In I Am Why’s book circle, we focus on more than reading. We also grow our community through team building, which is part of I Am Why’s model of mentorship. The book circle reached a milestone in the month of January: We completed Emergent Strategy by adrienne maree brown. Throughout the book, she shares her approach to shaping change, and in recognition of mentorship month, we want to share her core principles with you:
adrienne maree brown’s Core Principles of Emergent Strategy
- Small is good, small is all. (The large is a reflection of the small.)
- Change is constant. (Be like water.)
- There is always enough time for the right work. There is a conversation in the room that only these people at this moment can have. Find it.
- Never a failure, always a lesson.
- Trust the People. (If you trust the people, they become trustworthy.)
- Move at the speed of trust.
- Focus on critical connections more than critical mass—build the resilience by building the relationships.
- Less prep, more presence.
- What you pay attention to grows.
From these principles, I reflected on our mentorship work at I Am Why with a short writing:
Embrace your way of mentorship.
Guiding through tough and joyful days.
Giving yourself the GRACE and permission to…
Feeling the feelings that we experience along the way.
Being unapologetically you and watching as we each grow to be.
LEADERS
Learning from each step we take to, embracing the spaces that we hold.
Trusting while allowing others to become trustworthy,
EMERGING LEADERS!
As we conquer the critical masses, we rebuild through the resilient connections and skills.
Knowing we are creating a village to prompt GROWTH and will.
Being present in the ‘here and now,’ appreciating the small as it eventually becomes the large
Nested in our ecosystem of change
Through our practices and customs we will see justice and change
There is not one layer that can define our way of being
We Emerge as we LEAD!
AND
We Lead as we EMERGE!
— La’Nesha, I Am Why consultant
