![[Review] Holding Change (adrienne maree Brown) Summarized](https://episodes.castos.com/660078c6833215-59505987/images/2351951/c1a-085k3-nd1jdpnnu1qz-6jy4oa.jpg)
Show Notes
Holding Change (adrienne maree Brown)
- Amazon USA Store: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0G671V23H?tag=9natree-20
- Amazon Worldwide Store: https://global.buys.trade/Holding-Change-adrienne-maree-Brown.html
- Apple Books: https://books.apple.com/us/audiobook/holding-change/id1859233381?itsct=books_box_link&itscg=30200&ls=1&at=1001l3bAw&ct=9natree
- eBay: https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=Holding+Change+adrienne+maree+Brown+&mkcid=1&mkrid=711-53200-19255-0&siteid=0&campid=5339060787&customid=9natree&toolid=10001&mkevt=1
- Read more: https://english.9natree.com/read/B0G671V23H/
#emergentstrategy #facilitation #mediation #conflictresolution #groupprocess #powerdynamics #collectivedecisionmaking #HoldingChange
These are takeaways from this book.
Firstly, Facilitation as a Living Practice, Not a Script, A central theme is that facilitation works best when it is responsive rather than performative. Instead of treating an agenda as a rigid map, the emergent strategy mindset encourages facilitators to read the system in real time: group energy, participation patterns, silence, urgency, and emotional undercurrents. The facilitator becomes a practitioner of attention, making small adjustments that support clarity and inclusion. This can mean slowing down to define terms, changing formats to invite quieter voices, or naming when the group is stuck in circular debate. The book positions facilitation as a craft grounded in purpose and principles, where tools are chosen based on the needs of the moment. Preparation still matters, but it includes preparing oneself: understanding one’s triggers, assumptions, and relationship to power. When done well, facilitation creates conditions where people can think together, not just talk at one another. The outcome is not simply a completed meeting, but a strengthened collective capacity to learn, adapt, and act. This approach is especially valuable in communities and organizations navigating uncertainty, where the ability to evolve the process can be as important as the decisions made.
Secondly, Holding the Container: Safety, Boundaries, and Agreements, The book highlights that groups do not automatically become collaborative because they share values. They need containers that make participation possible, especially across differences in power, identity, and experience. Holding a container involves establishing agreements, clarifying roles, and setting expectations for how conflict will be engaged. It also involves boundaries: what the space can and cannot hold, what is in scope, and what support structures exist if harm occurs. Rather than aiming for comfort, the emphasis is on enough safety for honesty, learning, and accountability. This includes the facilitator’s responsibility to design openings and check ins that orient people toward the shared purpose, and closings that capture next steps and reinforce follow through. The container is also emotional and somatic: noticing when the room is activated, when people are shutting down, and when pacing needs to shift. By treating the process as part of the outcome, the book encourages readers to see agreements as living commitments that can be revisited. A well held container reduces chaos, prevents domination by the loudest voices, and supports people in taking risks toward deeper connection and clearer collective action.
Thirdly, Mediation Mindset: From Winning to Understanding and Repair, Another key topic is mediation as a practice of moving from positional struggle to deeper understanding. The book frames conflict as a signal that something important is happening: unmet needs, misaligned expectations, or unaddressed power dynamics. A mediation mindset helps people shift from proving they are right to articulating what they need and what they can offer. This does not mean ignoring harm or smoothing over real differences. Instead, it means creating pathways for accountability, repair, and future agreements. The facilitator or mediator supports clarity by separating observations from interpretations, slowing down escalation, and helping parties name impacts. The work often involves distinguishing intent from effect and making space for grief, anger, or fear without letting the process collapse into blame. By guiding participants toward shared reality, the mediator helps them identify what is actually negotiable and what requires a different kind of decision. The book’s approach suggests that mediated conversations are also opportunities to strengthen collective resilience, because people learn skills they can reuse: listening for needs, making clean requests, and developing agreements that reduce repeated harm. Over time, this builds healthier cultures where conflict can become a site of growth rather than fragmentation.
