Holding Change: The Way of Emergent Strategy Facilitation and Mediation

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

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

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

What People Are Saying

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

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

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

About the Author

adrienne maree brown is the author of Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds; Pleasure Activism: The Politics of Feeling Good; We Will Not Cancel Us: And Other Dreams of Transformative Justice; co-editor of Octavia’s Brood: Science Fiction from Social Justice Movements; cohost of the podcasts How to Survive the End of the World and Octavia’s Parables; and founder of the Emergent Strategy Ideation Institute.

Book Details