2: Emergence & Learning

"Invite in everybody who cares to work on what’s possible. Acknowledge that everyone is an expert about something. Know that creative solutions come from new connections." (Margaret Wheatley)

On Emergence

I’m very interested in the idea of emergence. It’s the notion that by bringing together and fostering connections among individuals and networks who are bright sparks of light, we are building systems that are greater than the sum of their parts and possess greater power and influence than is possible through planned, incremental change. I trusted that we could bring some great people together around the idea of transforming evaluation to work better for communities, and that the energy of us all together would create something powerfully bigger than each of us. And I didn’t know what that was exactly. So the invitation was a bit murky (although I may have had a better sense of the emergent nature than I was actually able to convey).

Margaret Wheatley and Deborah Frieze explain emergence this way (I see it connected to the ‘before the beginning’ concept I discussed in Blog 1: Before the beginning … as well):

“Change begins as local actions spring up simultaneously in many different areas. If these changes remain disconnected, nothing happens beyond each locale. However, when they become connected, local actions can emerge as a powerful system with influence at a more global or comprehensive level. (Global here means a larger scale, not necessarily the entire planet.)

These powerful emergent phenomena appear suddenly and surprisingly. Think about how the Berlin Wall suddenly came down, how the Soviet Union ended, how corporate power quickly came to dominate globally. In each case, there were many local actions and decisions, most of which were invisible and unknown to each other, and none of which was powerful enough by itself to create change. But when these local changes coalesced, new power emerged”.

Pennie Foster-Fishman and Teresa Behrens suggest that in a Community Psychology approach to systems change, it is better to focus on a system than on context, because context is discrete and a system is a collection of parts that interact together and function as a whole. They say we have to focus on this interaction of the parts of a system, and look at the interdependencies within systems and the consequences of those interactions.

By following this approach we are making way for what is possible, maybe more than we ever could have imagined. In this sense we can't possibly know what the journey will look like ahead of time; It becomes clearer as it unfolds.

Balancing emergence and structure

We were exploring new territory with the Learning Pathway, deciding what we were going to learn about as we were following its unfolding path. We wanted to explore activities related to evaluation – and we didn’t want to do that in a colonial way. We needed to explore evaluation from African and Indigenous world views, and I knew I wasn’t the one to offer that. Everyone had different experiences with evaluation and perspectives about it, and we needed to create a space that genuinely honoured that. A curriculum wasn’t going to work because we needed to be open to the mystery, and we needed enough of a structure that people would have a sense of what they were being invited to join.

So what is the sweet spot of defining something enough that you have something to invite people to, yet leaving it sufficiently open-ended to be truly emergent and shaped by participants?

I had pilot-tested a few processes with new and emerging evaluators in my organization, and I thought we might incorporate some of them into the Learning Pathway: a Developmental Evaluation course, a peer learning circle, and one-on-one coaching on evaluation. In conversations with Wisdom Circle and facilitation team members, I came to understand that rather than standing something up as a separate course or a separate process (a very colonial approach), another way was to weave some of the relevant teachings/offerings from those processes into the overall Learning Pathway approach.

The Relational Work of Systems Change

I started thinking about the part that being relational plays in efforts like the Learning Pathway’’s effort to transform the ecosystem in which evaluation takes place. In their article about the relational work of systems change, Katherine Milligan, Juanita Zerda, and John Kania describe five elements they consider critical for embracing emergence and prioritizing relationships in a way that fosters authentic connections from which innovations can spring:

deep relational work - creating a space where everyone feels safe to express themselves freely and people come together to experience their common humanity;
cultivating space for healing:- in light of the force of unresolved, unhealed trauma on addressing systemic issues;
serendipity and the sacred - inviting in the sacred with a tone that encourages everyone to open their hearts, be present with each other, and lets grace come into the work;
inner and outer change:- changing ourselves through a process of examining our own biases and assumptions, reckoning our privilege and complicity in perpetuating systemic inequities, and learning how to let go of being in control, thus shifting the collective and being changed by shifted collective, and creating an interplay where insight, opportunity, and the potential for transformation are created; and
transforming power dynamics: being intentional about not replicating systemic power imbalances, and about building relationships that can help transform power dynamics.

