The writer, organizer, and social justice facilitator adrienne maree brown says this about community organizing in her book, Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds.
... We are not the absolute progenitors of our outcomes. We put in the work, we fly out and we have an intention (get food, end racism, change society, get free) and we work hard, we look for the worms and we build our nests and we fly in formation etc. But at the end of the day we have to believe firmly that there are forces of justice and truth and love at play. We do our part and rely on the greater power of the Universe aka our collective intentions AND efforts. It is relieving to know that it is not always up to us as individuals, but there is complex interconnection of power at play.
The pages preceding and following are about this idea of surrendering to the collective, which is very hard to do as a community organizer or leader of social change because of the nature of the work, as well as the nature of the individual that the work calls forth to lead.
People who decide to dedicate their lives to social change aren't passive, they're passionate. They have vision. Their work-lives have a forward thrust toward the good of others. In very basic (and cringe) corporate terms, they're alpha high-achievers.
What is powerful about Brown's words is that they remind us that the very society we are set out to change is also on our side in invisible ways as a force that sustains our work.
I know this can be hard to rest in given the divisive and isolating nature of our present day world, but there are indeed others, as evidenced by biomimicry, which brown references throughout the book, that will follow our lead, take flight in our wind, and there will be a formation. It is humbling to know that our vision isn't solely reliant upon our movement.
Biomimicry is the imitation of the models, systems, and elements of nature for the purpose of solving complex human problems.
How is this useful?
Thinking of our work of organizing movements as less individualistic, less reliant on us alone, not only necessarily shreds our ego – it de-exhausts us. It de-conditions us from seeking achievement alone, which is antithetical to social change work that requires diverse community voices to be effective.
Reframing our work as an effort in collective growth versus a solely personal endeavor aimed at increasing our feelings of specialness bats away the debilitating stress of ego and intense loneliness that frequently plagues changemakers.
This is what brown has to say about learning to work collaboratively:
I am beginning to revel in the increased capacity that comes from working with and trusting others. I sleep, I center, I travel, I share. I have offered more room in my life to love, family, creating. Each day I feel more authentic, and more capable. I don't experience failure much these days; I experience growth.
May we all flourish in the collective this way, letting go of the pressure to be it all and do it all alone. Letting go of the shame of realizing that, this whole time, we were thinking it was about "me" and "what I am doing" instead of "what can we do?"
May we all be so fortunate to discover the innate trust for one another that nature has placed in us, by design.