Emergent Strategy

LGBTQ+ Health Initiative’s Anti-Racism Listening & Learning Series

Emergent Strategy by adrienne maree brown

Background: The LGBTQ+ Health Initiative put together the Antiracism Listening and Learning Series in response to a 2020 technical assistance survey of Network organizations in which 45% of employees reported they are interested in additional anti-racism training. Additionally, the events of 2020 highlighted how urgent and crucial it is to understand the history of structural racism in the United States and to think about how structural racism impacts our lives and our work. We ran this Antiracism Series on Emergent Strategy in 2023, after the previous Series focused on So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Olou and How to Be An Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi. We have provided information and materials for anyone to run this series with their group.

  • Syllabus: The syllabus includes a breakdown of the work for this Series, including what pages to read in Emergent Strategy for each session, the nature of the element/s discussed during the session, a reflective activity to complete before each session, and additional resources that participants are encouraged to review before each session.
    • For the pre-reflective activities, we created Jamboards that were shared with attendees beforehand. We suggest you find a platform that best suits your needs and allows participants to access it (e.g., Padlet).
  • Slides: We condensed slide decks for the five sessions and included an editable PowerPoint presentation. In the notes section, we included more information to add to specific slides for each session and details on how much time we allotted for each slide.
  • We had 3 PAID facilitators.
  • We suggest having at least 4-5 participants per facilitator. We had four facilitators and invited 20-25 people to participate.
  • Knowing how many people/who will participate is helpful, so we used a registration form.
    • Having a registration may also create a safer space, as facilitators know who to expect, and the group has more consistency.
  • This Series was spread out over five sessions (virtual) of 90 minutes each, one session per week.
    • Session 1: Emergent Strategy
      • Chapter(s):  Fractal | Intro |  Interdependent and Decentralized
    • Session 2: Emergent Strategy
      • Chapter(s): Intentional Adaptation
    • Session 3: Emergent Strategy
      • Chapter(s): Nonlinear and Iterative
    • Session 4: Emergent Strategy
      • Chapter(s): Resilient, Rooted & Transformative Justice
    • Session 5: Emergent Strategy
      • Chapter(s):  Creating More Possibilities
  • We collected feedback in a short survey at the end of every session. We incorporated changes based on the feedback we received (as we were able) while the Series was ongoing.