While we didn’t organize and name our approach this way exactly (or articulate it explicitly), I think these concepts are useful for thinking about the Learning Pathway because it wove a number of these elements throughout the journey. This happened in large part due to guidance provided by Wisdom Circle members, and to looking at the work through worldviews that centre relationality.

Deep relational work, a healing space, and inviting in the sacred

One of the ways deep relational work and sacredness showed up in the work was that Wisdom Circle members and community leaders grounded each of our gatherings in culture, which contributed to building a sacred space where everyone could be present and connect with each other in authentic ways. Music also played a significant role inviting the sacred in. I will talk more about the sacredness of the journey in Blog 3: Coming to see evaluation as sacred). We intentionally and carefully centred the Mi’kmaw and African Nova Scotian communities in the work to help each community understand the other in a more direct way, without privileging one over the other. We did not focus on healing directly or explicitly, although I would hope that in the long-term, decolonizing evaluation could contribute to healing by virtue of lessening the force of colonial approaches and building respect for different ways of knowing and being.

For some participants bringing the two cultures together built an understanding:

“I always knew that there were similarities between the Black community and First Nation communities in Nova Scotia in particular, but through this process I’m really seeing it firsthand. It’s different struggles and different worldviews, but very similar approaches to taking on these things and cultivating your culture and reinforcing it, and it's a celebration”. (Learning Pathway participant)

——

“Something that worked well was the parallels with the Black and Indigenous communities about the passing on of wisdom and knowledge of the ancestors”. (Facilitation team member)

Another perspective was that while it was nice to learn about the other culture, it wasn't helpful for learning about how to do evaluation in one’s own community:

“I wouldn't use Indigenous strategies in the Black community. So although it was beautiful to watch, sometimes it felt inappropriate. I was [thinking] I won’t be reusing this, so why are we spending several hours going into these things if it's not relatable to this content? Maybe you should have [said] ‘ if you're working in an Indigenous community, these are spiritual practices, connecting pieces. I'm not sure that everyone would have wanted to learn about Sankofa, not that it's not nice to know. But it wasn't a good use of my time in the evening. They certainly didn't guide my work in any way. Not that I didn't enjoy learning about it, I did. I just thought if we're going to be committing this time, I would have liked to have it be centered on the work that I was doing, that people were doing in other Black communities that I can actually relate to”. (Learning Pathway participant)

We were intentional about trying to foster relationships, hoping there would be some connections and serendipities that would extend beyond the Learning Pathway. We built small group discussions into each gathering, and in response to participants’ wishes, carefully composed the groups so that at some point each participant had an opportunity to be in a small group with every other participant (I would find an app to use to compose groups next time - I spent way too much time doing this manually)! We wanted to cultivate relationships that could grow beyond the Learning Pathway.

“So this, the experience of the people around the table, has been most valuable to my involvement. Being able to experience everyone's knowledge through their own lens of life, is tough to measure, which results in a constant revisiting of the evaluative process to ensure it's truly inclusive and reflective of the experiences and the knowledge of the people around the table”. (Learning Pathway participant)

——

“I'd be interested to see what sort of connections and relationships came out of this. Because I know I've since invited [a participant] to certain things with [my workplace]. And of course, [the participant] is our neighbour down the street at [organization]. So I hadn't met [participant] before that. I'm curious as to how many [new] connections like that [were formed]”. (Facilitation team member)

Transforming power dynamics

One of the conscious attempts to transform power dynamics was checking in regularly with participants (together at the monthly gatherings and individually in conversations between the gatherings) about what they wanted to learn and what made for a conducive learning environment, and shaping the agendas and activities around their learning desires. It wasn’t always possible to connect with every participant every month, but I did check in with most people most months.

