 2000
bringing together the system of journalism to create a new future. At an early
Journalism that Matters (JTM) gathering, a young woman, recently out of college,
arrived with the seed of an idea – putting a human face on international reporting for
U.S. audiences. At the gathering, not only did she find support for the idea, she was
coached by people with deep experience and offered entrée to their contacts. Today,

the Common Language Project is thriving, with multiple awards
(www.commonlanguageproject.com).
• New and unlikely partnerships form. When people who don’t normally meet come
together, there can be sparks. When a creative container makes room for their
differences, the interactions can be lively and productive. At another JTM gathering,
a young Asian woman from New York and an older Caucasian Californian man who
had taken a buyout from his newspaper discovered a mutual interest in travel
reporting. They are now at work creating their version of the future of this genre.
• Breakthrough projects surface, experiments that would never have arisen without the
variety of interactions among diverse people. The Poynter Institute, an educational
institution that serves mainstream media, was seeking a new direction as its
traditional constituency is falling away. As a co-host for a JTM gathering, they had a
number of staff participating. By listening deeply to what people were saying, and
broadly to the range of voices present, they uncovered an idea that builds on the best
of who they are and takes them into new territory: supporting the training needs of
entrepreneurial journalists. This is just one of a myriad of projects born at the
gathering. Which ones will succeed remains to be seen, but each will leave its
experimenters a little wiser in the process.
• With time and continued interaction, the story itself begins to change. A new cultural
narrative of who we are takes shape. Journalism that Matters has convened thirteen
gatherings over ten years. In the beginning, we just hoped to discover new
possibilities for a struggling field so that it could better serve democracy. As the
mainstream media, particularly newspapers, began failing, the work has become more
vital. We see not just an old story of journalism dying – and provide a place for it to
be mourned -- but we also see the glimmers of a new and vital story being born.
Journalism that Matters has become a vibrant and open conversational space where
innovations are known to emerge.
In summary, our experience shows that working with emergence can create not just great
initiatives, but leave behind it much more: the energy to act, a sense of community, and a
greater sense of the whole – a collectively intelligent system at work.
What’s the Catch?
If emergence holds so much promise, why isn’t it more widely embraced? First, we are
just beginning to understand its dynamics so that we can successfully engage with them.
More, there is a catch to working with emergence. In fact, there are several.
Catch 1: You can’t force it.
Engaging with emergence is indirect. Emergent novelty arises from interactions among
diverse entities in a given context. It is impossible to predict which interactions, in what

sequence, among whom are going to be the winning combinations that lead to renewal.
That is both the frustration and the magic of emergence. Who knew that a chance
conversation between a xx and yy would lead to zzz? So, we set intentions and initial
conditions, make room for lots of interaction among diverse people of the system in a
hospitable environment and let go. Or step in, since we are part of the system and likely
to be changed by the process. This creates many tight feedback loops in which, for
example, people connect in many conversations in different mixes over a few hours or
days, explore ideas, and initiate experiments.
Catch 2: Will you recognize it when you see it?
At first it seems to be just something we already know. When encountering novelty, our
first impulse is to try to fit it into our existing frame of reference, the forms we already
know.
A gathering of journalists explored the question: What is our work in the new news
ecology?
For two days, about 80 people from the whole system of journalism engaged in intense
conversation. On the last morning, people spent some time in quiet reflection, paying
attention to the patterns that mattered to them in their own life and work. They shared
stories in groups of three or four, listening for what had meaning to them all. Then, as a
whole, they surfaced the ideas that resonated most in the room. Among the insights, two
were most heartily embraced:
• If it serves the public good, it’s good; and

• Journalism is now entrepreneurial.
No news there. Or is there? As I watched these seemingly obvious notions sink in, I
could feel the wheels turning for many in the room. These simple statements contained
important and liberating truths for this moment in time, for this group on the edge of
journalism's rebirth. Further, they affirmed a direction for experimentation for many.
Legacy journalists, who thought they needed the name of their news organization behind
them to be credible, realized they can make their voice count as an independent.
At some point, it flips. What seems familiar and easily integrated into existing ways of
thinking suddenly becomes a new organizing idea. Rather than trying to fit serving the
public good into business models that are leading to ever greater pressures to produce
content that doesn’t matter, the journalism is liberated from its existing shackles, free to
find new ways to survive. It becomes entrepreneurial. It is clear the path won’t be easy.
It is also clear that journalism is alive and well, simply shedding the sources of funding
that made for a happy marriage for many years. And with this realization, whole new
forms appear, aspects made possible by technologies that support communities to co-
create, to trigger society-wide action, to develop new forms of expression that meet its
core intention of serving the public more effectively than ever.

What about communities of journalists, who come together in novel ways, creating a
network of coverage; an idea embodied in an experiment called “Representative
Journalism”? Or crowd-funding, in which people post story ideas and attract pledges for
small amounts of funding that add up to sufficient funds to launch an investigation?
Called spot.us, this is another idea born at a JTM gathering that has received foundation
funding. The implications for a vibrant, albeit chaotic renaissance in journalism are
exciting as this simple realization that journalism is now entrepreneurial and serves the
public good gains traction. What was outside the realm of imagination – entrepreneurial
journalism – becomes part of the system, novelty is born, and journalism itself is
renewed.
Catch 3: Will you notice the outcomes?
Certainly there are home runs, projects so spectacular they can’t be ignored. More often,
the outcomes can be difficult to spot. Journalism that Matters has been a seedbed of
innovation. It has generated hundreds of projects that we’ll never know originated
through JTM. In part, we don’t have the resources to track all the ideas, small and large,
that people pursue. Even if we did, sometimes the people themselves may not make the
connection. A few years ago, we interviewed some of our alumni. It was only through
our inquiry that people realized the initiating spark of a major project they were doing,
perhaps with a partner they had met at JTM, happened because of a “chance” encounter.
So how do we know we’re being successful? People keep coming back. They tell us
how stimulating the experience is, how many ideas, friendships, partnerships, and energy
they take home with them. More, others recognize something about the people. Five of
the six fellows in the inaugural class of the University of Missouri’s School of Journalism
were JTM alums.
Journalism that Matters has been quite diffuse, since it brings individuals from many
different systems together. When an intact organization or community engages with
emergent change processes, or in a community with sufficient infrastructure (e.g., easy
communication, access to resources or support staff, etc.), you are more likely to notice
tangible outcomes. Even then, it may not be so easy. Marvin Weisbord and Sandra
Janoff, creators of Future Search, began bringing together the people they worked with
six months after doing a Future Search. There was a typical story: Well, not much has
happened since the event. But we did this thing in my department/neighborhood. When
thirty or fifty people each name the little something they did and hear each other’s story,
they realize that remarkable changes underway. It energizes and amplifies their work.
This is the nature of emergence: occasional big, discontinuous leaps -- usually creating
major disruptions – and years of many small, incremental changes integrating those shifts
into a new context, a new story of who we are together. By bringing these patterns to
consciousness, we can work with the elegance of change, its rhythm and pace, to move
with it towards new possibilities.

Catch 4: Perhaps what is most important isn’t even on your radar screen.
It is often the unexpected consequences that are the most vital. We tend to look at what
projects were initiated as a measure of success. Or, if we’re looking longer term, what
projects were successfully implemented. While these are good and important outcomes,
it may be that the real treasures are more subtle.
Over many years of watching temporary communities form and disperse, I have observed
an exciting trend. Because we create a context in which trust and friendship grow,
networks form – communities of friends – from which not just one project is launched,
but the capacity for continuous learning and experimentation emerges.
With little or no seed money, the networks surrounding Journalism that Matters, or the
communities of practice surrounding different emergent change practices – Future
Search, Open Space, World Café, Appreciative Inquiry – are slowly growing. In the
change practice communities, there are literally thousands of practitioners around the
world who could be catalyzed into action should an intention of sufficient magnitude call
them to act. In the meantime, they share stories and questions, mentoring and being
mentored, researching and learning together, evolving the practices that enable us to work
well using emergent practices.
This nascent understanding of how systems can organize themselves quickly – to behave
with collective intelligence -- holds great potential for new forms of organization. What
if we took seriously the idea that all systems are self-organizing? By consciously
working with those dynamics, we could free tremendous life-energy that serves both the
individuals and the systems that we form. Just imagine: self-organization of our social
systems becoming conscious of themselves. In other words, the systems learn to manage
themselves without guidance from above. They operate as an ebb and flow of network
connections, regulated by an emergent collective intelligence. We are not in charge. It
takes humility to welcome the self-organizing energies of the system, creating the
conditions and tools that individuals need to have sufficient context and feedback to
make choices that serve both their well-being and the well-being of the whole.
We are babies in understanding this potential! Over time, people who experience
emergent change processes, grow more resilient. They develop comfort with mystery
and the ability to work with life-energy, whether it shows up as joy and excitement or
fear, anger or grief. They know that focusing on possibility draws them towards what the
system and the people in it need. In effect, a virtuous cycle is unfolding in which
emergence brings forth greater capacity for consciously self-organizing, which brings
forth emergence and so on. Who knows where this will lead?

i Corning, Peter. “The Reemergence of ‘Emergence’: A Venerable Concept in Search of a Theory”,
Complexity, 2002.
ii http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergence
iii http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergence

The Feel of Emergence: Working from the Inside Out
To date, I’ve talked about emergence in clinical terms. The emotional effect of
disturbance, whether viewed as positive or negative, brings energy essential to change.
What follows is a context for thinking about emergence and some questions that help
people make sense of the experience.
The Forces of Change: Putting Emergence in Context

When faced with a challenge, most of us begin by looking at what’s inside the system
– what’s the problem, who’s involved; what can be done, etc. Then we dive in to
solve it. This works when the assumptions of the system are stable. If I’ve got a
leaky radiator on my car, I know where to look to fix it. But if it happens again the
next day, I may find myself looking elsewhere for the cause. When dealing with
emergent change, making visible the assumptions that create our world view – this
is a safe neighborhood with no pranksters doing dirty tricks; cars are well built, my
mechanic is thorough, etc. – are as important as what’s inside the system.