Fourthly, Power, Participation, and the Ethics of Process, The book underscores that process is never neutral. Who sets the agenda, whose time is respected, whose emotions are interpreted as credible, and whose language is treated as default are all expressions of power. Emergent strategy facilitation asks readers to make these dynamics visible and to design participation with equity in mind. That can include rotating roles, using structures that prevent interruption, creating multiple ways to contribute, and naming when authority is present even in supposedly horizontal spaces. The ethics of process also involve transparency about constraints: what decisions are already made, what is open for input, and how decisions will be finalized. Without that clarity, participation can become extractive and breed cynicism. The book encourages facilitators to examine their own power and positionality, including how they are perceived and what they may be avoiding. It also invites groups to build shared responsibility for culture rather than placing everything on one facilitator. When power is acknowledged and participation is intentionally designed, groups can move beyond the pattern where a few people carry the emotional labor and decision making. The result is more legitimate decisions, better implementation, and stronger relationships, because people can feel both heard and respected within a clear, principled process.
Lastly, Emergence in Action: Adaptation, Feedback, and Collective Learning, A final theme is that facilitation and mediation are iterative practices, not one time performances. The book emphasizes learning loops: trying approaches, gathering feedback, and making adjustments that reflect what the group is becoming. This can look like short retrospectives after meetings, explicit check ins on agreements, and regular evaluation of whether the process is serving the stated purpose. Emergent strategy values small changes that compound, so even modest shifts in how a group listens or decides can transform outcomes over time. The facilitator supports emergence by noticing patterns across sessions: recurring tensions, consistent exclusions, or repeated confusion about roles. Instead of blaming individuals, the lens turns to the system and asks what structures are producing these results. The book also points toward resilience practices that help groups stay in relationship through disruption, including pacing, rest, and honoring the human realities people bring into shared work. By treating facilitation as capacity building, the goal expands beyond solving the immediate issue. Groups learn how to navigate future conflicts with less fear and more skill. In that way, emergence becomes practical: the group evolves through attention, practice, and commitment, and the process itself becomes a path toward more sustainable, values aligned collaboration.
- Amazon USA Store: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0G671V23H?tag=9natree-20
- Amazon Worldwide Store: https://global.buys.trade/Holding-Change-adrienne-maree-Brown.html
- Apple Books: https://books.apple.com/us/audiobook/holding-change/id1859233381?itsct=books_box_link&itscg=30200&ls=1&at=1001l3bAw&ct=9natree
- eBay: https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=Holding+Change+adrienne+maree+Brown+&mkcid=1&mkrid=711-53200-19255-0&siteid=0&campid=5339060787&customid=9natree&toolid=10001&mkevt=1
- Read more: https://english.9natree.com/read/B0G671V23H/
#emergentstrategy #facilitation #mediation #conflictresolution #groupprocess #powerdynamics #collectivedecisionmaking #HoldingChange
These are takeaways from this book.
Firstly, Facilitation as a Living Practice, Not a Script, A central theme is that facilitation works best when it is responsive rather than performative. Instead of treating an agenda as a rigid map, the emergent strategy mindset encourages facilitators to read the system in real time: group energy, participation patterns, silence, urgency, and emotional undercurrents. The facilitator becomes a practitioner of attention, making small adjustments that support clarity and inclusion. This can mean slowing down to define terms, changing formats to invite quieter voices, or naming when the group is stuck in circular debate. The book positions facilitation as a craft grounded in purpose and principles, where tools are chosen based on the needs of the moment. Preparation still matters, but it includes preparing oneself: understanding one’s triggers, assumptions, and relationship to power. When done well, facilitation creates conditions where people can think together, not just talk at one another. The outcome is not simply a completed meeting, but a strengthened collective capacity to learn, adapt, and act. This approach is especially valuable in communities and organizations navigating uncertainty, where the ability to evolve the process can be as important as the decisions made.
