Walk Out Walk On: A Learning Journey into Communities Daring to Live the Future Now

A pretty good read that is somewhat akin to the concepts in "Cultivating Communities of Practice" (http://www.amazon.com/Cultivating-Communities-Practice-Etienne-Wenger/dp/1578513308), putting them into narrative form. The authors write about their journeys to communities around the world - in places like Zimbabwe, India, and Mexico - and their experience with communities that are breaking the mold and finding their own creative, group-based solutions to problems. These people have "walked out" of the systems that aren't working and have "walked on" to help create their own future and solutions (thus the name of the book, "Walk Out, Walk On," a phrase that is actually used very sparsely in the book itself). The book contains actual pictures of the places/people talked about the authors try to paint a vivid picture of the communities they encounter. The point of the book is that these kinds of community-based, creative solutions come about organically and are not imposed or transplanted. The authors spend a good portion of the book criticizing the West for being a know-it-all and importing solutions into other countries and communities that have ended up causing more harm "e.g., the Green Revolution." Their point is argued very convincingly, but they use a pretty condescending tone (as other reviewers have noted) and don't seem to recognize that the communities about which they write represent the exception, not the rule. As many books tend to do, the authors write about fascinating exceptions and then create a whole new, over-arching mental framework for the rest of life from these exceptions. In this case, the authors witness these fascinating, community-based solutions in different spots of the world, and then conclude that the answer to poverty and other problems is the impoverished community itself coming up with its own solution. They seem to argue that the worst thing we can do is try to come in and help and impose our own solutions, but they forget that the vast majority of poor communities have NOT come up with their own solutions nor do they seem motivated or able to do so. Nevertheless, the authors make some very powerful observations about the nature of leadership and community, and the stories they tell are definitely interesting. But I found it more frustrating than inspiring to read, because I kept thinking, "I don't know how to make that work in my context."

Yes, I'm ten years late to this party, but this book was just what I needed as I close out the 20-teens and head into what, for me, will be "roaring 20s" indeed. So many of us face the choice to walk out of institutional solutions, and so many of us face the consequences as well. I've walked out of many, and know those consequences are real. That's why it was so important to read several stories of walk ons that work! Walking Out is only half the story, the 2020s will be about learning to Walk On!

Delivery review: was fast but book came with partial damage to the edges and spine of the book. Book is still readable but when buying a new product, I expect it to be as if I picked it off the Barnes and Noble shelf myself.Book review: TBD

excellent book! Every manager, boss, CEO, President of any corporation or business needs to read this - and most especially anyone who thinks they are going to be the savior of a crumbling community and not bother to ask what the people need or want or able contribute to the effort and have it be successful - for the community - they need to read this. It certainly applies to underdeveloped countries or communities - but it also applies to any community or business that has PEOPLE in it ... kinda teaches one such 'manager' or boss how NOT to treat people like machines or robots.

What a powerful book on change and transformation, filled with a world of wisdom and inspiration for what's possible. Every person interested in change on any level should read this book. My copy is full of highlighted sections and post-it notes to mark all the great pages I want to refer back to for my work. I loved the stories used in the book - but not only this, the way the authors were able to take me (the reader)on a journey to areas all over the world and show me how transformation occurred in these locations was truly remarkable. Photos are also used perfectly in this book to better make the people and the examples come to life. I just can't recommend this book highly enough. If I could, I'd give it 10 stars!

I just used this text in a b school course on Managing Community Partnerships with extraordinary success. Every page offered revelatory thinking, produced in vibrant and robust ways. Reading this thought-provoking book will inform your thinking in so many domains. I could not do the work Wheatley and Frieze do but I am grateful to them for their intrepid spirit as well as the very generous gift they make available to anyone willing to "get it". Check out the web pages that attend this work for interesting videos and see for yourself. This book leaves me with hope and joy in a seemingly difficult world. [...]

I chose this rating because I liked the examples of those who found solutions to problems existing organizations could not solve. I like to think that when existing organizations are closed, there may need to be a new structure formed. This book demonstrated many cases in which success came from just such thinking and creativity.