I have spent years living with the inquiry into deeper patterns of change, seeking
what is most essential to name. It took the frustration of feeling stuck, sensing
something vital was missing to move me to finally ask “what is the context for
successfully working with emergence?” In a flash, a missing piece fell into place and
this book began to flow. In other words, I looked outside the system to understand
the assumptions that made my world view coherent. That’s when I realized there is
a dynamic so fundamental to change that it influences everything about the way we
relate to emergence. It is the eternal dance of change ‐‐ chaos/order,
convergence/divergence, coherence/differentiation ‐‐ an ever-present tension
between two natural forces as old as the universe itself.
In every system, there is
• a drive for coherence -- for relationship, harmony, unity, community, wholeness

– a coming together - convergence. Think of atoms forming molecules, people
joining into communities, or our longing to contribute to something larger than
ourselves.
• a drive for differentiation -- individuality, distinction, uniqueness – a breaking

apart - divergence. Think of teenagers separating from parents to find their
identity, a co-worker striking off to freelance, or our longing to be accepted just as
we are.
The next time you interact with someone, notice the dance. What you say, what you do
is, in some way, bringing you closer together or sending you further apart. Through this
lens, all of the patterns of change – the questions we ask, who and how we invite, what
we welcome, what we are open to explore – support us in discovering what binds us into

a larger whole. To paraphrase Gregory Bateson, The “difference which makes a
difference” is the one from which we learn1. Understand this natural rhythm and you
understand the essential core of change.
There is a give and take between people and the systems they’re in. The system
influences people and people influence the system and both change gradually. The
community celebrates members leaving to pursue their dreams, carrying with them the
cultural narrative that has ordered their lives; the prodigal child returns to be embraced by
the community, bringing home new ideas that find their way into the community’s fabric.
Much of the angst we face today is because, rather than interacting smoothly, these
dynamics of harmony and differentiation seem to be moving towards their extremes. We
are maintaining our sense of a coherent whole by drawing boundaries – physical or
psychological – to protect those inside our neighborhoods or organizations and to keep
the “other” out. This desire to hold on to how things are, to shelter what we hold dear, is
a natural response when our way of life seems threatened. An unintended consequence is
a feeling of isolation grows as we separate from others. It shows up in the constant
squabbling between “silos” in organizations or not knowing who lives next door. These
interactions between coming together and breaking apart, when laden with fear, anger
and despair, simultaneously divide us and influence us to stay silent in order to belong.
The net result is that our assumptions of how things work – our coherent cultural
narrative – is no longer playing out as expected. This narrative -- the cultural myth, the

1 Bateson, G. (1980). Mind and Nature: A Necessary Unity. New York: Bantam.

larger than life story we tell ourselves about who we are – is in transition. An increasing
number of people no longer feel well served by it. For example, in the U.S., a growing
number of people no longer believe the American Dream is possible for their children or
themselves. When the story of who we are is no longer working, it is no wonder people
engage in strategies that disrupt the existing order.
When stable systems that contain something we cherish break apart, it is a major source
of grief, fear, and anger. We feel all this because we care so much. Yet for those who
can see the potential in the breakdown, there is excitement and hope. This rich stew
holds tremendous opportunity for a renaissance – literally a re-birth – of creative
endeavor. Particularly for those in mourning or denial, believing this is an act of faith.
Yet, this dynamic is at play all around us. I see it within journalism. Those coming from
mainstream media -- where existing assumptions about how news is gathered and shared,
not to mention what constitutes news, are failing -- are filled with fear and grief. Those in
new media -- who are experimenting with new forms of journalism -- are excited and
filled with possibility. The feelings exist because these people care, compelling them to
bring their life-energy to creating something that matters. With the support of emergent
change processes, together these unlikely bedfellows are creating journalism anew, from
the inside out, with a revitalization of time-honored journalistic values within a newly
thriving participatory culture.
As things fall apart, there is increasing uncertainty about what the future holds. The good
news is that we have a choice of how to relate to the uncertainty. As the dynamics of
coming together and breaking apart play out, experiments with new forms take shape,
even as old forms collapse. This messy mix raises questions about different aspects of the
system:
What are the essential intentions and values at the heart of our organizations and
communities? What do we wish to conserve? What do we wish to embrace that wasn’t
possible before?
As the diverse people of the news industry come together in gatherings hosted using
emergent processes, legacy journalists ask, “Is there a place for me in the new media
world? Are the values that made journalism great still relevant or will they be swept
away?” New media people introduce new technologies and ideas. Together, they are
focusing on creating journalism to serve us and our democracy better than ever before.
Seeing young and old mentoring each other provides a glimpse of what can happen when
commitment to enduring values and new technologies intersect.
Our social systems – health care, education, economics, politics, journalism – are in a
period much like the “Cambrian Explosion” of evolution: a myriad of diverse forms are
appearing. Over the next few years, as experiments fail and succeed, we will collectively
determine our answers to questions about what is meaningful, what we will conserve and
what will we release from the past -- and what we will embrace that wasn’t possible
before because the technology or relationships didn’t exist. As those choices become

clear, vibrant and unexpected new forms will appear, struggle, some will die, some will
learn and grow. Signs are already emerging: alternatives for how we work, how we
commute, how we eat, and how we live abound. When novel forms arise into a higher-
order coherence, we’ve experienced emergence.
Good Grief: The Pain and Possibility of Change
I was invited to spend some time with a group of journalists who had just “had the year
from hell”. One third of them were in different jobs. Some had taken buyouts, others
were laying off staff. They were almost all numb from the upheaval in their world. The
request was to tell them something about emergence, about change that would help them
make sense of their experience so that they could return to work with more resilience,
more capacity to face the maelstrom they were in. My contact named the session “Good
Grief: The Pain of Change”. I added “possibility” and the session was framed.
As systems fall apart – either figuratively, as we examine the elements in them, or

literally, as the newspaper industry is doing – we can visit the pieces, noticing what still
has meaning and what no longer serves. Is journalism still about the public good? Is
speaking truth to power still part of its ethos? We can look at what wasn’t present before
that may have a place now. Social networking supports communities of interest to form
around subjects, like photography, and geographies, local towns or neighborhoods so that
stories are not just reported but engage neighbors in conversation. How these elements
coalesce into something original is not the simple work of connecting the parts. Rather,
they form through some unexpected leap creating properties not visible in any of its parts.
For example, a role is emerging in journalism in which a “community weaver” or host
cultivates a space for people to interact. This new dynamic, in which many-to-many
interactions occur is reshaping the nature of news. Journalists discover the subjects to
investigate, they get tips and information, have access to local knowledge and expertise.
Neighbors converse, sharing opinions, doubts, expectations, ideas, and more. The
journalists are not outside as gatekeepers, but inside, a contributing part of the system.
This new journalism is still for the public good and because technology enables a
dimension never before possible, it has taken a leap towards its own unique form.
Of course writing about systems falling apart is much easier than living through the
experience! Much of the challenge with emergence is the emotional roller coaster ride
that often accompanies it. If something we love shows signs of collapse, of course we try
to hold on. It is no wonder that embracing emergence is something that challenges us.
Yet, there are good reasons to do so. Finding a way to consciously engage with it can
make it more productive and easier. Three useful questions for productively engaging
with emergence are:
• How do we disrupt coherence compassionately?

• How do we engage disruption creatively?
• How do we renew coherence wisely?

What entry points allow us to disrupt established patterns, explore the diverse, often conflicting, aspects of
the system, and discern the differences that make a difference so that harmony arises anew that serves us
well?
These questions provide entry points into the dynamic dance between coherence and
difference, helping to make visible and work with the forces of change underway.
How do we disrupt coherence compassionately?

When images of disrupting stable systems come to mind, many of us picture protests
against governments and their policies. Yet systems are disrupted in a myriad of ways,
some caused by us, some caused by conditions beyond our control. We leave a marriage,
the auto industry collapses, a hurricane comes through our town. Even loving acts –
asking a partner to stop smoking, getting a promotion, disturb the current state.
Here is the state of journalism as seen through the eyes of different people in the
system:

• The Rocky Mountain News has closed its doors, part of the wave of newspapers
folding. Who’s next?
• I’ve taken a buyout and have done public relations work for a year. How can I
find my way back into the journalistic work I find meaningful?
• With journalism in such upheaval, what do I tell my students?
• If not gatekeepers, what is our role?
• As a reporter, how do I interact with audience?
• With ad revenues falling, what is the business model that can sustain
journalism?
• The Huffington Post just established an investigative unit. What’s next?

• How do I connect my community in civil conversation so that news engages
more than just professionals?

Whatever your opinion of journalism as we’ve known it, there is little debate that
good information – and conversation ‐‐ is essential to democracy. The current
model has been stable since the 19th century. No wonder those who grew up inside
it are disoriented, angry, fearful or grieving as it falters. To borrow a phrase from
Margaret Wheatley, we are hospicing the old and midwiving the new. No matter the
source or intent of the disruption, we have a choice in what we do with it.
One promising approach is asking ambitious, possibility‐oriented questions. They
are attractors, bringing together diverse people who care. Great questions disrupt,
but with intention. Coupled with a welcoming environment, they open the way to
discover what wants to emerge. A useful general question is Given all that has
happened, what is possible now?

You might ask, “When we have so many disruptions coming at us, why would we choose
to disrupt anything? Don’t we just have to figure out how to respond?” We are not
independent of our environment. Consider the newspaper editor who, because his paper
is dying, has to lay off forty people. He is about to disrupt many lives and wonders how
to do that well. Or what about the situation a friend described:

One faculty member is so overwhelmed that he is calling meetings at the same time as
a regularly scheduled allfaculty meeting. The temptation to disrupt back is high. So
how do you avoid escalating into mutually shared disruption?

Enter the idea of disrupting compassionately. Whether we are outside a system wanting
in or inside the system wanting to change it, or even faced with an unexpected event, like
a hurricane or an accident, bringing compassion into the equation shifts our focus and our
options. How much violence might have been avoided if compassion had been a guiding
part of the change strategy used by those plotting violent change? Mohandas Gandhi and
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. understood this principle. While the systems they faced were
hostile, their strategies for engagement were compassionate, applied with clear intention
and commitment. And they changed their worlds. Such can be the power of compassion
for disrupting rigid systems.
To look at it from the other side, what is it like when our world is disrupted? How are the
auto workers feeling, not just about losing their jobs, but a way of life that has shaped
their lives, their children’s lives, their community’s lives? It is easy to say, “serves them
right for making an inferior product” in the abstract. I dare any of us to say it face to face
to a grieving member of the industry, someone who sees their work as an important
contribution that helps our society run well.
Compassion, at root, means to suffer together. So whether we are the cause or simply
caught in the disruption, bringing compassion into the equation means we face the
situation together. There is comfort, strength, and courage available by choosing

compassion, even if we are in conflict. We can choose compassion even as we
differentiate ourselves as we speak our truth. In fact, with practice, we begin to realize
that such expressions are gifts. Where there is disruption, it is a sign that something
wants to emerge. Our individual voices matter, helping to discern the aspects within and
outside of our current sense of the system that have meaning to someone. As we relate to
dissonance as an indicator of new and better possibility, it is easier to get curious rather
than to resist or defend.
Whether we ultimately let go by choice or from being overwhelmed, it raises another

useful question for working with emergence.
How do we engage disruptions creatively?
Picture a room aswirl with activity. A question has been posed:
What is our work in the new news ecology?

