Bob brown, a leader in the Strategic Doing movement, explains how he has used Strategic Doing to transform neighborhoods in Flint over the past eight years.

1. Strategic Doing and 2nd Curve: the
Story of Flint
Bob Brown
August 6, 2020

2. We start
with the
Journey

3. Foraging Age

4. Horticulture Age

5. Industrial Age

7. Each age includes yet
transcends the prior
age

8. • Each age has a
predominate worldview
which helps to produce
amazing advances.

11. These ages also
produce problems
that the
predominate
worldview of that
age finds impossible
to effectively
address

15. Crossroad
between Ages

16. The current
dominate s-
curve is
characterized
by:
problems to solve
funding driven
agency and program
centered
professionals and
experts operate the
system
clients need help
expert knowledge
informs
strategic plans
self-interested
collaboration.

18. Emergence might be
the most important
to understand

19. Definition
“I defined emergence as simply as possible:
order arising out of chaos.”
Peggy Holman

20. Forms of
Changehttps://peggyholman.com/papers/engaging-
emergence/engaging-emergence-table-of-
contents/summary-of-key-ideas/
In order of increasing disruption:
• Steady state—Disturbance is handled within the
existing situation.
• Incremental shifts—Disruptions interrupt the
status quo.
• Emergence—Occasional upheaval results when
principles that keep a system orderly break down.

21. Benefits of Engaging
Emergence
https://peggyholman.com/papers/engaging-emergence/engaging-emergence-table-of-
contents/summary-of-key-ideas/
• Individually, we are stretched and refreshed. We feel more
courageous and inspired to pursue what matters to us.
• New and unlikely partnerships form. When we connect with
people whom we don’t normally meet, sparks can fly. Creative
conditions make room for our differences, fostering lively and
productive interactions.
• Breakthrough projects surface. Experiments are inspired by
interactions among diverse people.
• Community is strengthened. We discover kindred spirits among a
diverse mix of strangers. Lasting connections form, and a sense of
kinship grows.
• The culture begins to change. With time and continued
interaction, a new narrative of who we are takes shape.

22. Some Catches When
Engaging Emergence
https://peggyholman.com/papers/engaging-emergence/engaging-emergence-table-of-
contents/summary-of-key-ideas/
• Getting started is a leap of faith.
• Success can be a hurdle.
• Outcomes can be elusive to recognize.
• What’s most important is likely not on our
radar screen.
• Not everyone makes the trip.
• Death or loss is usually part of the mix.

23. Characteristics of
Emergence
Peggy Holman
https://peggyholman.com/papers/engaging-emergence/engaging-
emergence-table-of-contents/part-i-the-nature-of-emergence/chapter-
1-what-is-emergence/
• Radical novelty
• Coherence
• Wholeness
• Dynamic
• Downward causation
• The phrase “The whole is greater than the
sum of its parts” captures key aspects of
these ideas.

24. Dynamics of
Emergence
https://peggyholman.com/papers/engaging-
emergence/engaging-emergence-table-of-contents/part-i-the-
nature-of-emergence/chapter-1-what-is-emergence/
• Situational leadership arising in context.
• Generally characterized as no one being in charge.
• Or everyone being in charge.
• In fact, what’s in charge is the energy of the
situation and of the people taking initiative,
interacting in it.
• Simple rules engender complex behavior.
• Randomness becomes coherent as individuals,
each following a few basic principles or
assumptions, interact with their neighbors.

25. Dynamics of
Emergence
https://peggyholman.com/papers/engaging-
emergence/engaging-emergence-table-of-contents/part-i-the-
nature-of-emergence/chapter-1-what-is-emergence/
• Feedback among neighboring agents.
Interactions that reinforce and balance the
system.
• Clustering as like finds like. Diverse agents
interact, feeding back to each other as like
attracts like. Some individual agents bond
around a shared characteristic, forming
more complex systems, such as networks,
over time.

26. Industrial
Revolution
Curve
Guides
Using a musical metaphor, facilitation on
this curve brings all the parts of the
orchestra and choir together to perform a
piece of music.
The endpoint is known – the music is
written and our job is the help blend all the
pieces together in an orderly fashion to
create beautiful music.

27. Emergence
or
Knowledge
Age Curve
Guides
Once again, using a musical metaphor, think of
improvised jazz. Facilitation here is more
about creating the relationships and
conditions/space where musicians bring their
talents together, play off one another, to
emergently create beautiful music.
This is the new frontier. It is definitely driven
by a different set of values.

28. In the
World of
Emergence
• Strategic Doing teaches people how to form
collaborations quickly, move them toward
measurable outcomes and make
adjustments along the way. In today’s world,
collaboration is essential to meet the
complex challenges we face.
• Strategic Doing enables leaders to design
and guide new networks that generate
innovative solutions. It is a new strategy
discipline that is lean, agile and fast—just
what organizations, communities and
regions need to survive and thrive.

