Ecoplanning and Emergence

(Adpative Planning)

Even if the future cannot be predicted, it may be anticipated. One can lay seeds to build capacities for transformation as other short-term processes are established. Short term strategic planning for a time frame of 3-4 years will still use traditional methods of setting goals and objectives, defining outcomes and holding people accountable in measurable and quantifiable ways. For this kind of planning, traditional leadership concepts and methods are appropriate. However, when one begins to think about preparing for a constantly changing future that will emerge in unpredictable ways, leaders will need to build new types of skills.

These new skills will need to reflect ideas such as:

  • Seeding transformation using small groups of early adopters
  • Using "futures generative dialogue"
  • Watching what emerges to be able to make innovative connections in different ways, for different reasons, at different times.

These skills will be based on the ecological ideas of:

  • Self-organizing
  • Interdependence
  • Feedback
  • Setting initial conditions
  • Emergence. The best of all "process/transformative" leaders will be able to move back and forth between theory and practical action that is both linear ( short term projects where factors and required outcomes are known ) and non-linear processes (longer term transformative capacity building which seeds continuous innovation without the ability to predict the outcomes).

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