A diverse mix of mainstream journalists, technologists, new media people, educators,
reformers and others are setting their agenda:

Who funds investigative reporting?
What do we teach our journalism students?
How does social media affect journalism?
What’s the role of humor in journalism?
Are we having fun yet?

People selforganize around the topics they have chosen, pursing the conversations
that matter to them. An activist expresses her frustration with finding investigative
reporters willing to listen. The reporters coach her on how to get their attention. By
the end of the conversation, they each see the other differently, appreciating the
challenges and constraints of each other’s world.

Angst and fear of what will happen as newspapers die begins to give way to an
undercurrent of excitement and possibility. Opportunities are showing up everywhere.
Stories surface of communityhosted sites where audience is part of the investigative
process and journalists are “writing in public”. Journalism curriculum is reimagined
to include media literacy for everyone, traditional values and craft, and the emerging
art of engagement – how to cultivate civil conversation online and face to face in a
geographic or subjectoriented community. A myriad of possibilities are explored,
ideas surfaced. A sorting takes place, as aspects of the past, present, and future are
tasted and embraced or discarded. Through a seemingly random process, one based
on the energy and passion of the people present, the system is examined in depth.
Questions asked, debated, mourned and celebrated: What still has meaning that we
wish to conserve? What is possible now because of changes in technology or attitude
that we wish to embrace?


In many systems – health care, education, politics, journalism, auto manufacturing,
even as an old story is dying, a new story is being born. There is a renaissance
occurring and it becomes visible through conversation and experimentation. What
is coming into being seems to be more resilient, adaptive, with room for more
voices. Its shape isn’t entirely clear and probably won’t be for quite a while. We are
in a time between stories, in transition from old forms to new, more adaptive forms.

Still, when disturbed, most of us would rather hunker down someplace safe and pull
what we wish to protect inside with us. Rather than creating a space to keep us safe
and keep the “other” out, creative dissonance calls for just the opposite. Deep and
essential truths often hide out in dissonant behaviors like shouting or silence,
bullying or invisibility. It is our challenge to create conditions welcoming enough
that these gifts surface.

With practice, our capacity to relate to chaos expands. Think about driving in an
unfamiliar part of the world. I think of India. It requires very different assumptions
about how traffic works than where I live. It takes 360º vision to navigate among the
chaotic flow of cars, bicycles, mule-drawn carts and other vehicles. It involves
recognizing horn honks as friendly signals that someone is behind you, rather than the
angry sound of “watch it” that it means where I come from. In other words, it requires
letting go of what I know about traffic flow and opening to discover driving anew. I find
new meaning in old aspects, like horns, and embrace unfamiliar aspects, like mule carts
or vehicles backing up on a main street as givens. As I integrate the meaning of these
signals, I become more equipped to drive. (A step, I hasten to add, that I haven’t taken
yet!)
If you find yourself overwhelmed or uncertain in the midst of upheaval, a good place to
begin is to step back and breathe. If you can’t see the patterns that guide the flow, giving
it coherence, then it is a good time to listen, observe, being receptive to what is
happening around you. It is a good time to notice what is meaningful, a sort of intuitive
inventory of what is happening. It is a chance to look at the familiar with new eyes and
discern if it still holds meaning. Is it something to conserve? It is an opportunity to
explore what is new and unfamiliar, perhaps seeing it through the eyes of someone who
finds excitement in its potential. Is it something to be embraced?
As different perspectives rub against each other, a burnishing occurs. Together, we begin
to make meaning, patterns surface that draw from all aspects of what is present. It
becomes critical that we express differences because they carry the seeds of what might
be. Our unique perspectives matter. Making space for each of us to show up, to engage
fully, warts and all, so that what is most meaningful shines through over and over. It
creates a sort of “differentiated wholeness” in which people begin to discover what is
most personally meaningful is also universal. And more, they begin to discover they are
not alone but part of some larger whole. Our hearts open to each other and we know we
are connected. In truth, even when we can’t feel it and our hearts are closed, we are still
connected. Just as head, heart, and hands are essential parts of one body, so our unique
gifts connect us as parts of a larger social system. As we begin to experience this first

hand, something shifts and “I” begin to see myself as part of a larger “we”. This marriage
of “I” and “we” is a pathway to making sense of our differences.
During a Journalism that Matters gathering, I understood that an important aspect of the
fear and grief from mainstream journalists was that enduring values of journalism, such
as accuracy and transparency would be swept away. What, in fact, became clear during
the session, is that such values are something to be conserved, as so much else changes.
More, new technologies provide tools for even greater accuracy and transparency. What
matters endures. New forms can actually amplify the deeper intentions. And as people
discover their place in mix, a sense of excitement and possibility build.
As one journalist put it, When systems break down, you gather up the pieces and make
something new. Simple, though not easy. It raises one more question for me.
How do we renew coherence wisely?
Remember Humpty Dumpty’s fall? The pieces didn’t fit together again. Emergence is
like that. What arises from the interactions is not a return to former times. Still, no
system exists in a vacuum. Elements from the past endure, even as something completely
original and of a higher-order complexity arises.
It is the last day of a gathering with 80 people sitting together. They arrived as
strangers – mainstream media and new media journalists, activists, educators,
students. Now they sit comfortably with each other, joking over the angst that
surfaced more than once during the two days they spent together. They have glimpsed
the future and find it promising. Most feel full, inspired by ideas they are taking home.
More, they know they are not alone. They have found kindred spirits, others who care
about the future of journalism, partners in shaping that future. They know they are
part of something larger – the rebirth of an industry that serves the public good. They
begin to tell a new story of journalism, more conversation than lecture, more
entrepreneurial and nimble. There is increased cooperation, knowing they are
connected, part of the same system, each pursuing what matters to them, sharing what
they learn, figuring it out together.

In some ways, nothing has changed. The economics of journalism are as murky as
when they arrived. They may be going home to lay off people or to take a buyout
themselves. In other ways, everything has changed. Most are feeling more at peace
with not knowing the answers. Joan Baez is quoted frequently: “action is the antidote
to despair.” No longer victims of the unknown, they can see their own first next step.
And they know there are others traveling a similar path, partners in exploration and
learning. A network of pioneers is forming. At root, journalism’s fundamental purpose
– to inform and engage for the public good endures. New technology makes new forms
possible increasing their ability to involve more people in serving this mission. So
something novel and of a higherorder form is emerging. It is clear journalism is no
longer in the hands of a few people. Complex networks of professionals and engaged

citizens are part of the budding scene. The holy grail of a sustainable business model
may not yet be known, but they are now pioneers on the trail, inventing the future.

I have a hunch, not yet sufficiently tested, that what usually endures are our deepest
needs, intentions, and values. And what usually changes are the forms through which
something enduring is expressed. Innovations – social networks, twitter ‐‐ are
slowly integrated with existing forms of journalism. Every once in a while
something flips, becomes a new organizing principle. Journalism is entrepreneurial.
Just as the printing press opened the way to increased literacy, today, media literacy
follows the need to discern quality from the multiplicity of sources that come from
entrepreneurship. It is one example of the re‐ordering of the system.

There is a turn on a spiral of change happening as something thoroughly original
and elegantly complex returns to enduring needs and values. It defies tidy
descriptions as new and old aspects intertwine in the dance of differentiating and
cohering. It is evolution itself unfolding, sometimes incrementally, sometimes
making unexpected leaps.

Emerging Networks

We are in the midst of a great renewal of how we organize ourselves for just about
everything we do. One widespread pattern that technology and changing
perspectives makes possible is less need for hierarchies and rigid structures.
Networks, more adaptive and resilient are slowly taking their place. For example,
the Wikipedia has become a terrific place to follow breaking news. As a story
unfolds, those closest to it add or correct the latest information, link to photos or
sites in which people most affected can find what they need to know to locate loved
ones or information relevant to their situation. Filtering of facts happens through
self‐correcting crowd‐sourcing. We are no longer dependent on a few professionals
for all aspects of the story.

The old forms – ink on paper, gatekeepers telling us what we need to know – are
replaced by networks of conversations, emergent leadership, and content delivered
to a variety of devices – computers, televisions, ipods, and perhaps a bit of ink and
paper. As hierarchies give way to networks, single points of control for story ideas,
follow‐up information, accuracy, and other aspects yield to networks. They can
handle complexity that is simply impossible to address any other way. Habits from
one form are being revisited both practically and emotionally. Technology helps us
operate more fluidly. Yet for those who didn’t grow up as digit natives, it can be
confusing!

What does it take to function well in a network? We are novices at this! Increasing
numbers of people are experimenting, most without consciously knowing they are
part of a great re‐ordering. Some disrupt more compassionately, use their
differences creatively, and renew wisely. They are sharing the results in creative

ways – through Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and other forms that make visible our
interconnectedness. A virtuous cycle is forming in which more and more of us can
see our place in a multi‐storied world that has room for us all.

We know networks are more collaborative, with leadership shifting fluidly as work
groups form and disperse as needed. They also provide a different relationship with
context ‐‐ knowing how we fit with others and our environment. If fact, just
knowing who or what is considered part of a system and what is outside is changing.
Disruption becomes an indicator that something we may have thought was outside
the system wants in. The civil rights movement, the women’s movement, the
environmental movement are all examples of how our definition of what makes up
our social system evolves. The definition of “we the people” has evolved quite a bit
over two hundred years. Ecuador has led the way to including the nature’s rights in
its constitution. I have observed over and over when people experience themselves in
context, as part of a larger system, their behavior changes. To ignore or harm another
part of their “social body” would be like cutting off their own arm.
Because of today’s technologies, we are at a very exciting moment. We have the means
to bring what we are learning about working well with disruption and difference into
broad awareness. Using new tools, people are creating a myriad of approaches that
enable us to see how our diverse stories fit together into a “macroscopic view”. Just
as microscopes opened our world in the industrial age, I believe that macroscopes –
experiences, maps, stories, and media that help us see ourselves in context – will be
instrumental in helping us make sense of differences, changing our understanding of
what is outside and inside a system.
Naming Emerging Coherence
When we’re in the midst of exploring possibilities, what helps it land, what enables a
higher-order understanding to surface? It is a good time to reflect, to invite people to
notice what is meaningful to them and to share their stories of what has heart and
meaning. Beginning with individual energy, the path towards coherence grows
from the roots up, coherence emerges through noticing differences. As people share
what matters, a handful of themes invariably surface. Something is named that
lands deeply and broadly. It has legs as people carry it with them to others
struggling to find their way. While it may be days, months, or years before it is
widely embraced, something is different, something new has been born into the
world. Perhaps it is entrepreneurial journalism. Or a U.S. prison population
reduced by half while maintaining public safety in eight years.

