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Peggy Holman
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Engaging Emergence: Turning Upheaval into Opportunity Paperback – September 6, 2010

by Peggy Holman (Author)
4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 20 ratings
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Change is everywhere these days—at times it seems like barely controlled chaos. Yet within this turmoil are the seeds of a higher order. When a new system arises from the ashes of the old, science calls the process “emergence.” By engaging it, you can help yourself and your organization or community to successfully face disruption and emerge stronger than ever.

In this profound book, Peggy Holman offers principles, practices, and real-world stories to help you work with compassion, creativity, and wisdom through the entire arc of change—from disruption to coherence. You’ll learn what to notice, what to explore, what to try, and what mindset opens new possibilities.

This work can be challenging but also tremendously rewarding. It enables new and unlikely partnerships and develops breakthrough projects. You become part of a process that transforms the culture itself.
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  1. Print length
    264 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Berrett-Koehler Publishers
  4. Publication date
    September 6, 2010
  5. Dimensions
    6.06 x 0.73 x 9 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    1605095214
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1605095219
  8. See all details
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4.4 out of 5 stars
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Customers find the book insightful and useful for Christians. They appreciate its academic interest in chaos and complexity theory, as well as the useful stories from colleagues. The pacing is described as clear, welcoming disturbance, and encouraging diversity.

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7 customers mention "Insight"7 positive0 negative

Customers find the book insightful and useful for Christians. They appreciate the wisdom it provides and the useful stories from colleagues. The book is an interesting read about a topic that is important to them. It offers principles and practices for creatively engaging with one another in dialogue.

"The book was a quick read about an important topic. It was easy to follow and provided solid examples of how to work with emergence...." Read more

"...Peggy Holman's insightful book has much to offer Christians who are pondering what to make of the chaos and how to live a faithful Christian witness...." Read more

"...to elaborate and illustrate many of the ideas, and adds useful stories from her colleagues...." Read more

"...would probably have been incomprehensible to me--at most, academically interesting, chaos and complexity theory, the human ability to self-organize...." Read more

3 customers mention "Pacing"3 positive0 negative

Customers find the book's pacing engaging. They appreciate the clarity of intentions, welcoming disturbance, and diversity.

"...Host others by clarifying intentions, welcoming disturbance, and inviting diversity. Engage by inquiring appreciatively, opening, and reflecting...." Read more

"...Especially relevant is her approach for welcoming disturbance as a way to move from the pain of change to the possibility of what could be." Read more

"Chaos is good..." Read more

Top reviews from the United States

  • Saad Elamin
    5.0 out of 5 stars Thanks
    Reviewed in the United States on October 2, 2024
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  • Gail Henson
    4.0 out of 5 stars Good tool for managers, politicians, and others
    Reviewed in the United States on July 16, 2014
    Verified Purchase
    The book was a quick read about an important topic. It was easy to follow and provided solid examples of how to work with emergence. The information was presented in a manner that allows it to be shared with community organizations, businesses and schools. Understanding the concept will lead to a more beneficial organization.
    One person found this helpful
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  • Andrew Himes
    5.0 out of 5 stars Facing disruption successfully
    Reviewed in the United States on March 31, 2011
    Verified Purchase
    One of the most important books I read this year was by Peggy Holman: Engaging Emergence; Turning Upheaval into Opportunity. As Peggy says in her blog, emergence is a process "through which order arises from chaos as the existing order is disrupted, differences appear, and a new coherence coalesces. By engaging emergence, you can help yourself and your organization or community to successfully face disruption and emerge stronger than ever." She advises: "Step up by taking responsibility for what you love as an act of service. Prepare to embrace mystery, choose possibility, and follow life-energy. Host others by clarifying intentions, welcoming disturbance, and inviting diversity. Engage by inquiring appreciatively, opening, and reflecting. Then do it again!"

    At some point within the past 40 years or so, the Christian world embarked on an immense and historic reconfiguration that called into question the doctrinal and institutional assumptions that had held sway for hundreds of years. And by now, we are right smack in the middle of epochal changes. The struggles of a century ago between liberals and conservatives that led to the creation of modern fundamentalism after World War I are no longer relevant to the conversations that now resonate most powerfully for Christians. Dry arguments about dogma no longer compel desperate arguments or inspire movements. The United States is no longer a "Christian nation," and fortunately for Christianity, it never was. A new generation of Christians is asserting that the core teachings of Jesus are inherently universal and transnational, and can never--and should never--be owned or identified as the characteristic of any nation-state.