“The understanding I have is, it's a community that everybody's made together, people are contributing from their wealth of experience. It's not that there’s actually a structure that they are just passing information to people. The space has created room for people to express themselves, to bring their ideas”. (Learning Pathway participant)

The facilitation team (and later the facilitation team and the Wisdom Circle together) met the morning after each monthly gathering to reflect on how the session had gone and what we had learned, and begin to give shape to the next gathering. We would incorporate the suggestions participants made in the monthly check-in conversations. After these discussions, I would form an initial draft agenda from these ideas and reflections, which the group would go through and finesse a week and a half before the next gathering. Then we would send a note to participants to let them know what to expect, and attach any articles or videos for review or homework to prepare for the next gathering.

Jamboard sheet from first gathering, with people’s notes about what they wanted to learn, what they hoped to contribute, and what makes a conducive to a learning environment for them.

Inner and outer change

In a Collective Impact webinar called How Can We Tell Stories of Systems Change that are More Reflective of the Way Change Happens?, Tad Khosa of Collective Change Lab explains:

“We've discovered that to change [systems] you do this by supporting individuals to change how they see themselves, how they see their communities and their broader context. We've also discovered a huge change when people relate to others who they are in relationship with, and what they believe they are capable of doing… the stories change the system by supporting individuals to build empathy, to shift mindsets, and they help people heal, build new relationships, and new possibilities, especially spotlighting on multiple ways of knowing”.

Together the facilitation team (composed of an African Nova Scotian woman, a Mi’kmaw woman, and three White women at first and then two as we finished) paid particular attention to reckoning privilege and understanding the meaning of decolonization in this work. We did not address this explicitly with Learning Pathway participants, who come from racialized communities and have lived experience of the impacts of White privilege and colonization. We planned to share our stories and reflections about the inner and outer changes we experienced on the journey to understand what decolonization meant to us as a team at the final gathering in person; in the end we couldn’t because the final gathering had to be adapted when several facilitation team and Wisdom Circle members simultaneously had to attend to urgent personal matters and could not participate at the last moment. I will dig into this story about understanding decolonization in Blog 4: So what does decolonization look like? Says who? And I will talk about the inner and outer changes I experienced in the Learning Pathway in Blog 5: What does all this mean for (my) evaluation practice?

As part of the wrap-up at the final gathering, we asked everyone to share the most significant change they experienced through the Learning Pathway process, and to show an artifact that symbolized that change for them. You can listen to their voices expressing what changed for them below.

Learning Pathway participants talking about the most significant change they experienced

When Learning Pathway participants shared their most significant changes coming from this experience, many talked about changes in the way they think about evaluation, letting go of a colonial understanding and embracing an approach that centres community and reflects their worldviews. Here are their responses in their own words:

“I think fact is an important word, because when you're dealing with people's stories and experiences, that is the fact. But when we're looking at a westernized or colonized way of evaluating, the fact comes when it's published. So if you don't represent it properly, when it finally gets represented .. whatever it may be, what the voices walking up and down the street are saying doesn't matter until it gets into a report. So that's why it's important to represent it accurately. Even though it's a little bit harder to collect, than your more traditional …”, (Learning Pathway participant)

——

“Oral history tradition that can be misconstrued so easily when it’s written down; what’s written doesn’t reflect the importance and understanding of the things that were discussed, and a lot of our communities are based on oral history, because our histories aren't written”. (Learning Pathway participant)

——

“I’m beginning to see evaluation differently. Rather than just writing a report, checking [off] a report, [because] now we have to do evaluation, now I think who I'm doing it with, am I creating a space for them so they are able to share their learning? So I reflected on this with one of our sessions. Now when we are talking about our background, we are talking about our names, the meaning of our names. So for me it's putting in all the culturally sensitive learning, in order for me to know the identities of the people that are here, their values and the beliefs and how I can give respect to people.

I also learned about allowing community members to determine what they want to learn. Rather than me sitting down in my office and writing all the things that I think I want to see, I need to get to the community and speak with people. What change are they looking for in their community? How can that change be brought, because I believe people know their problem, and they also have the resources. And my own responsibility is just to facilitate that process to change.