Does it mean that something wise been realized? Chances are we won’t know for a
while. At root, wisdom means “to see, to know the way”. It taps knowledge deeper than
the rational mind and engages intuitions forged through experience. While it may be
voiced through an individual, it is a capacity that lives in the collective. In a wise society
people continually grow their capacity to care for themselves, each other, and the whole.
Its institutions are designed to support this growth.

Wisdom has an innate congruence with the direction of evolution, towards increasing
complexity, diversity, and awareness at an increasing pace of change. The need to
engage diverse perspectives creatively may be the evolutionary leap our current social
and environmental crises are forcing. Handling so much complexity wisely means we
can’t do it alone. Increased awareness of how to bring together difference and stay
connected is one vital aspect of this current time. Hosting productive conversations
among increasingly diverse people is part of a new story of who we are as a society. The
Internet gives us an unprecedented lens into other cultures. Social networking
capabilities are rapidly increasing our ability to interact. How we use these opportunities
is up to us. It makes it a good time to understand wisdom.
Wisdom knows to sense in many directions – inside and outside the boundaries of a
system, what is tangible and intangible, what is individual and collective. It uses many
ways of knowing – listening to the mind, the heart, the body – including the social body,
and the spirit. What seems wise in one age or circumstance may seem foolish in another.
There is a Taoist story: One day, a farmer's horse ran away, and all the neighbors
gathered in the evening and said 'that's too bad.' He said 'maybe.' Next day, the horse
came back and brought with it seven wild horses. 'Wow!' they said, 'Aren't you lucky!' He
said 'maybe.' He next day, his son grappled with one of these wild horses and tried to
break it in, and he got thrown and broke his leg. And all the neighbors said 'oh, that's too
bad that your son broke his leg.' He said, 'maybe.' The next day, the conscription officers
came around, gathering young men for the army, and they rejected his son because he
had a broken leg. And the visitors all came around and said 'Isn't that great! Your son got
out.' He said, 'maybe.' And the story continues.
So wisdom knows patience, staying open as others rush to judgment.
When we form clear intentions that serve the good of individuals and our social body,
enter into the mystery of chaos, and follow life energy towards new possibilities, wisdom
ultimately prevails. That said, since humans are involved, we’ll undoubtedly try a wealth
of experiments, some wise, some not so wise. If an innovation creates disruption, then
we have indications that something is evocative enough that it attracts interest and that
someone excluded cares enough to make it known. And so we circle back to disrupting
compassionately, knowing now that welcoming in outside voices brings treasures. And
in this way, perhaps a bit more wisdom endures.
With that in mind, it’s time to dive into a practical perspective on moving past the
resistance to change.


A Practical View of Working with Emergence

So you’ve skipped the theory section and come straight to the nuts and bolts. You’re
skeptical but know something needs to change and what have you got to lose by
putting emergence to work for you?

Or you’ve read the opening chapters and you’re game but are thinking about the
person you most want to enlist. You can just imagine their reaction if you suggested
bringing together people who have been at each other’s throat for years expecting
some sort of higher‐order breakthrough to happen. What can you tell them that
would make a difference?
Putting Emergent Change in Perspective
A useful place to begin is to understand the way most of us approach change. When the
forces of change collide they create disturbance. Whether perceived positively – a new
job, a new contract, a new baby or experienced with dread: loss of a job, a contract, a life,
because it is disturbing, it disrupts us and evokes a response.
We all draw from three common strategies when responding to disruptions: acting
from habit to minimize them; acting from certainty to manage them; and acting from
inquiry to work creatively with them. The more conscious we are of our options, the
greater the likelihood of successfully navigating the many changes that seem to be
moving through our lives at an increasing pace.
Just Ignore It
For most of us, our first response to disturbance is to act from habit, to ignore or
suppress everything but the symptoms in front of us, fix it – reorganize, add a new feature
to our product, make up with our neighbor – and get back to business as usual. Often,
this is sufficient to our needs. It is useful to know that there is a dependable steady state,
that cars and airplanes run reliably, that hearts beat regularly, that social processes, such
as voting or shopping work as expected, and that the sun rises and sets in a livable
temperature range every day.

Figure 1. Disruption bounces off the steady state
Beyond the obvious fix, how do you know if there is more to do? There is a wise
phrase from the Total Quality movement that provides useful guidance: remedy first then
seek root cause. Since most of us don’t routinely investigate root cause, we discover
something else is called for when the disturbance gets louder.
Take Charge and Manage It
Perhaps you are in an organization in which there is a natural tension between

different functions, as is often the case between, for example, marketing and operations.
Disruptions may show up as low-level disagreements escalating into vocal conflicts
between people or departments. Perhaps a broken promise leads to diminished trust,
causing more check-points to be inserted in a system as an alternative to developing a
deeper understanding between people and their respective needs. Or perhaps a situation
that seemed to be localized now requires more functions to get involved. When the
volume is sufficiently loud and the situation can no longer be ignored, the strategy
perhaps most commonly associated with change efforts today is called upon: act from
certainty and manage it – cut costs, find new revenue sources, go online!

Figure 2. Integrate the disturbance into the system
This is where the traditional tools of change management shine. We can study the
disturbance, state our recommendations, set targets for outcomes, plan the work, work the

plan, and measure both quantitative and qualitative results. Given the increasing
understanding that it is important to involve people, some facilitate focus groups with
customers, suppliers, employees, community members or others to influence
recommendations and/or engender buy-in.
Important gains in organizations and communities have happened by managing

disruptions in this way, integrating what was necessary into the existing system. The
Total Quality revolution was fueled by such practices, saving time, money, and lives,
increasing our effectiveness and efficiency.
Sometimes this is not enough. How do we know? These practices tend to be most
effective for dealing with issues in which rational solutions work. They are often data
driven and procedure oriented. When root causes of disruption are from other sources,
such as strong feelings or deeply held beliefs, such approaches are likely not sufficient
and the disturbances get louder. Such situations call for a very different approach, one
that makes room for the unexpressed to be heard. It calls for some very counterintuitive
actions, since the last thing most of us want to do when someone or something disrupts us
is to listen deeply.
When the Disturbance Is “Just One Person”
In organizations or communities, often disturbance shows up as someone who just

doesn’t seem to fit. They are always objecting or complaining or in some way
undermining the spirit of the group. Likely we’ve already tried reasoning with them,
ignoring them or marginalizing them. And they definitely can’t be managed. So now
what?
Most of us think, “if the ‘problem’ person would just leave, everything would be
fine.” While sometimes that is true, more often, if they leave, someone else takes their
place. This is likely a sign that there is something deeper going on,. Perhaps there is a
value or perspective that is currently not welcome in the system and this person sees it as
vital to the system’s health and well-being. While their actions may create dissonance,
their intention is to bring value. If we simply react to the behavior, we miss the
opportunity to learn what gifts the dissonance might contain.
Years ago, I was part of a management team in which one member was always the
holdout for any decision. It drove the rest of us nuts. We knew his staff loved and
respected him, so there was something he was doing right. Yet on department-wide
issues, we would spend precious time trying to convince him that he was wrong. At
some point, I started spending time with him one-on-one. We talked about his world – he
was Latino and had grown up in a different culture than my everyone-is-Jewish-until-
proven-otherwise world. As I listened, I began to respect the wisdom in his ideas. At
staff meetings, when he would object, rather than joining my peers, I started to draw him
out, to seek the gem of truth that I knew would be there. We became allies, as I would
ask questions that helped the rest of us hear what he was struggling to say. Over and over

he saved us from overselves because he just knew how the staff would respond to the
choices we made.
I have a dear colleague, Mark Jones, who offers the simplest practice I know for such
situations. He calls it HSLing (hizzling). It stands for hearing, seeing, and loving
everyone, including yourself. He developed a very simple diagnostic: when people don’t
feel heard, they shout or shut up. When they don’t feel seen, they get in your face and
turn into bullies or they become invisible. When they don’t feel loved, they do a dance of
approaching and avoiding – coming closer to you then moving away. In all cases, the
remedy begins with listening. The next time you face a disturbance in the form of one
person, I invite you to join the hizzle experiment.
A Transition: Certainty as a Doorway to Mystery
Just as the capacity to sustain a steady state is essential to our individual and
collective well-being, so is the capacity to act from certainty. One powerful use of
certainty is to get clear about intention. Tuning it to your own intuition, listening to
others – both what is expressed and what goes unexpressed, noticing the assumptions that
shape the context all serve to focus our intentions. Intentions shape action, and shared
intentions -- rather than a command-issued plan -- can help self-organized, relevant
action emerge among diverse actors in complex situations. Expressed as a question,
intention goes a long way towards inviting the different voices within a system to
participate in finding responses that serve the good of individuals and the good of the
whole system.
While certainty grounds us, gives us confidence to enter the unknown, it so

culturally rewarded that it is easy to miss its traps. We have been taught that to lead is to
take charge -- to know our stuff and be skillful in execution. So we focus on mastering
all that we can, seeing mystery and the unpredictable as something to be conquered.
There is no gold medal for the person fumbling at the margins, unsure of themselves or
what to do. In school, we are expected to know answers. What if we also rewarded
inspiring questions? What would it mean to honor the pioneers who blaze the trails, who,
no doubt, fumble constantly as they enter uncharted territory? What would it mean to
honor the mistakes of dedicated, creative risk-takers and then use them for the learning
they offer? What have been the unintended consequences of focusing with such fervor
on familiar territory and ignoring those working at the margins? What would it mean to
celebrate those exploring the edges between what we know and what we don’t know, the
metaphorical places where, on maps of old it said, “there be dragons”?
There Be Dragons
Our social systems are rife with some very loud disruptions -- failing schools, health
care, international relationships, organizations, industries, communities, and more. The
scale, scope, complexity, and speed of these disturbances are all increasing, eliciting a

very common and human response. Many are throwing up their hands and saying, “I’m
stumped. I don’t know what to do.” Business as usual is over. More and more leaders
and change agents are asking for help.
Stop a moment and breathe. This is a very special moment. It signals a change
comparable to a change in chemical state – from ice to water, or water to steam. It
requires such radically different beliefs and skills to succeed when the landscape is filled
with such uncertainty, such mystery that virtually every effective action is
counterintuitive. And yet, what is called for is so familiar, so deeply in the cells of our
being that we actually do know what to do. Successful responses require accessing not
just our rational minds, but much, much more of ourselves. Not only that, once we begin,
while it is likely to be challenging, it may awaken us to the best in ourselves, connect us
to the best in others, and discover the power of what we can be and do together that is
impossible alone. I believe these times are calling forth a shift in how humans organize
themselves to accomplish meaningful purpose. We are just beginning to understand the
implications.
What Now?
We are entering the terrain of emergence, where acting from inquiry, helps us face
dissonance. Once we really “get it”, we embrace disruptions because we know that the
promise of creative and wise answers on the other side of the unknown is real, and that
elegant simplicity emerges on the other side of disturbing complexity. And the sooner
we step in, the more likely we can avoid the painful disruption that often comes from
upheaval.
To enter this terrain is to acknowledge that mystery is a given and we are well served
to enter prepared, yet open and receptive to what arises. This seeming passivity turns out
to be a very active, albeit unfamiliar state; an example of the counterintuitive work
required. It is not easy to be receptive, to tune into the unknown when we have been
trained to just do something. It is to be humble, discovering that finding our way through
is not a solo act and demands more than “input”. It takes whole-hearted and whole-
minded involvement to seek the life-energy of a system by engaging people from the
many aspects touched by disruption. The greater our capacity to choose possibility, to be
curious and ask powerful, attractive questions, the more likely we can open the way for
creatively engaging with dissonance.

