Using Emergence

8/14/2019 Using Emergence

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The Berkana Institute

Using Emergence

to ake Social Innovation to ScaleMargaret Wheatley and Deborah Frieze


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Despite current ads and slogans,the world doesnt change oneperson at a time. It changes asnetworks o relationships ormamong people who discover they

share a common cause and visiono whats possible. his is good news or those o

us intent on changing the worldand creating a positive uture.Rather than worry about criticalmass, our work is to oster criticalconnections. We dont need to con- vince large numbers o people tochange; instead, we need to connect with kindred spirits. Trough theserelationships, we will develop thenew knowledge, practices, courageand commitment that lead tobroad-based change.

But networks arent the wholestory. As networks grow andtrans orm into active, workingcommunities o practice, we discover

how li e truly changes, which isthrough emergence. When separ-ate, local e orts connect with eachother as networks, then strength-en as communities o practice,suddenly and surprisingly a new system emerges at a greater levelo scale. his system o in uencepossesses qualities and capacitiesthat were unknown in the indi- viduals. It isnt that they were hid-den; they simply dont exist untilthe system emerges. hey are prop-

erties o the system, not the individual, but once there, individualspossess them. And the system thatemerges always possesses greaterpower and in uence than is pos-sible through planned, incrementalchange. Emergence is how li ecreates radical change and takesthings to scale.

Since its inception in 1992, he Berkana Institute has beenexperimenting with the li ecycle o

Using Emergence to ake SocialInnovation to ScaleMargaret Wheatley & Deborah Frieze


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emergence: how living systems be-gin as networks, shi t to intentionalcommunities o practice, and evolveinto power ul systems capableo global in uence. hrough our

work with communities in many di erent nations, we are learning whats possible when we connectpeople across di erence and dis-tance. By applying the lessonso living systems and work-ing intentionally with emergenceand its li ecycle, we are demon-strating how local social innovationcan be taken to scale and pro- vide solutions to many o the worldsmost intractable issuessuch ascommunity health, ecological sus-tainability and economic sel -reliance.

Why we need to understandnetworksResearchers and social activists arebeginning to discover the powero networks and networking.And there is a growing recognitionthat networks are the new ormo organizing. Evidence o sel -organized networks is everywhere:rom social activists and web-basedinterest groups to terrorist groupsand street gangs. While we now see

these everywhere, it is not becausetheyre a new orm o organizing.Its because weve removed our oldparadigm blinders that look orhierarchy and control mechanismsin the belie that organization only happens through human will andintervention.

Networks are the only orm o organization on this planet usedby living systems. Tese networksresult rom sel -organization, whereindividuals or species recognizetheir interdependence and organizein ways that support the diversity and viability o all. Networks createthe conditions or emergence, which is how li e changes. Becausenetworks are the rst stage in emer-gence, it is essential that we under-stand their dynamics and how they develop into communities and thensystems.

Yet much o the current work onnetworks displays old paradigm bias.In social network analysis, physicalrepresentations o the network arecreated by mapping relationships. Tis is use ul or convincing peoplethat networks exist, and peopleare o ten ascinated to see thenetwork made visible. Other network analysts name roles played


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by members o the network ormake distinctions between di er-ent parts o the network, such ascore and periphery. It may not bethe intent o these researchers, buttheir work is o ten used by leadersto nd ways to manipulate thenetwork, to use it in a traditionaland controlling way.

Whats missing in these analysesis an exploration o the dynamics o networks: Why do networks orm? What

are the conditions that supporttheir creation?

What keeps a network alive andgrowing? What keeps membersconnected?

What type o leadership is re-quired?

Why do people become leaders? What type o leadership inter eres

with or destroys the network? What happens a ter a healthy

network orms? Whats next? I we understand these dynamics

and the li ecycle o emergence, what can we do as leaders, activistsand social entrepreneurs to inten-tionally oster emergence?