Secondly, Holding the Container: Safety, Boundaries, and Agreements, The book highlights that groups do not automatically become collaborative because they share values. They need containers that make participation possible, especially across differences in power, identity, and experience. Holding a container involves establishing agreements, clarifying roles, and setting expectations for how conflict will be engaged. It also involves boundaries: what the space can and cannot hold, what is in scope, and what support structures exist if harm occurs. Rather than aiming for comfort, the emphasis is on enough safety for honesty, learning, and accountability. This includes the facilitator’s responsibility to design openings and check ins that orient people toward the shared purpose, and closings that capture next steps and reinforce follow through. The container is also emotional and somatic: noticing when the room is activated, when people are shutting down, and when pacing needs to shift. By treating the process as part of the outcome, the book encourages readers to see agreements as living commitments that can be revisited. A well held container reduces chaos, prevents domination by the loudest voices, and supports people in taking risks toward deeper connection and clearer collective action.
Thirdly, Mediation Mindset: From Winning to Understanding and Repair, Another key topic is mediation as a practice of moving from positional struggle to deeper understanding. The book frames conflict as a signal that something important is happening: unmet needs, misaligned expectations, or unaddressed power dynamics. A mediation mindset helps people shift from proving they are right to articulating what they need and what they can offer. This does not mean ignoring harm or smoothing over real differences. Instead, it means creating pathways for accountability, repair, and future agreements. The facilitator or mediator supports clarity by separating observations from interpretations, slowing down escalation, and helping parties name impacts. The work often involves distinguishing intent from effect and making space for grief, anger, or fear without letting the process collapse into blame. By guiding participants toward shared reality, the mediator helps them identify what is actually negotiable and what requires a different kind of decision. The book’s approach suggests that mediated conversations are also opportunities to strengthen collective resilience, because people learn skills they can reuse: listening for needs, making clean requests, and developing agreements that reduce repeated harm. Over time, this builds healthier cultures where conflict can become a site of growth rather than fragmentation.
Fourthly, Power, Participation, and the Ethics of Process, The book underscores that process is never neutral. Who sets the agenda, whose time is respected, whose emotions are interpreted as credible, and whose language is treated as default are all expressions of power. Emergent strategy facilitation asks readers to make these dynamics visible and to design participation with equity in mind. That can include rotating roles, using structures that prevent interruption, creating multiple ways to contribute, and naming when authority is present even in supposedly horizontal spaces. The ethics of process also involve transparency about constraints: what decisions are already made, what is open for input, and how decisions will be finalized. Without that clarity, participation can become extractive and breed cynicism. The book encourages facilitators to examine their own power and positionality, including how they are perceived and what they may be avoiding. It also invites groups to build shared responsibility for culture rather than placing everything on one facilitator. When power is acknowledged and participation is intentionally designed, groups can move beyond the pattern where a few people carry the emotional labor and decision making. The result is more legitimate decisions, better implementation, and stronger relationships, because people can feel both heard and respected within a clear, principled process.
Lastly, Emergence in Action: Adaptation, Feedback, and Collective Learning, A final theme is that facilitation and mediation are iterative practices, not one time performances. The book emphasizes learning loops: trying approaches, gathering feedback, and making adjustments that reflect what the group is becoming. This can look like short retrospectives after meetings, explicit check ins on agreements, and regular evaluation of whether the process is serving the stated purpose. Emergent strategy values small changes that compound, so even modest shifts in how a group listens or decides can transform outcomes over time. The facilitator supports emergence by noticing patterns across sessions: recurring tensions, consistent exclusions, or repeated confusion about roles. Instead of blaming individuals, the lens turns to the system and asks what structures are producing these results. The book also points toward resilience practices that help groups stay in relationship through disruption, including pacing, rest, and honoring the human realities people bring into shared work. By treating facilitation as capacity building, the goal expands beyond solving the immediate issue. Groups learn how to navigate future conflicts with less fear and more skill. In that way, emergence becomes practical: the group evolves through attention, practice, and commitment, and the process itself becomes a path toward more sustainable, values aligned collaboration.