Figure 3. Prepare to work with emergence
[Note: revise text – discontinuous change  emergent change + language from pattern map]
This is the nature of emergence. It is radically different from the predictable flow of
managed change. It asks us to bring compassion with disruption, to creatively engage the
dissonance this creates and to find the wisdom to realize new forms that serve us. To do
so, involves preparing yourself to host, tuning in to your intuition and your environment,
focusing on an intention that energizes a shared inquiry, and tending to the context – the
conditions for the work. It entails facing disturbance and letting go of what was whole so
that it can figuratively or literally fall apart. It requires opening to unfamiliar people or
ideas, inviting them to follow what has heart and meaning, welcoming who and what
appears. It calls for engaging creatively with dissonance, bring the discipline to listen
deeply and widely, sensing with more than just our ears. It takes lots of conversations and
experiments, making unexpected connections among unlikely partners. It includes
discerning what is essential from the past and what is meaningful that wasn’t possible
before. It takes reflecting on what we are noticing, making meaning by naming what is
ripening as it forms. Then harvesting what is wise, to realize its full, unique, and novel
potential. And all this is fed by the caring commitment implicit in the grief, anger, and
fear that often accompany loss, resentment, and the unknown. The good news: once
underway, it can create a sense of excitement and spirit of possibility that become the
hallmark of creation.
The more we understand how emergence works in human systems, the more we can
work with it consciously. It no longer controls us. We are buoyed by the life-energy of
following what calls to us. We develop the faith to choose possibility in the face of the
unknown, with equanimity, curiosity, receptivity and humility. And whatever happens
with our first experiment and the feedback it produces, we discover there’s another just
waiting for us to jump in. By staying committed to an intention, with each iteration,

comes the opportunity to integrate what we thought we knew into a new, more expansive
story about who we are.

Three Qualities at the Heart of Working with Emergence
It takes clear intention, courage, and tenacity to stay with something as it ripens into its
fullness. When I think about leadership for working with upheaval and uncertainty, there
are three qualities that I believe matter most. They inform how we disrupt stability
compassionately, engage dissonance creatively, and renew wisely.
Embrace Mystery
While there are always milestones to celebrate along the way, change is a never-ending
journey. The more I can be at peace with this, the more I can enter into the unknown
with a spirit of adventure. I won’t be the first nor the last in the territory, whatever it is.
At some future date – a day, a week, a year, a century from now, if something still
matters, what I know about it now will seem quaint. It is a great reminder to be humble,
to take myself – and others – with a compassionate grain of salt.
There is a fundamental truth that cannot be avoided: no matter how thorough we are,
there are always holes in wholeness. Some aspect or group is always outside our frame
of reference, mostly unseen. Disrupting the current state is often a result of what is
outside looking for a way in. By recognizing disruption as an indicator that an aspect of
the system wants to be integrated into the whole, it becomes easier to get curious about
what we don’t know and seek to learn what gifts it brings to the system.
This perspective brings a discipline to strive for excellence rather than perfection. There
are always unknowns. Accepting this and getting curious is a wonderful way to direct
life-energy towards what else is possible.
Seek life energy
Energy fuels us. It is like the breath of life, aspiring to be or do something more,
inspiring action towards that possibility in a continuous cycle that keeps us going against
all odds. For many, tuning in to energy is a spiritual act, connecting us to the unseen
world. It is something deeper and mysterious, that we know when we feel it and know
when it is absent. Architect Christopher Alexander speaks of a “quality without a name”
or QWAN. I like notion of QWAN because it finesses the conundrum that the moment
we name it, it ceases to be alive. And where life-energy is absent, there is little juice to
carry the work forward.
I believe life energy exists at the intersection of what we know and don’t know. It fuels
us engage, to make sense of the unknown. Following the energy of an aspiration,
bringing it to life feeds us. Just as food fuels our bodies, life-energy nourishes our soul.
We know it is present because there is excitement, laughter, joy. People are awake, alive,
aware of their feelings. Or there is angst, pain, discontent. These are signs the energy is

stuck. The feelings are present because someone cares. When stymied about what to do
with their passion, it can sour, becoming a source of disruption. The Achuar of South
America offer some insight into what our feelings can be when we move the energy
toward what matters. Grief becomes love, anger turns to passion, fear to courage, and
emptiness to fulfillment. Together, they give us hope.
So following the energy, whether attractive or disturbing powers us. Working with
emergence has everything to do with freeing that energy so that it grows towards serving
life.
Choose Possibility
When faced with change, we have a choice: resist it, manage it, embrace it. Choosing to
embrace emergent change focuses attention towards possibility. The contrast between
the fear-laden rhetoric of George W. Bush and Barak H. Obama’s audacity of hope is a
profound example of the difference this choice makes. As we focused on fear of attack,
our relationships with the rest of the world decayed. Most people found themselves
living a smaller, more contained existence, with little tolerance for difference. As Mr.
Bush put it, “you’re either with us or against us.” In contrast, President Obama began his
presidency by reaching out. His first formal television interview was with Al-Arabiya, an
Arab cable TV network1.
Whatever the circumstance, how we relate to it is up to us. When dissonance is ever

present, that choice matters a great deal. There is a dark side to emergence. Through
most of evolution, emergent phenomenon result from great disasters and tragedies.
Without the meteor that made the planet inhospitable to dinosaurs, little mammals might
never have evolved into the dominant species on the planet – us. Consider the contrast
between the devastation left by the south’s violent struggle for independence during the
U.S. Civil War and Mahatma Ghandi’s nonviolent, possibility-focused path to Indian
independence. As our consciousness has evolved, equipping us to see and work with the
dynamics of breakdown and breakthrough, we have a potential never before available to
any species: the ability to choose how we respond to crises, both natural and human
made. The choices we make are fateful, moving us towards a more open, resilient,
compassionate increasingly inclusive society or towards a more rigid, walled-in,
defended, factionalized and violent society. I suspect we will see aspects of both
scenarios play out.
I believe cultivating the capacity to choose possibility is one of the most positive steps we
can take. And I see it as a growing trend. Geneva Overholser, Director, School of
Journalism at USC Annenberg School for Communication, introduced herself at a 2006
Journalism that Matters session saying:

1 http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2009/01/president‐ob‐10.html

“I had been depressed. A couple of years ago, I resolved to find hope. When you open
yourself to possibility you are willing to experience stuff you haven’t experienced
before.”
During the economic collapse of 2008, Brian Williams of NBC invited viewers to send
stories of positive responses to the crises. The station was inundated. Journalists are our
cultural storytellers. As more of them tell us stories of possibility, it is a trend that could
scale rapidly.
David Cooperrider, originator of Appreciative Inquiry (AI), has given us tremendous

insight into choosing possibility. His seminal research into the relationship between
positive image and positive action looked across multiple disciplines: medicine,
education, psychology, sports imagery, and the rise and fall of cultures to discern a clear
and measurable relationship between what we envision and what we create. Even with
overwhelming evidence that shows the power of focusing on images of what we do well
and images of possibility, there is huge resistance to letting go of problem solving. More
than any other question, when introduced to AI, skilled facilitators ask that ever-present
question, “but what about the problems?”
To be clear, I am in no way advocating ignoring problems. To do so simply causes them

to show up more destructively elsewhere in a system. I have just found that our
relationship to problems radically shifts when viewed through an increasingly clear
vision of what we want to create. Problem solving engages us in two core questions:
What’s the problem? and How do we fix it? It contains an implicit definition of what
things are like when everything is working. Our task is restoring the situation to a past
state (or imagined past state).
I find the metaphor of Sisyphus, carrying his rocks up the hill over and over echoes the
energy of problem solving. It requires hard work and discipline and often has little joy.
In contrast, asking: What is working? What is possible? and How do we create it?
mobilizes us, filling a vacuum of possibility with joyous engagement. Ironically, the
work may be as hard or harder than solving the problem, but it is infused with life-energy
that compels us forward.

With this backdrop, it is time to look at patterns for working with emergence.


Patterns for Working with Emergence

The patterns I offer come from what many of us have learned through working with
emergent change processes, such as Open Space Technology, Future Search,
Appreciative Inquiry, the World Café, Bohm Dialogue, Dynamic Facilitation, and others.
I chose this mix because they surface over and over. Whether through conversations with
the originators of these methodologies, my own practice, studying the work of friends
and colleagues, analyzing the principles behind these practices, hosting workshops and
conference sessions to seek the deeper patterns of change, these are the practices that are
consistently named.
Together, these patterns form a system for working with emergence. Every designer
works with them in different ways, creating the distinct character of their practice.
Where names have been widely adopted by change practitioners, I have drawn from them
– hence inquiring appreciatively, opening, harvesting, hosting. The map that follows is
my best attempt to map the patterns in a general way, neutral of any specific change
methodology.
I do offer a description of a flow, while being clear that this is one of many ways
practitioners have put these patterns into practice over the years. So here is one story,
followed by a brief summary of each pattern:

When existing order is disrupted, bringing joy, fear, anger, grief, or an array of emotions,
choose possibility. Enter into the mystery and follow the life-energy in the situation.
Prepare yourself for
Hosting: Creating space for the work by tuning in, focusing intentions and tending to
context.
Ask How do we disrupt coherence compassionately?
It is time for
Inquiring appreciatively: asking bold questions for possibility.
To increase the likelihood for breakthrough, go for breadth by
Inviting: attracting the diversity of the system
and go for depth by
Welcoming: cultivating hospitable space in which people bring their authentic presence.
As diverse people come together, jump in by
Opening: being receptive to the unknown, letting go to explore the many aspects of the
system as if with fresh eyes.

Ask How do we engage disruption creatively?
Try
Engaging: taking responsibility for what you love as an act of service.
As people tune in to the life-energy to follow what has heart and meaning, they listen,
witnessing with self-discipline and connect, being with difference while finding common
bonds.
Ultimately, they begin

Reflecting: sensing patterns.