Also the use of artifacts to do evaluation. The use of cultural symbols to connect, to learn, to collect information and generate discussion. And it also helps to respect a diversity perspective. And it's also respectful of community participation. So rather than just having all the forms to fill out, which is not really comfortable for them to talk about, having the artifacts makes the room be very safe, and very conducive, perhaps to breaking the ice well, and for people to communicate and to connect, and so generative learning.” (Learning Pathway participant)

——

“I think the biggest thing for me is that prior to this I don't really have a lot of experience in evaluation.. I just graduated from school last year. So this has been a way for me to soak up knowledge like a sponge and understanding that the Eurocentric way of things is not the right way. Going through university you always thought okay, you have to do things this way, we have to fit within this model. And what I've learned is quantity is pushed, your research is 'okay get as many people, get this, get that' but the quality is often kind of neglected, I think through this opportunity and hearing from you guys and your experiences, your knowledge, I've really come to understand that it's not just numbers, numbers are just one aspect but you have to really look at the stories and dig into the experiences of community members, and you have to learn that it's not just about sitting at your seats in your office and sending out emails or sending out surveys, it's about actually going into the community and actually talking to people or meeting with community leaders or even doing research on the history of the community that you're going into.

So [for me} it's what is the purpose? And what is that data going to be used for? And not being able to name it as sacred. Now I can. That data, that information is sacred. And it's sacred, not only to community, but everyone who shares, because that is community. And respecting that knowledge, and respecting what people have to offer. With people, we have eight people around the table, and we all have different views, different perspectives and different understandings, we're supposed to, because there are eight brains around the table, and eight different life experiences” (Learning Pathway participant)

——

“For me the symbol is seeds. And when I was thinking about the learning I was thinking about the idea of taking some things that we've already known and nurtured, we nurture the seeds in the house and get them ready to go outside kind of thing. I think that's an aspect of it. So what we brought into these conversations was and is valued. It’s the idea about taking what's known and established and forming that into in this case something that is concrete that can be held and that we can do some work with that we can appreciate. I saw that in terms of where the learning is. I'm really appreciative of the conversations that we've had. I want to make a connection to being rooted because I just had this vision of when you'd asked us in getting ready to think about the photography and stuff that set and put our feet down. So it felt like this was being grounded. But also being okay with stretching and reaching out. And I feel like often for us, in terms of community, we've got roots. And we talk about that for our children. We give them roots and wings. And so we're rooted and so we have that stability, we know the generation where we come from when we talk about elders and leadership, we have a sense of what that is, and that is unique. It may be in terms of cultural community diaspora community, but it's also unique from community to community as well. And there's really, there's lots of beauty in that messiness. I'm just loving the metaphors, you know, we can stretch, and we have the stretch moments in these times for doing things. So in terms of this piece if you imagine the seed was planted, and it's producing something, so we're grounded, and we're located, and yet we also have a chance to stretch out”. (Wisdom Circle member)

——

“I was so delighted when I called Cari and she said yes, there's one space open. I said I really want to do this this year for evaluation. And so then in the first week I wasn't too sure what I'm getting myself into but felt this connectedness right off the bat. And there was connecting us across the province. I feel that I've made long lasting friendships and great networking - everyone that is here there's the whole group and the connections across the province. And so I use this [magnet] for unity. So I'm going to be sticky, I'm gonna magnetize every one of you, you may find me stuck to you, you are not going to be able to get away from me”. (Learning Pathway participant)

——

“I offer this artifact to express the most significant change for me from this journey. The context for the change includes raising so much awareness for the various aspects of our natural world. The sky, land, and learning pathways captured as the river running through it and the love that is surrounding us all and the capturing of the magic of the circle and the added magic and compounding potential circular breathing. Within this context and also from our facilitation teamwork, the conversations in the full group sessions as well as through partner sessions, the most significant change for me is a much heightened awareness of how important the choice of words I use is and how important it is that I listen to the words others use. My decolonizing journey has led me to increased research on the origin of words and how much our language is rooted in colonization”. (Facilitation Team member)

Hooking made by a facilitation team member to illustrate her most significant change from the Learning Pathway experience