29. The Power of
Strategic
Doing:
Emergence and
the Flint Story

30. Home to
Amazing
People

31. Home to Olympic Heros

32. And Everyday
Heroes

33. Home to Deep
Faith

34. •Home to Never
Ending Hope In
The Face Of Big
Challenges

35. Industrial Abandonment

36. Decaying Housing

37. Unrelenting Violence

38. Racism Rears Its Ugly Face

42. Michigan Civil
Rights
Commission: Race
and racism played
a significant role in
causing the Flint
water crisis.

44. Strategic Doing
Gives Us A Way
To Respond

45. Igniting
Collaborative Action
WOW Outreach uses the
agile collaboration
framework and strategy from
SD to enact asset-based
innovation and resident-
driven action.

46. The Flint
Model –
WOW
Outreach
1. Driven by Key Understandings and Values
Opportunities to realize; relationship
driven; people and neighbor centered;
the neighborhood is the system operated
by those who live there; people build
capacity; community wisdom and science
informs; gifts (assets) and generosity;
networks; strategic doing; authentic, deep
collaboration, emergence
2. Enacted thru roles

47. The Flint
Model:
Key Roles
Role of Collaborator
WOW Outreach works to align, link, and
leverage assets from individuals and
organizations to quickly form complex yet
agile collaborations that take on many of the
“inequitable problems” faced by north Flint
residents

48. The Flint
Model:
Key Roles
Role of Connecter and Convener
One of the most important roles WOW
Outreach serves is as a connector. We
successfully reach out and connect people and
organizations that are doing similar good work
to create opportunities for greater synergy in
addressing the wicked problem of
interpersonal violence. The Teen Summit is a
good example.

49. The Flint
Model:
Key Roles
Role of Capacity Builder
Community capacity building is an approach to
social or personal development that focuses
on understanding the obstacles that inhibit
people and neighborhoods from realizing their
development goals, while enhancing the
abilities that allows them to achieve
measurable and sustainable results.
Community capacity building strengths,
overall competencies and talents of residents
and neighborhoods to overcome the hurdles
that cause exclusion and suffering. The Living
Room Conversations are a good example.

50. The Flint
Model:
Key Roles
Role of Engager and Community Builder
To change the culture and address the root
causes of violence, WOW Outreach works to
bring together people who are not in
relationship with each other. WOW does this
by organizing and convening platforms to
discuss community needs, concerns, and
identify ways to align, link, and leverage
resources. By facilitating these platforms,
WOW is instrumental in creating strong
partnerships to create action-driven solutions
to problematic issues. WOW’s major platform
is the Community Action Network.

52. Strategic Doing
in Flint:
Building
Resident
Driven
Collaborations

55. Strategic Doing
in Flint:
Increasing
Connections –
The Living Room
Conversations

56. Strategic Doing in
Flint: Increasing
Connections –
Conversations
with Police

57. Strategic
Doing in Flint:
Increasing
Capacity to
Succeed

59. Strategic
Doing in Flint:
Increasing
Capacity to
Succeed

60. Strategic Doing in
Flint: Increasing
Capacity to
Succeed

61. Strategic
Doing in Flint:
Convening
Teens

62. Youth
Summits

63. Youth
Summits
2015

67. Strategic
Doing in Flint:
Convening
Residents

68. Strategic
Doing in Flint:
Engaging
Residents to
Take Action

69. Strategic Doing in
Flint: Engaging
Residents to Take
Action –
Community Action

70. Community
Action Network
• A platform to address current community
issues and neighborhood concerns.
• Residents use their personal and
organizational assets creating action for
positive change
• Residents pursue measurable strategic
outcomes, goals, and a shared vision to
address problematic situations which persist
in our neighborhoods.
• Participants identify problems and deficits,
in order to focus and define new
opportunities by connecting assets, and
personal strengths.
• Instead of looking for a visionary leader,
they recognize that leadership stems from
within and is an open network where
partners equally share responsibility.

71. Neighborhoods
Without Borders
- 2012

72. April 19,
2012

76. Unity March
and
Community
Expo

79. Welcoming
Home
Summit

81. Creating an
Equitable and
Sustainable
Regional Food
System

83. Community
Prayer – A
Faith
Response
“Father God, please guide us as we work in
unity to rebuild Your City. Help us to open our
hearts to the needs of others. Teach us to love
one another as You love us. Give us the
courage to get involved using the gifts you
have given us. Help us put an end to volence
and help us reach out to the disconnected
youth and families providing them with food,
shelter, education, and employment
opportunities. AMEN”

85. We need a new way of thinking, a
new way of being that enables us to
move into the future:
Strategic Doing

86. Asset-based disciples
Operating in emergence
Authentic collaboration across
Deep, deep relationships
Wicked problem confrontation
We are
Strategic Doers