    At the same time, all of the principal institutions and denominations of the church--Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox, and Other, evangelical, mainline, charismatic, and neo-Anabaptist--are undergoing wrenching change. The population centers of Christianity have rapidly shifted from the North--Europe and North America--to the South--Africa, Latin America, and Asia. Within the United States, Christians are becoming a minority alongside other religions and spiritual movements, and Christians themselves are becoming less white and more racially diverse. Finally, Christians generally are beginning to seek a more genuine and Spirit-filled expression of their faith, focused on service to others and finding the essence of their faith in compassionate love rather than in dogmatic pronouncements. Significantly, the 2010 American Congressional elections were the first in 30 years in which the Religious Right did not play a significant public role--in its guise as the Religious Right.

    Peggy Holman's insightful book has much to offer Christians who are pondering what to make of the chaos and how to live a faithful Christian witness. As Christians move from disruption to coherence, what will we learn to notice? What will we explore, what will we be bold enough to try, and what new possibilities will we be open to? How will we reinvent ourselves in the 21st century?

    The Sword of the Lord: The Roots of Fundamentalism in an American Family
    5 people found this helpful
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  • R. Lubensky
    5.0 out of 5 stars Chaos is good
    Reviewed in the United States on October 4, 2010
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    This is the sort of easy-to-read book that you want to leave lying around so others will find it accidentally. Maybe they'll recognise, as Peggy hopes, that modern life is not a predictable, steady state that is occasionally and annoyingly disrupted. Rather, life should be celebrated as an evolution of surprises, change and adaptation. Peggy provides us with a straightforward roadmap about how to constructively steward positive change.

    But it won't be easy because we have to toss aside some culturally-engrained habits of thought. For example, uncertainty and being "out of control" should be accepted as relatively normal instead of as definitively bad. And "change management" is just an oxymoron.

    She begins by describing emergent complexity, which I'll short-hand as the self-reconfiguration of a system in response to evolving needs. For the past quarter century, the narrative around human social complexity has gained public currency. But the apparent inevitability of complex change, perceived from the deterministic paradigm, still leaves people feeling victimised.

    Peggy's book invites us to advance our thinking beyond merely coping with the unpredictable states that emerge out of complexity. We can construct our futures, but it requires an approach that differs from the simple cause-and-effect model with which we are most familiar. Peggy outlines the benefits, characteristics, dynamics and principles of engaging emergence.

    The book is aimed particularly at people who are in a position to affect change in organisations or institutions. At the heart of the book is a moral and prescriptive five-step practice for engaging emergence.

    Peggy uses stories about her personal and professional transformation from software engineer to change facilitator to elaborate and illustrate many of the ideas, and adds useful stories from her colleagues. The five steps are essentially the core of many existing group processes such as Appreciative Inquiry, Future Search and World Café which are summarised at the end of the book.

    Engaging emergence requires that we talk to one another in a civil manner with mutual commitment. Perhaps wisely she has sidestepped the thorny challenge of motivating people in power to graciously and generously devolve their authority to a shared enterprise. Just like the enterprise of deliberative democracy, which requires the practice of engaging emergence, the initial challenge is just getting to step 1.
    5 people found this helpful
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  • Charles Thrasher
    5.0 out of 5 stars A rationale for hope
    Reviewed in the United States on March 2, 2011
    Verified Purchase
    A few years ago this book would probably have been incomprehensible to me--at most, academically interesting, chaos and complexity theory, the human ability to self-organize. Then Mid-Eastern dictatorships began to fall like stacked dominoes enabled by a network of communications as complex as a nervous systems. No one expected it. The abstract became real with a force like rolling thunder.

    There is an old Chinese curse: May you live in interesting times. These are interesting times, uncertain times, chaotic times. If you base your expectations of the future solely upon the past, you're like to despair for humanity and the earth itself. Holman's point in this book is that higher orders of organization can emerge from complex systems. There is reason to hope and reason to act, to recognize and embrace what is emerging from the noise and confusion, from the dust of our collapsing expectations. There is no guarantee, no certainty of success, but we need hope in order to act or be paralyzed by fear.

    We need new ways to understand ourselves and to act collaboratively. A lot of this book is about the methodologies being developed to do just that. The rest of the books is about why it's important. Some of her advice may sound paradoxical but our current wisdom is what has brought us to the edge of the abyss. A new wisdom is necessary to lead us back. That new wisdom may in fact be the oldest of all.
    3 people found this helpful
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