And they ask How do we renew coherence wisely?
Then something magic happens. There is a

Naming: making meaning on behalf of the whole by calling forth what is ripening.
So begins the
Harvesting: sharing the stories through multiple modes and channels – music, song,
visual arts, dance, poetry and more. On film, in books, in the news and the theatre.
There is one last step, which in truth, never ends. Now they are
Iterating: doing it again and again, integrating what we know into what’s novel and
what’s novel into what we know.
And so it goes…

Patterns for Working with Emergence

A brief summary of each pattern follows. You’ll note many places where patterns
intertwine. For example, inquiring appreciatively supports reflection and naming is
an aspect of focusing intentions. Each pattern is a thread, part of a larger weave.
Highlighting it makes it a useful entry point. Like a tapestry, none of the threads has
much beauty or life without its mates.

Hosting: Creating space for the work by tuning in, focusing intentions and tending to
context.
Hosting is an aspect of leadership that is crucial for creating successful conditions for
working with emergence. It is a style of leadership steeped in choosing possibility,
embracing mystery, and seeking life-energy. The work begins with preparation.
Preparation is vital because change work affects people’s lives and livelihoods. It is an
awesome responsibility to support organizations and communities who wish to engage
people in shaping their future.
Creating “containers,” energetic and psychic spaces that support people in learning and
working well together is an essential aspect of hosting. Well prepared containers are
grounded in clear, focused intentions, engage a relevant diversity of participants, and
involve mindfully chosen processes and environments that serve the purpose and people
well.i Such containers “create circumstances in which democracy breaks out,
environments in which it just happens.”ii They enable people to take control of their own
situations, compelling facilitators and traditional leaders to move more and more out of
the way. As projects involve more people and larger systems, the stakes get higher and
the choices more complex.
Here is a simple way to sense the spirit of hosting. Take a moment and make each of
your hands into a fist. This is one form of holding, think of it as having hands firmly on
the reins, in control. Now open your hands, putting the little finger sides together, palms

up. This is another form of holding. Think of it as a field or a container for holding the
work of emergence. Now let go, move your hands behind your back. This, too, is a form
of holding, an invisible energy that ties us together, heart to heart. This is an aspiration:
that by doing our work together, we will feel this invisible connection that is always
there.
Complexity scientists tell us that initial conditions are crucial. They make the difference
between a screaming mob and a circle of peace. The work of hosting is to tend the space,
to create conditions that can hold the disruptions that come with emergence with curiosity
and compassion. Of the many skills of hosting, I single out three that I believe are
particularly critical:
• Tuning in: being centered, being calm in the storm and bringing just
enough storm to the calm,
• Focusing intentions: seeking meaningful futures, and
• Tending to context: mindfully establishing initial conditions, paying
attention to the social fabric.

Tuning in: being centered, being calm in the storm and bringing just enough storm to
the calm.
When there is uncertainty, as diversity increases and urgency grows, the noise of
upheaval – fear, anger, grief, exhilaration, conflict, despair, all grow too. It is useful to
remember that feelings run high because people care. If change has been suppressed or
ignored for a long time, there are generally plenty of people outside believing their voices
matter. The tensions between an embattled coherence and determined voices of
difference are laden with wild energies. Think World Trade Organization protests in
Seattle or auto company suppliers trying to understand the effects of the failing industry
on their workers and their future.
Being centered is the capacity to be present to dynamic tension, and to see dissonance as
an indicator of aliveness. In the midst of upheaval, quieting the noise within, letting go
of expectations of how things are supposed to be makes room for insights and
possibilities to emerge in an individual, a group, or larger social system. Harrison Owen,
creator of Open Space Technology, advises when faced with conflict, open more space.
There is no better place to begin than with finding the space within yourself, as an
individual or as a concerned group. People take their cues from those around them.
When you show up centered and calm, it brings others with you.
The more we can face whatever shows up with equanimity, the more we send others the
signal that they can too. More, tuning in allows us to sense what calls to us, who is
seeking entrée, what has meaning so that we can bring our authentic presence forward, as
we ask others to do the same. Sometimes what calls us will, we know, disturb the status
quo -- and that's just fine. Sometimes the calm needs a compassionately disruptive poke,
a little chaos in the calm.

Focusing intentions: seeking meaningful futures

Evolutionary evangelist, Michael Dowd, read a book about directionality in evolution
called Evolution’s Arrow that inspired him. He contacted the author, John Stewart, and
asked if he would attend if Michael were to host a dialogue to further explore John’s
ideas. John said “yes” and Michael realized that he needed help to pull this off. He
contacted Tom Atlee. Tom agreed, not for Michael’s reasons, but because this call met a
need in him. He was at a crisis in his own work and while the specifics weren’t yet clear,
he intuited potential in Michael’s request.
The work begins the moment an intention is named. It sets direction, surfacing a sense of
purpose and envisioning new possibilities. What is compelling for one person may have
nothing to do with another’s reason to engage. By inviting another and opening to what
calls to them, and reflecting on what they discover, common purpose emerges.
Through focusing intentions, different callings are integrated into an expanded coherence.
And the cycle begins again.
Michael opened to Tom’s ideas for the gathering. They explored what it might look like
and spurred each other on with their excitement. They got to work, identifying who they
wished to join them for a gathering. They drafted an invitation to a diverse mix of
scientists, spiritual leaders, and activists for whom evolutionary emergence was central to
their work. Their intention was posed as a question:
How do we understand, interpret, and apply the evolutionary worldview offered by
mainstream and emerging sciences, to facilitate a positive impact on the evolution of
humanity and the natural world?
Intentions are not static. As people interact with them, new facets surface. When there is
a quality of welcome, distinctions become a source of aliveness, an energy that carries the
intention forward as the purpose continues to clarify itself. When an invitation captures a
broadly felt, if not well articulated calling, people show up.
When planning the first Media Reform conference in 2003, the organizers hoped to
attract a couple hundred people. When 1,700 signed up, they knew they had struck a
chord.
What are our aspirations, our dreams that give us hope for the future? Naming intentions
calls them into being and focuses attention towards realizing them. This activity of
naming is never static. As new perspectives enter the mix, they bring aspirations with
them. I find there is a honing process at every stage in which -- as we join together,
expressing our unique perspectives -- we deepen our collective understanding of what
matters to us all. By stewarding this continuing unfolding, without attachment to form,
our capacity to hold difference and be connected grows. And we increase the likelihood
of finding answers in which we can all come home to what matters to us.

Tending to context: mindfully establishing initial conditions, cultivating the social
fabric
When people are invited, it creates different conditions from when they are mandated to
attend. When the invitation is personal, it sets up a different experience than when it
comes via a mass mailing. None of these choices are wrong; rather, what creates the
initial conditions that serve the intended purpose? Paying attention to the quality of the
experience, providing what people need to know to fully participate makes the difference
between a room filled with silent hostility and one buzzing with hopeful anticipation.
Creating a container for the work is as important as determining the content of an agenda.
How do we make our intentions clear? Who do we invite? What is welcome? What of
our history needs to be shared? What of our aspirations? How about the physical space –
what messages does it send? The questions are endless and all we can do is our best to
discern the aspects that matter in any given situation. The good news: what we miss will
show up as a disruption. By embracing it, we learn, adjust, and continue to evolve.
With time, it is possible to grow a network of hosts. Remember that form of holding with
hands behind your back? When people are invited to take responsibility for the well-
being of the system -- the people and interactions that form its social fabric -- many do.
As they step in, it creates a virtuous cycle of people cultivating environments in which
disruptions truly are embraced as a source of creativity and change a welcome friend.
The emergence of the Stewarding model of governance from the Spirited Work
learning community put this notion into practice:

At the conclusion of the first year, the four Founding Convenors hosted a
conversation: “Reflections on what we’ve learned about Spirited Work”. With a
third of the community present, the message was clear: people wanted to help lead
the community. This was a defining moment for the evolution of the organization’s
governance. The four Founding Convenors were well respected leaders. There was
no crisis that indicated a need to change. Without knowing the outcome, the
founders listened to the deep undercurrents from the reflections on learning. They
invited anyone who was drawn to lead in the coming year to do so. There were no
interviews, no statements of qualifications or formal process for new managers to
be selected by others. Rather, the invitation requested that people take
responsibility for what they cared about. If they felt called to lead, they were
welcome. This ethic of caring for each other and the whole community continues to
this day. The invisible heart to heart connection continues to hold the fabric of
community though the group no longer meets regularly face to face.

Inquiring appreciatively: asking bold questions of possibility
Appreciation is a potent gift. It focuses us on what we value, what we makes us grateful.

It is consummately oriented toward positive possibilities. Bold, appreciative questions

finesse disruption, uncovering useful distinctions even within systems resisting change.
For example:
What are the issues and opportunities for the future of our organization?
Take a moment to notice the effect of a positive perspective. Possibility-filled questions

create a boundary, a refuge in the midst of upheaval. They focus attention and generate
life-energy, creating curiosity about the unknown. They attract those who care and invite
them to join in. They welcome diverse voices, those that may not have traditionally been
considered part of the system and they open people to explore the different aspects of a
system.
In a recent gathering of the Journalism that Matters initiative, we invited a mix of people
from legacy media, new media, media educators and students, and a handful of people
who are not journalists at all, but cared about journalism’s role in a democracy. We
welcomed the diversity of perspectives, honoring the validity of the whole range of ideas
and feelings present. We opened the space for what we could create together, with clear
intentions for what might result – new attitudes, ideas, partnerships, and projects – but
no specific outcome in mind. We bound the space with a question: “What is our work in
the new news ecology?”
Inviting: Attracting the diversity of the system

Inviting diversity stretches us, broadens our understanding of our world. Think of
protesters outside the doors of power. What would happen if, rather than shouting their
messages, they were invited into the room for an exploratory dialogue? Making space for
the many different perspectives in a system opens the way for the essence of each unique
contribution to be expressed and find its place in a more coherent and inclusive whole.
How do we know who to invite? The simple answer is: those who care; those with a stake
in what unfolds. Marv Weisbord and Sandra Janoff offer useful guidance based on the
Future Search principle of getting the whole system in the room. They say invite all who
“ARE IN”: those with authority, resources, expertise, information, and need.
Once we are together, how do you work with all that diversity without creating chaos or
experiencing violence? A pattern for handling differentiation is welcoming.

Welcoming: cultivating hospitable space

The Bedouins are known for their hospitality, even when their enemies appear at their
door. A Sufi once told me that if we all practiced hospitality there would be no war. The
thought stopped me in my tracks. What if my first response when faced with dissonance
is to welcome it in to my home – my space of refuge? There is an ethic Harrison Owen
brings to Open Space Technology of welcoming the stranger. This is not just the
unknown person, but also the unknown idea or even the stranger within myself.