What is Emergence?Emergence violates so many o our

Western assumptions o how changehappens that it o ten takes quite a while to understand it. In nature,change never happens as a result o top-down, pre-conceived strategicplans, or rom the mandate o any single individual or boss. Changebegins as local actions spring upsimultaneously in many di erentareas. I these changes remaindisconnected, nothing happensbeyond each locale. However, whenthey become connected, local ac-tions can emerge as a power ulsystem with in uence at a moreglobal or comprehensive level.(Global here means a larger scale,not necessarily the entire planet.)

Tese power ul emergent phen-omena appear suddenly andsurprisingly. hink about how theBerlin Wall suddenly came down,how the Soviet Union ended, how corporate power quickly came todominate globally. In each case,there were many local actions anddecisions, most o which wereinvisible and unknown to each other,and none o which was power ulenough by itsel to create change.But when these local changescoalesced, new power emerged. What could not be accomplished


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by diplomacy, politics, protests, orstrategy suddenly happened. And when each materialized, mosto us were surprised. Emergentphenomena always have thesecharacteristics: hey exert muchmore power than the sum o theirparts; they always possess new capacities di erent rom the localactions that engendered them;they always surprise us by theirappearance.

It is important to note thatemergence always results in apower ul system that has many more capacities than could everbe predicted by analyzing theindividual parts. We see this in thebehavior o hive insects such asbees and termites. Individual antspossess none o the intelligence orskills that are in the hive. No matterhow intently scientists study thebehavior o individual ants, they can never see the behavior o thehive. Yet once the hive orms, eachant acts with the intelligence andskill ulness o the whole.

Tis aspect o emergencehas pro ound implications orsocial entrepreneurs. Instead o developing them individually asleaders and skill ul practitioners, we

would do better to connect themto like-minded others and createthe conditions or emergence. Teskills and capacities needed by them will be ound in the systemthat emerges, not in better trainingprograms.

Because emergence only hap-pens through connections, Berkanahas developed a our-stage modelthat catalyzes connections as themeans to achieve large-scalechange: Name, Connect, Nourish,Illuminate (see Appendix). We ocuson discovering pioneering e ortsand naming them as such. Wethen connect these e orts to othersimilar work globally. We nourish this network in many ways, butmost essentially through creatingopportunities or learning andsharing experiences and shi tinginto communities o practice. Wealso illuminate these pioneeringe orts so that many more people will learn rom them. We areattempting to work intentionally with emergence so that small, locale orts can become a global orceor change.


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Communities o Practice:Developing New Practices Together


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Te Li ecycle o Emergence

Stage One: Networks

We live in a time when coalitions,alliances and networks are orming asthe means to create societal change. here are ever more networks andnow, networks o networks. hesenetworks are essential or peoplending like-minded others, the rststage in the li ecycle o emergence.Its important to note that networksare only the beginning. hey arebased on sel -interest: people us-ually network together or theirown bene t and to develop theirown work. Networks tend to haveuid membership; people movein and out o them based on how much they personally bene t romparticipating.

Stage wo: Communities o

PracticeNetworks make it possible orpeople to nd others engaged insimilar work. he second stage o

emergence is the development o communities o practice (CoPs).Many such smaller, individuatedcommunities can spring rom arobust network. CoPs are also sel -organized. People share a common work and realize there is greatbene t to being in relationship. hey use this community to share whatthey know, to support one another,and to intentionally create new knowledge or their eld o practice.

hese CoPs di er rom networks in signi cant ways. hey arecommunities, which means thatpeople make a commitment to bethere or each other; they participatenot only or their own needs, but toserve the needs o others.

In a community o practice, theocus extends beyond the needs o the group. here is an intentionalcommitment to advance the eld

Networks: Discovering SharedMeaning and Purpose


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o practice, and to share thosediscoveries with a wider audience. hey make their resources andknowledge available to anyone,especially those doing related work.

he speed with which peoplelearn and grow in a community o practice is noteworthy. Good ideasmove rapidly among members.