“My [most significant change] in the context of looking at evaluation from sort of an academic perspective and my work environment, which is government, and there's a huge role in evaluation. And the most significant part is how much this [Learning Pathway] table exposes the limitations of what happens in the academic and the institutional environment around evaluation. And that's been really hard for me, but also, because I live in that world. And I don't know how to change it”. (Learning Pathway participant)

——

“This artifact is reflective of my individual change during this process. The African statue of a woman speaks to my autonomy in showing up in an authentic way while honoring the lived experiences of others respectfully, but not needing to adhere to a structured professionally White space of speaking, dressing and presenting myself. This is how I hope others feel when they have conducted their interviews with me, just like themselves”. (Learning Pathway participant)

On Key Learnings from the Experience

When participants shared their important learnings, almost everyone talked about coming to see data - and the processes that surround it - as sacred. We will explore this in detail in Blog 3: Coming to see evaluation as sacred. Other learnings participants identified focused largely on community’s role in owning and controlling evaluation:

“No one person can evaluate. We all need to learn from and with each other, both evaluators and community”. (Learning Pathway participant)

——

“Knowledge, wisdom, respect, to bring communities together. Seek out knowledge keepers. And every voice matters”. (Learning Pathway participant)

——

“Control of evaluation is on the part of communities” (Learning Pathway participant)

——

“Engage with evaluation methods that will allow people to interpret their experience, illustrate how they construct their worlds and what meaning they attribute to the experience”. (Learning Pathway participant)

——

“Qualitative data should be more valued. Communities should be involved in all aspects of the evaluation, and individuals must continue to educate themselves on various types of knowledge and knowing”. (Learning Pathway participant).

——

One participant emphasized the importance of the broader context in which community evaluations take place and the impact it can have on evaluation, and on racialized evaluators specifically:

“Folks should know that even if your team creates the perfect evaluation process that is completely decolonized and culturally relevant to your audience, there is no way to fully eliminate potentially harmful human interactions that embody discrimination or biases. To this effect, it is necessary to create parameters for both evaluators and participants to debrief and check in for support. Safe spaces need to be developed in advance of issues not treated as an oversight”. (Learning Pathway participant)

To honour the sacredness of these learnings and the experience of learning together, at our final gathering as people were expressing their learnings we wrote them on organic strips of cotton with non-toxic ink and braided them together. Afterwards a Wisdom Circle member buried the braid in the forest to return the teachings to Mother Earth.

Braiding strands of learnings together at the final gathering of the Learning Pathway

Reflection & Implications

Some potential implications for Community Psychology and evaluation about emergence and learning include:

Be transparent about emergent spaces: When inviting people into an emergent space it is important to be very clear and transparent about the nature of that kind of space, and as much as possible, make sure people have a shared understanding of what it means in practice. Although I called the process emergent when I was talking about it and writing about it and I have a strong sense of what it means to me, we never had a conversation as a group about the theory of emergence. Even as a facilitation team, we didn't talk about its meaning until it came up in May during a facilitated discussion about what decolonization means to each of us. When I shared what emergence meant to me, it explained a lot about the way I approach things to the rest of the team. If we have these conversations together, we can build on each other's ideas and deepen our collective understanding and learning.
Pause for needed conversations: For me, this truly was an emergent process. I completely trusted that together the Learning Pathway group would form something bigger than all of us, with a bigger power and a bigger capacity for change than we have on our own. I think we did that, and I realize now that for some this was more clear than for others. A teaching from this experience is that part of being in emergent spaces and being relational is pausing and having the conversations that are needed - with everyone involved. My spidey sense is telling me this could get a bit chaotic, because who decides what conversations are needed, and how do you keep momentum for the work if you are always pausing things so you can have the conversations? The answer may lie in trusting the group and the process, bringing an open heart, and erring on the side of communicating too much and asking too many questions.
Create spaces for ongoing discussions about meaning: An important learning is to create space for ongoing discussions about what things mean, even as our understanding of them is evolving and changing. Not having these conversation can be problematic in several ways: people might assume that everyone understands a concept in a similar way when they actually don’t; people may not feel part of the process and this is anything but relational; people may have expectations from a process that are not known to others and may not be met, which could be extremely frustrating; and perhaps most importantly, not having these conversations can create a missed opportunity to create something amazing together.
Co-create spaces: Thinking about the question of finding the sweet spot of defining a process enough that you have something to invite people to, yet leaving it sufficiently open-ended to be truly emergent, I’m not sure if we got it right generally speaking. People don’t all want the same thing - for example a couple of participants were looking for a more structured curriculum built around Indigenous and Black methodologies in evaluation. Inviting people into a space of co-creation (more than the monthly check-ins for the participants) could be a way of building a process together that people have enough of a sense of and can still evolve and adapt as it unfolds. I was perhaps naive in thinking we could do this together during the process instead of before it.
Leadership for the process belongs in the community: A co-creative process that involves everyone and has the ability to pause for the conversations that are needed is a dynamic and long-term approach that has to be based on ongoing relationships and dialogue among the communities at the centre of the work. While it’s important that we look at all parts of a system and their interactions and resulting consequences, and every part has to be involved in transforming a system, leadership for the process belongs in the community. While a process like the Learning Pathway can shed light on where ownership for the process lies, and how White evaluators and government champions can play a role, I now understand that holding the space for this kind of community-centred process is outside the scope of a White evaluator.
Every part of the system needs to shift: The Learning Pathway experience helped many participants reframe the way they think about evaluation and feel confident in centering their worldviews in evaluation design, process, and meaning. This is a very positive shift. And it could be a set up for disappointment and failure unless the other parts of the system (specifically government and funders requiring evaluations) shift to respecting, valuing, and supporting community worldviews being centered in evaluations conducted by and with communities. The Learning Pathway may have taken some baby steps toward systems change by bringing together community members, community leaders, government, and evaluators.There is opportunity to collectively examine the interactions of parts of this evaluation ecosystem to see how we can work better as a whole.
Provide supports to ensure safety of Black and Indigenous evaluators: Likewise evaluators must be aware that while Black and Indigenous evaluators may be confident about centering their worldviews in their work, they are going to come up against racism and discrimination when interacting with people outside their communities. Part of decolonizing evaluation includes recognizing this fact, and proactively developing parameters for participants and evaluators to debrief and check in for support. Decolonizing evaluation must also include doing and supporting antiracism work broadly.

Critical Reflection Questions about Emergence & Learning

Some questions for Community Psychologists and evaluators to consider about emergence and learning:

How do we decide we are going to set up an emergent space? Who decides? How do we decide who will be invited to the space? Who decides this? What conversations are needed to give the space sufficient definition? Who decides when the space is sufficiently defined?
What is the nature of the space we are inviting people to, and how do we make it clear and transparent? Who needs to be involved in designing and co-creating the nature of the space? What will co-creation look like? How do we effectively and respectfully communicate these messages?
What are the key concepts informing the work we are doing? Who is involved and how do they understand these concepts? How and when can we bring people together to discuss what the concepts mean? How do we make space for people to hold different understandings, and go forward together?
How do we know when to pause what we are doing to have conversations about the meaning of key concepts or principles underpinning the work? Who decides when it’s time to pause the work? What are the implications of pausing the work, and do/how do we address them?
Where is the home-base for the work? Who are the leaders, and who is holding the space? What are the ongoing relationships and dialogues that will hold up the work in the long term? How can people in the system but outside the affected communities support community leaders guiding the work? What - and who - is within their spheres of influence that can help transform the evaluation ecosystem to better serve communities?

What can we do to shift the inherently racist environments surrounding African Nova Scotian and Mi’kmaw communities as they conduct evaluation work? Whose responsibility is it to call out/in people making racist comments, and how do we address this behaviour in a way that lifts communities?

Here is a description of the Learning Pathway. It’s set up as a stand-alone piece so readers can refer to it easily throughout the blog series.

The main purpose of this blog series is to share learnings (and perspectives) from the Learning Pathway experience that could be valuable to others interested in transforming evaluation so that it can better serve racialized communities, and influencing the evaluation ecosystem to support racial justice.

In the blogs series we will be exploring:

Search the Learning Pathway