While we can welcome someone or something in the moment, a practice of attending to
the physical, intellectual, emotional, and spiritual needs of all expands this idea. Juanita
Brown, in the principles of the World Café introduced me to this concept. Its importance
sunk in at a gathering I attended that opened a session with two people stationed by the
door of our meeting room. As 80 people entered, each was greeted with a few words,
warmth, and laughter. The atmosphere in the room was palpably different when the
meeting began. There was a feeling of openness and trust. People knew they were
welcome and were ready to work.
How we set the stage for what is to come matters. When the environment supports
creative engagement, disturbances tend to show up as far less toxic. We are cued both
consciously and unconsciously about how much of ourselves to reveal, how deep we are
willing to go together.
Practitioners who work with emergent change focus as much of their attention on
creating containers or spaces for their work as they do on designing the process. This is a
subtle but vital concept that all of us employ but rarely discuss. You might call it the
“vibe”, the energy of a space or a group. Though we can’t see it, we can sense it. Think
of that small voice that informs you when you enter a place or get together with others
whether to relax, watch out, or otherwise respond.
Cultivating a physical and psycho-social space with a spirit of welcome that can hold us
well is the work of welcoming. The broader the diversity, the deeper into the subject you
wish to go, the more important creating such a container is.
Who is welcome into our midst? A fundamental pattern for disrupting coherence
compassionately is opening.
Opening: Being receptive to the unknown

The language of opening, letting go, being receptive is often judged as passive. In
practice, what could be a more courageous act of faith than stepping in, with all of the
energies – dissonant and resonant – that appear when difference is truly welcomed?
There is no question that it can be a major hurdle to let go. Most of us have been trained
that we are supposed to have the answers. This is a sign of strength and leadership. To
say you don’t know is to be vulnerable. That is weak and unsafe.
Consider this: the scale, scope, complexity, and speed of the disturbances facing us
collectively is dizzying. Our world-wide economic system is in crisis, the U.S. auto
industry is on life-support, the newspaper industry is dying, U.S., health care continues to
be less affordable for more people, and the list goes on. Business as usual is over.
We are facing change at a magnitude that it requires such radically different beliefs and
skills to succeed when the landscape is filled with such uncertainty -- even mystery -- that
virtually every effective action is counterintuitive. It involves letting go of current

assumptions and framings. It is filled with “I don’t know” and “We’re making it up as
we go along”. It is both exuberant and mindful, standing on the shore of the known
world and stepping into the waters of the unknown.
Opening space to explore is at the heart of invoking emergence to do its work. It is where
pioneers thrive. Welcoming and inviting helps to prepare for this leap of faith into the
unknown, exploring the differences, the passions, perspectives, ideas, and expertise
among us.
Ironically, once in the waters of difference, most of us find it quite exhilarating. It is a

chance to revisit old ground with a fresh eye and visit new ground with the enthusiasm of
new discovery. Challenge and opportunity abound. Once unfettered from the “way
things are”, creativity surfaces in abundance. When a space is open, random interactions
sometimes take on an almost mystical quality as chance encounters lead to unpredictable
breakthroughs.
[Example]
Opening prepares the way for engaging.
Engaging: Take responsibility for what you love as an act of service
What an invitation! This is a call to freedom, to interact in whatever way we see fit, to
express our individuality fully. It is a challenge to rise to the best of ourselves
individually and collectively. How often are we asked to pay attention to what we love?
This is a summons to sense within, to bring our own passions and gifts front and center,
come what may.
Some people perceive this as a call to be selfish. It is quite the opposite. By embracing
what we love, ego finds itself superseded by a source of deeper meaning, inevitably
connecting to something universal. To act responsibly from a personal place of caring is
to discover that it is possible for both the good of the individual and the good of the
collective to be served. In fact, this is a measure that higher-order coherence is emerging.
It makes the gifts of our uniqueness welcome on behalf of the whole community. Further,
we discover that we have a responsibility to bring those gifts to life on behalf of the
community. More than any formal effort, I have seen this pattern change that deeply
ingrained cultural behavior of conforming to belong. It becomes eminently clear that our
uniqueness matters when, time after time, unexpected and creative coherence emerges
when people show up bringing their full, differentiated voices.
During the opening of a Journalism that Matters gathering in Washington, D.C., a
thirtyyear veteran made his irritation with the state of “citizen journalism” known.
Through the rest of the gathering, there were fierce conversations between longtime
journalists and newcomers. During the closing, that same veteran, with the same
intensity told us that the lively exchanges made it clear that the primary difference

between pros and serious amateurs were (1) who gets paid; and (2) professionals
COVER stories, citizens SHARE THEIR stories.
What enables us to uncover the differences that make a difference, the nuggets of truth
often hidden in such expressions of anger, fear, and grief? Two capacities of engaging
stand out: listening and connecting.
Listening: Sensing broadly and deeply, witnessing with self‐discipline
In looking across the array of principles from different change practices. I was struck by
their emphasis on listening. Some offer guidance for sensing difference, listening to the
voice of the other. Others encourage listening for coherence, cultivating a sense of
connection. There is counsel on listening deeply, to oneself and others, encouraging self-
discipline and moderation, a quality of witnessing. Then there is consideration to
listening broadly using not just our ears, but all of our senses, our intuition, and
technology to amplify our abilities. The quality of our listening changes the conversation,
surfacing meaning that none of us could have found on our own.
Connecting: Being with difference while finding common bonds
As different perspectives rub against each other, a burnishing occurs. Similar ideas
surface over and over. People begin to discover what is most personally meaningful is
universal. And more, they begin to discover they are not alone but part of some larger
whole. Our hearts open to each other and we know we are connected. In truth, even
when we can’t feel it and our hearts are closed, we are still connected. Just as head,
heart, and hands are essential parts of one body, so our unique gifts connect us as parts of
a larger social system. As we begin to experience this first hand, something shifts and “I”
begin to see myself as part of a larger “we”. In this marriage of “I” and “we”, something
else emerges. We begin to relate not just to each other but also to the whole. It has it’s
own presence and we know we are part of it. We now share a common story, common
intentions. Because we know, at essence we want the same things, our differences cease
to be obstacles and become pathways to unexpected innovations that contain what is vital
to each of us and all of us.
We are on the verge of emergence. It is time to reflect.
Reflecting: Sensing patterns

It is impossible to know when the interactions that engender breakthrough will actually
occur. If we’ve done our homework in creating a nutrient environment, rich with
diversity, welcoming conditions, and the space to explore, the chances are excellent that
something useful will happen. Reflecting, alone and together, helps. Buddhists say that
you cannot predict enlightenment, but practicing meditation prepares the way. Asking

reflective questions that seek what we now know can be useful. What are we learning?
What surprised us? What was meaningful?
When to ask questions that draw us towards noticing emerging patterns is an art. Too
soon, such questions tend to frustrate. We may be overwhelmed by the depth and breath
of discovery that opening to the mystery has engendered. Sleeping on open-ended
inquiries is a useful practice. There is a body of evidence from social psychology that
teaches us about the effect of a night’s sleep on creativity and innovation. Called the
Zeigarnick effect, at its simplest, it states that people remember uncompleted or
interrupted tasks better than completed ones. In practice, we have all experienced the
effect of “sleeping on something” and having it come into greater clarity in the morning.
So even in our sleep, we reflect.
And collective reflection is a powerful contributor to helping novelty arise in a system.

Years ago I was on the faculty of a women’s leadership program. They had an
assignment to choose a service project that they would all do together. How they chose,
the nature of the project was up to them. At the time, I was living with a question of how
collective decisions are made. Watching this group do its work provided an answer that
informs how shifts occur, arising from the inside. They’d done their research and shared
their ideas. As they comtemplated their options, they were very polite with each other,
no one wanting to hurt anyone’s feelings. After several weeks of little action and the
clock ticking, someone had enough. She took a stand and made a clear, authentic
statement about the project she wanted them to do. Once she spoke, another stepped in,
speaking authentically. And another. As the group listened to each other’s heartfelt
expressions. Their decision became clear. There was just one project that had
characteristics that met some need each one had expressed. Out of passionate individual
expression, a sense of a universal truth surfaced. Later, in speaking with the woman who
jumped in first, I learned here decision to do so was a moment of letting go for her. She
decided that making a meaningful choice was more important to her than maintaining her
image. So she took a risk. Collective reflection at its most effective enables emergence
by making room for our uniqueness to shine through. It is one of the most magical and
transformative aspects of this work to me: that what seems a contradiction – expressing
our individuality actually is a pathway to coming together in a new, higher-order
coherence.
Just as reflecting surfaces deeper truths, naming them grounds them for action.

Naming: Making meaning on behalf of the whole by calling forth what is ripening

There is an art to calling something new into being so that people feel moved to act
individually and collectively. Though analysis or a studious integration of disparate parts
may contribute to something arising, novelty that leads to new forms most often emerges
through a leap made as a group reflects together. Its re-formation is likely to be utterly
unexpected and yet seems to hold what is essential to all. This can feel magical, as if
something is named into existence. Since magic can’t be forced, in practice, I find
inviting people to reflect both on what is within themselves and to reflect with each other

is useful. And just as appreciative inquiries create sanctuary when disrupting a system,
they also provide focus when seeking new coherence. Questions such as
What do we now know that we didn’t know before? What has shifted by our engagement
with each other? What have we discovered that matters?
bring a reflective orientation.
At the first Journalism that Matters gathering, on the final day, people spent about thirty
minutes by themselves, working with questions about what mattered to them:
What did you learn?
What project do YOU want to pursue as a first next step?
Who would you involve?
When they shared their reflections with each other, a pattern emerged that guided our
work for years. It was remarkably prescient of what is happening in the field of
journalism now:
The future of journalism centers around the power of storytelling to create healthy
communities. Specifically:
Cultivating “healthy journalists”, renewing the inner life of the journalist;
Preparing the next generation, with an eye towards the emerging citizen journalist; and
Inventing a new economic model. As one participant put it, “Rather than further
compromise the work, it’s time to separate journalism from its current funding sources
and find a new model.”
Naming can be a transformative act, calling into being what is emerging, making it real.
Like any birth, it can be painful. Ultimately, what was considered different is integrated,
forming a more embrasive whole that includes what was once outside.
Once named, how does it spread?