New knowledge and practices areimplemented quickly. he speedat which knowledge developmentand exchange happens is crucial,because local regions and the worldneed this knowledge and wisdomnow.

Stage Tree: Systems o Infuence he third stage in emergence cannever be predicted. It is the suddenappearance o a system that has realpower and in uence. Pioneeringe orts that hovered at the periphery suddenly become the norm. hepractices developed by courageouscommunities become the acceptedstandard. People no longer hesitateabout adopting these approachesand methods, and they learn themeasily. Policy and unding debatesnow include the perspectives andexperiences o these pioneers. hey

become leaders in the eld andare acknowledged as the wisdomkeepers or their particular issue.And critics who said it could never

be done suddenly become chie supporters (o ten saying they knew it all along).

Emergence is the undamentalscienti c explanation or how local changes can materialize asglobal systems o in uence. As achange theory, it o ers methodsand practices to accomplish thesystems-wide changes that are soneeded at this time. As leaders andcommunities o concerned people, we need to intentionally work withemergence so that our e orts willresult in a truly hope ul uture. Nomatter what other change strategies we have learned or avored,emergence is the only way changereally happens on this planet. Andthat is very good news.

Systems o Infuence:New Practices Become the Norm


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AppendixBerkanas Four Stages or Developing Leadership-in-Community Berkana works with pioneering leaders and communities using a our-stageapproach. his has evolved out o our understanding o how living systems grow and change, and years o practice and experimentation.

I. Name

Pioneering leaders act in isolation, unaware that their work has broader value. hey are too busy to think about extending their work, and too humble to think

that others would bene t. Berkanas rst act is to recognize them as pioneers withexperiences that are o value to others.

II. Connect

Li e grows and changes through the strength o its connections and relationships.(In nature, i a system lacks health, the solution is to connect it to more o itsel .) Berkana creates connections in many di erent ways. We design and acilitatecommunity gatherings. We host networks where people can exchange ideas and

resources. Our collaborative technology supports communities o practice throughdedicated websites, online con erences, asynchronous conversations and co-createdknowledge.

III. Nourish

Communities o practice need many di erent resources: ideas, mentors, processes,technology, equipment, money. Each is important, but oremost among theseis learning and knowledge: knowing what techniques and processes work well,and learning rom experience as people do the work. Berkana provides many o these sources o nourishment but, increasingly, we nd that the most signi cantnourishment comes rom the interactions and exchanges among pioneering leadersthemselves. hey need and want to share their practices, experiences and dreams.Creating opportunities or people to learn together has become our primary way o nourishing their e orts.IV. Illuminate

It is difcult or anybody to see work based on a di erent paradigm. I peopledo notice such work, it is o ten characterized as inspiring deviations rom thenorm. It takes time and attention or people to see di erent approaches or whatthey are: examples o what the new world could be. he Berkana community publishes articles, tells our stories at con erences, and hosts learning journeys where people visit pioneering e orts, learn rom them directly and develop lastingrelationships.


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Deborah Frieze is the Co-President of Te Berkana Institute. She joinedBerkana in 2002 to help bring Berkanas vision into the world. A few yearslater, she co-founded the Berkana Exchange, a community of leadershiplearning centers that are developing the capacity to solve their most press-ing problemssuch as community health, ecological sustainability andeconomic self-relianceby acting locally, connecting regionally andlearning trans-locally. She is a member of the ipping Point Network, agroup seeking to catalyze a globally sustainable economy.

www.berkana.orgPrinted on 100% recycled paper

Margaret Wheatley is the founder of Te Berkana Institute. Meg hasbeen working with people for many years to develop radically new practices and ideas for organizing, where people are seen as theblessing, not the problem. She is an internationally acclaimedspeaker and author of Leadership and the New Science , A Simpler Way ,Turning to One Another , and most recently, Finding Our Way .

Using Emergence

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