How Emergent Strategy Can Transform Your Nonprofit’s Planning Process

What if your strategy could evolve like a living thing, always adapting to what you learn? That’s the promise of Emergent Strategy, a flexible approach from Adrienne Maree Brown.

In simple terms, emergent strategy means planning in organic, small steps, trusting people, and learning as you go. It’s about being adaptive, relational, and community-rooted.

Core ideas of emergent strategy can be powerful for small nonprofits. For example:

• “Change is constant (be like water).” Embrace change as part of the journey. Instead of resisting new realities, use them to inform your plan.

• “Small is good, small is all.” Big transformations grow from small actions. Pilot a tiny project first rather than overhauling everything. Remember: the way you are at the small scale reflects how you’ll be at the large scale.

• “Never a failure, always a lesson.” Treat setbacks as learning opportunities. If something doesn’t work, ask “What can we learn?” and adjust. This mindset removes fear from trying new things.

• “Trust the people” and “Move at the speed of trust.” Value the knowledge of everyone on your team and in the community. Give them the freedom to try ideas and rely on each other. When trust is high, decisions happen faster because you’re building on strong relationships.

• “Less prep, more presence.” Don’t get stuck in endless meetings or paperwork. Once the essentials are clear, dive into action. Focus on being fully engaged with the work and the people around you, adjusting on the fly based on real feedback.

In practice, an emergent strategy approach might look like this: Instead of crafting a fixed three-year plan, you set a guiding vision and take it quarter by quarter. After each quarter you gather the team (and community members) to reflect: What worked? What didn’t? Then you plan the next quarter’s steps based on that learning. You keep priorities flexible, so if a new opportunity or challenge arises, you can pivot. This keeps the organization adaptive to change and centered on relationships.

For a small nonprofit, emergent strategy means valuing every person’s insight. For example, before making a big decision about a program, you might hold a casual circle with staff and volunteers. In that “conversation in the room,” as Brown calls it, you uncover ideas that no plan on paper could predict. By trusting these voices and acting on what they say, your strategy stays grounded in reality and community needs.

Emergent strategy also encourages decentralized leadership. In the Commons summary, one element is “Interdependence & Decentralization: mutual resilience, shared leadership and vision”. In other words, don’t put all decision power at the top – share it. This might mean forming small working groups that each tackle a piece of the mission, with everyone reporting insights back to the whole.

Ultimately, applying emergent strategy is about creativity and hope. It’s not a rigid formula, but a set of principles that help small orgs remain nimble and people-centered. By adopting this mindset – celebrating small wins, learning fast, and valuing relationships – your nonprofit can navigate change and grow stronger together. As one admirer wrote, emergent strategy invites us to work “in the most beautiful, joyful, creative, sustainable, collective and effective ways”. That sense of collective, adaptive effort can transform planning from a headache into a living process that honors your community’s wisdom.