Harvesting: Sharing stories through multiple modes and channels

Storytelling helps us share what matters with each other. The arts – music, dance, poetry,
film, painting, sculpture, theatre, etc. – are powerful carriers of meaning. It is notable that
with rare exceptions, every movement has songs. Anyone present during the civil rights
movement will recognize We Shall Overcome, a song that instilled commitment to keep
going even in the darkest times. Phrases like the industrial revolution, the information
age, the civil rights movement, each speaks volumes about the accumulated moments in
time. They are a shorthand that tells a story. Tom Atlee coined the term, “story field” to
describe the cultural narrative that shapes our lives. How we tell the story matters. Is the
glass half empty or half full? Is the dying of newspapers a disaster for democracy or an
opportunity for some new and better possibility? Since great stories have dynamic

tension, it is likely both.
Stories help us transition, supporting us in making sense of what has died and what is
being born. When invoking emergence, there is a particular form of story telling that I
believe has tremendous promise for taking life-changing experiences to scale. Joel
DeRosnay, author of The Symbiotic Man, introduced the notion of the macroscope –
experiences, maps, stories, art, and media that help us see ourselves in context. Just as
the microscope opened the way to a world of the small that sparked tremendous
innovation, I think creating macroscopes has an even greater potential for us today. They
will be instrumental in helping us make sense of difference and welcome the novelty
emerging in and around us, aiding us in renewing our systems.
When we experience ourselves in context, something fundamental shifts. We know that

we are of the same body, so why would we shoot ourselves in the foot? Our personal
story becomes a doorway into the universal and we find ourselves part of a larger world.
For many of us, this first sight of Earth from space made visceral something that we all knew: there are no
political borders. They are an illusion. Slowly, quietly, it triggered an inexorable journey towards a new
and more respectful relationship among people and with the Earth.
Technologies – from meditation to supercomputers – can amplify our ability to sense

how we belong. As change accelerates, we are well served to understand the effect of our
human footprint in both space and time. Would we behave differently if we experienced
how interconnected we really are? What would it mean if we could see the speed with
which we are using the natural resources of our planet? The Internet is giving us the
ability to create such contextualized views. It helps us act locally informed by a higher
order perspective, creating more responsive – and visible – feedback loops so that we can
more quickly sense the consequences of our choices. New forms of journalism and other
types of storytellers are just beginning to experiment with these capabilities.

As more of our stories make sense of how different perspectives fit together, we begin
developing a “macroscopic” view -- seeing the complex relationships among us as a
system. As we get better at it, we add to our capacity to make visible shared context and
intention, growing our sense of community. The conditions for more trust and courage
emerge. People take action knowing something about the collective assumptions guiding
them. They are clearer about their own work, connected to others, discover new insights,
partners, and initiatives.
And as we have continue to have such experiences, a new cultural narrative begins to
take hold.
Iterating: Doing it again and again, integrating what we know into what’s novel and
what’s novel into what we know
Working with these three orienting inquiries – disrupting compassionately, muddling

through creatively, and renewing wisely – is often an act of faith. It takes asking these
three questions over and over for new patterns to take root. Each time through
strengthens the growth, helping to internalize the shifts.
Emergence takes root in a geometric progression. The first time we believe we’ve found
useful novel forms, it may fall on deaf ears. My colleague, Michael Dowd, is an
evolutionary evangelist. Ever heard of such a role? If not, you probably will soon. He
has a book on its way up the bestseller list. To trace the path of his work, one could
begin with Teilhard de Chardin, who introduced the noösphere in the 1940’s and 50’s.
He inspired a number of people, including theologian Thomas Berry who, with
cosmologist Brian Swimme, wrote The Universe Story and founded the study of
evolutionary spirituality, attracting thousands. With each step, the number of people
sharing the ideas of the universe story as our sacred origin story has grown.
So we progress from an occasional voice in the wilderness to a few pioneers to many

people making sense of how we relate to the sacred and scientific story of the birth of our
universe. Michael Dowd is taking this work to its next step, popularizing the concept in
such a way that it might finally put to rest the war of words between science and religion
that has gripped so many in the U.S.
There is a saying about change. It is a lot like growing bamboo. You water it every day
for four years and nothing happens. Then suddenly, it grows sixty feet in ninety days.
This phenomenon is visible in the power curve:
Time 

My colleague, Tom Atlee, says that without notable change, iteration generates
inattention. The same old same old generates boredom. And if we don’t see results from
our efforts, we tend to move on, look elsewhere to make a difference. It can be very
difficult to appreciate our effect, particularly when the shift is so radical that it seems
innocuous. It takes time to integrate novelty, to coalesce into new forms, because it
requires bumping into our old assumptions and behaviors, noticing they no longer work
and remembering to try the new assumption or behavior in its stead. How long did it
take e-mail to replace snail mail as our primary means of correspondence? How long
will it take texting to replace e-mail? Or at least for us to collectively sort out what
technology to use when. (I can’t say how many times I leave voicemail, email and a text
message when trying to reach someone in a hurry.)
So many emergent phenomena start slowly and then speed up. Taking something to scale
begins with a single step and then another and another, often with seemingly little or no
effect at first. As energies ripen, change accelerates. Starting small, we learn the skills
and presence to work with the unexpected. As capacity grows, we can take on more
complex systems with more diverse participation reaching greater numbers. Journalism
that Matters has been doing its work for ten years, including a three-year gap between the
first three iterations and when we really took off. Now the demand is accelerating. And
we’re better equipped to handle it.
It takes clear intention, courage, and tenacity to stay with something as it ripens into its
fullness. I believe leadership in such times is about stewarding shared intention and
tending to the social fabric -- both of which involve providing high quality conversational
spaces. This approach brings the relational much more into the foreground and invites
others into the traditional leadership work of providing direction.
So these are the patterns I find most promising for working with emergence. There are
thousands of practitioners using these practices by many different names. As more of us
do so, something is surely shifting. When and how we notice it? Only time will tell.

i Definition by Mark Jones (mark_r_jones@worldnet.att.net), Tom Atlee (cii@igc.org), Chris Corrigan
(chris@chriscorrigan.com), and Peggy Holman
ii Vaught, Seneca. (2005). [Interview with Lyn Carson, university lecturer, University in Australia.]
Unpublished raw data.

Part II. Patterns in Depth
As I started to develop patterns, I experimented with what information was most useful to
share. The stories and patterns I chose use a template influenced by the pattern language
community but with some twists that seemed essential to the spirit of the patterns I offer.
Alexander and those inspired by him use a problem-solution framework. As you will see,
the story of change I offer uses a fundamentally different frame, working from the point
of view of what is already working, what we dream of and how we meet the needs
surfaced through the possibilities we uncover.
If you find yourself objecting, wondering "What about the problems?", you are not alone.
Letting go of something so time-honored as problem-solving is hard. In practice,
however, the same purpose and more can be achieved by shifting our attention from
what's not working to what is working and what has energy. As paradoxical as this may
seem, the patterns offered in this book provide a very productive strategy for uncovering
viable, life-affirming, productive solutions. The table below captures some of the
contrasts between these two perspectives:
PROBLEMSOLUTION ORIENTATION NEEDPOSSIBILITY ORIENTATION

Work within the problem space From outside, redefine the situation

LOOK INSIDE FOR AN ANSWER

“What are the parts of the problem?” “What is the context in which the problem
exists? What possibilities does it hold?”
Outcome‐based results Emergent results
Sequential Random
Planned Designed
Best for Convergent problems: the more you Best for Divergent problems: the more you
know, the closer you come to solution know, the more complex, confusing and
contradictory the problem seems
Works well within the bounds of existing Works well when examining underlying
assumptions to make incremental assumptions to achieve transformation
improvement
Structure content Structure process, create hospitable space


The Pattern Template
In the pattern template, I have replaced problem-solution with needs-possibilities. Each

pattern uses this outline:
NAME – A short label
VISUAL – A picture, diagram, chart, etc.
QUOTE – some brief statement that embodies this pattern, preferably from a known
person or a person involved with the pattern
THE HEART OF PATTERN – What is the essential core of the pattern that captures the
"quality without a name" as it manifests in or through that pattern? Expressed in two
ways:
a) QUESTION – What is at the heart of the matter? Invokes a spirit of inquiry about the
pattern, that the pattern is a response to.
b) ESSENTIAL DESCRIPTION – In 2-4 sentences, what is the essential spirit of the

pattern?
STORIES: What stories – individual, small group, systemic – best illustrate this pattern at
work?
NEED – What is the internal (invisible) and external (visible) need that the pattern
addresses?
ASPECTS OF THE PATTERN — What elements and dynamics — intellectual, material,

emotional, spiritual, etc. — can we identify that make up this pattern? What’s the fabric
of the pattern?
POSSIBILITIES: What are the possible outcomes when the pattern is used or applied
well? What does that look like — initially and over time?
INSTRUCTIONS: How do you apply this pattern? When someone is applying this
pattern, what exactly should they DO?
ABSENCE OF THE PATTERN – What happens when this pattern is not present in an
interaction?
OVER-APPLICATION – What happens when the pattern is over-applied, taken to

extremes, or used to the exclusion of other vital patterns?
EDGES – What should we attend to at the border between what we know and don’t know
about this pattern? What is our learning/growing edge regarding it?

CONTEXT: What is outside of this pattern that’s relevant to its functioning. For
example: (a) What conditions support or undermine it? ( b ) To what extent do you need
to be aware of aspects of context (history, relationships, culture, force field/power
analysis) in order to implement this pattern?
ENGAGEMENT: Who needs to be involved in the application of this pattern?
CLOSELY RELATED PATTERNS – What other patterns are part of this one, support
this one, or are supported by this one? (i.e., parent, child, and peer pattern relationships)
RESOURCES – Where can you go for more information or help? This includes (a)
applications (people, groups or communities who have experienced or are exemplars of
this pattern, who can say what it is like), (b) organizations, networks or individuals who
can provide information or expertise about this pattern, and ( c ) references (books,
articles, websites, videos, art, etc.)


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Engaging Emergence:

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Emergence is a natural phenomenon, an unfolding of change over time. And it isn’t

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Peter Corning offers a brilliant essayi on emergence, pulling together a multitude of

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• It is intimately tied to studies of evolution. Herbert Spencer, an English philosopher

• Professor Jeffrey Goldstein, of Adelphi University, articulated common

o radical novelty -- at each level of complexity entirely new properties appear

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Emergence is a process – a continual, never-ending unfolding, a verb. It places as much

Another consequence of this realization is increased courage to act, knowing you

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• If it serves the public good, it’s good; and

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In every system, there is

• a drive for coherence -- for relationship, harmony, unity, community, wholeness

• a drive for differentiation -- individuality, distinction, uniqueness – a breaking

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As systems fall apart – either figuratively, as we examine the elements in them, or

• How do we disrupt coherence compassionately?

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Whether we ultimately let go by choice or from being overwhelmed, it raises another

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So wisdom knows patience, staying open as others rush to judgment.

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Perhaps you are in an organization in which there is a natural tension between

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Important gains in organizations and communities have happened by managing

In organizations or communities, often disturbance shows up as someone who just

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While certainty grounds us, gives us confidence to enter the unknown, it so

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Whatever the circumstance, how we relate to it is up to us. When dissonance is ever