The Tool Desk
Outbyte Driver Updater FREEScan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →Outbyte PC Repair FREERepair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsFix Now →Emergent strategy is a way to pursue a clear intention while adapting as circumstances and relationships change. Instead of treating a plan as a fixed route, a group pays attention to the patterns forming through its actions, learns from them, and adjusts what it does next. The term has a specific association with adrienne maree brown’s approach to organizing and collective change, as well as a related use in organizational strategy research.
What is an emergent strategy?
Emergence describes patterns or higher-level properties that arise through interactions among many parts. In a 2013 speech transcript, adrienne maree brown defines it this way: “emergence is the way complex systems and patterns arise out of a multiplicity of relatively simple interactions.” She adds that it “emphasizes critical connections, authentic relationships, listening with the body and the mind.” Read brown’s speech transcript.
Applied to organizing, emergent strategy means paying attention to the relationships and practices shaping collective change, then adapting action in light of what the group learns. It is not the absence of intention: a group can know what it hopes to change without assuming it can predict every step or outcome.
The UK government’s Magenta Book supplement describes emergence as higher-level properties arising through interaction and self-organisation, sometimes in ways that are difficult to predict from the individual components alone. That is a useful way to understand why a group’s overall patterns may not be obvious from any one person’s actions. It does not prove that a particular small action or facilitation technique will reliably produce a desired large-scale result. See the Magenta Book supplement.
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Two uses of the term
Brown’s organizing framework and organizational strategy research share an interest in how patterns develop, but they focus on different settings and processes. The term should not be treated as if both uses name one identical method.
| Aspect | Brown’s organizing framework | Organizational strategy research |
|---|---|---|
| Main setting | Social justice organizing, facilitation, and collective change | Organizations and strategic renewal |
| What develops | Patterns shaped by relationships, adaptation, and small practices | Strategic initiatives and routines shaped by interpretation, networks, and cooperation |
| Connection to formal plans | Emphasizes responsiveness and learning in practice | Initiatives may eventually be connected to or ratified as formal strategy |
| Source basis | Brown’s primary material and an educational summary | An academic proceedings abstract |
The organizational account describes initiatives that can start when someone interprets an idea, become more defined through social networks and cooperation, and later connect to official strategy. It is useful for understanding how strategy may develop inside an institution, but it is not a substitute for brown’s framework for organizing and collective change. Read the organizational strategy account.
Principles to use as prompts
A De Anza College LibreTexts teaching resource attributes these principles to brown’s book. Treat them as reflective prompts for organizers, not as universally validated management rules. See the LibreTexts overview.
- “Small is good, small is all”: Notice the small practices and relationships that can shape a group’s larger culture.
- “Change is constant”: Expect conditions and understanding to shift rather than assuming the original plan will remain sufficient.
- “Never a failure, always a lesson”: Ask what an outcome taught the group, without pretending that every setback is harmless.
- “Trust the people” and “Move at the speed of trust”: Pay attention to relationships and allow trust-building to affect the pace of collective work.
- “Less prep, more presence”: Leave room to listen and respond rather than relying entirely on advance scripting.
- “What you pay attention to grows”: Consider which behaviors, connections, or issues the group’s attention is reinforcing.
How a group can put it into practice
These steps translate the cited principles and facilitation advice into a workable group process. They are practical suggestions, not a formally validated assessment or guaranteed route to change.
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- Set an intention. Name the issue or change the group is working toward. Be clear about the purpose while remaining open about the exact route.
- Invite people directly affected. Make space for their knowledge and notice whose perspective is missing from the conversation.
- Shape the conversation with participants. Brown’s facilitation account cautions that a fixed agenda can crowd out what participants need to discuss. Start with enough structure to orient the group, but leave the agenda adaptable so listening can change what happens next. Read brown’s facilitation guidance.
- Notice what changes. Identify new information, shifting conditions, or patterns in how people are interacting. Ask whether these change the group’s understanding of the issue.
- Revisit the next action. Decide what to keep doing, change, or stop in light of what has happened, and check that the choice still serves the group’s intention.
Questions that can help a team or group reflect include:
- What small repeated practices are shaping the larger culture?
- Who is directly affected, and whose knowledge is missing?
- What relationships or connections would make coordination more resilient?
- What has changed since the initial plan, and what have we learned?
- What should we keep doing, change, or stop based on what is happening?
What emergent strategy does—and does not—establish
Emergent action can be deliberate about its purpose while flexible about its precise path. That flexibility is different from reacting to every new development without reflection: adaptation remains connected to the group’s intention.
The sources here explain the concepts and offer principles and facilitation guidance, but they do not establish a numeric success rate or show that any particular practice causes system-wide change. Complexity is a lens for understanding how interactions can produce patterns that are hard to predict; it is not a guarantee of a desired outcome. Groups should use the approach as a way to pay attention, learn, and adapt—not as proof that a small intervention will scale automatically.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Where to read more
Brown’s Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds was published by AK Press in 2017. Her official author page describes it as her first solo book and a guidebook for relating to change. See brown’s book page. Her launch post describes the book’s contents, including principles, practices, and tools. Read the launch post.
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Brown’s official site also describes the Emergent Strategy Ideation Institute as a collective of facilitators, mediators, and trainers interested in how people relate to change. Visit the institute page.
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