It's inspiring to hear how community and relationships allow people to create their own solutions in Third World countries. But when the authors share what they learned in other countries, and show how it is working back home in the middle of the United States, Columbus, Ohio -- then it became to me much more real. No heros are coming to save us, but we can work in our communities to help ourselves in new ways.Thanks!

This a book about walking out of limiting beliefs and assumptions, and walking on to create healthy and resilient communities. The message is that more is possible, and that walking out walking on can propel us beyond the safety of our daily routines, the security of our habitual ways of thinking, and send us out into the world to find answers.[1]The book is based on the basic insight that community is nothing like a machine, and that citizens rarely surrender their autonomy to experts. Exchanging best practices often doesn't work. What does work is when team from one organization travel to another and, through that experience, see themselves more clearly, strengthen their relationships, and renew their creativity.[2]In Western culture, the primary focus is to create easily replicated models and then disseminate them. This process is based on the assumption that whatever worked here will work there—we just need to get it down on paper and train people. The assumption is that people do what they are told. So instructions get issued, policies get pronounced. When we don't follow them, managers just create more. When we still fail to obey, we're labeled as resistant to change.[3] People don't support things that are forced on them. We don't act responsibly on behalf of plans and programs created without us. We resist being changed.[4]Change starts with a few people focusing on their local challenges and issues. They experiment, learn, find solutions that work in their local context. Word travels fast in networks and people hear about their success. They may come to visit and engage in conversations. There's usually a lot of energy in these exchanges, but these exchanges are not about learning how to replicate the process or mimic step-by-step how something was accomplished. Any attempt to replicate someone else's success will smack up against local conditions, and these are differences that matter. What others invent can inspire us to become inventive, and show us what is achievable. Then we have to take if from there.[5]Many managers assume that people are machines, that they can be programmed, motivated, and supervised through external force and authority. This command-and-control approach smothers basic human capacities such as intelligence, creativity, caring, and dreaming. Yet it is the most common form of management worldwide. When it doesn't work, those in power simply apply more force. They threaten, reward, punish, police, and legislate.[6]People resist the imposition of force by withdrawing, opposing, and sabotaging the manager's directives. Those in charge then feel compelled to turn up the pressure and apply even harsher measures. They seldom notice that it's their controlling leadership that creates the resistance. And so the destructive cycle continues to gain momentum, with people resenting managers and mangers blaming people. This cycle not only destroys our motivation, it destroys our sense of worth. This destruction of the human spirit is readily visible in places where people have suffered from oppression. It's also visible in rigid hierarchies where people, confined to closed spaces, can't remember when they last felt good about themselves or confident in their abilities.[7] Power of this kind breeds powerlessness.The familiar weapon of control must be consciously abandoned. Communities have what they need. The human spirit can never be extinguished, even in the darkest places.[8] The work of community change can be done with play without suffering, with confidence that our efforts will make a difference. What does the community need? What do you care about?[9] When did we become estranged from work? Why do we deny human needs? How did we forget to who we are? Do you want to play at transforming the world?[10]Margaret J. Wheatley and Deborah Frieze write that:[11]• Play is not a foolish waste of time.• Play is not a mindless diversion from work.• Play is how we rediscover ourselves.• Play is how we ignite the human spirit in which our true power lies.To summarize, the book is a story of what becomes possible as we work together on what we care most about, discovering what's possible when we turn to one another. This is a new story and an ancient one. The book is filled with insights for how we can work together now to create the future with want. It's a future already being practiced in thousands of communities around the world.[12] They share the following principles:[13]• Start anywhere, follow it everywhere.• We make our path by walking it.• We have what we need.• The leaders we need are already here.• We are living the worlds we want today.• We walk at the pace of the slowest.• We listen, even to the whispers.• We turn to one another.Walking out is never easy. We have no idea where they will lead, what we'll do, or what we'll become. Yet our first actions are a declaration of our new identity. We accept the risk, step onto the invisible path and walk into the unknown. And there, we discover other people already bringing this new world into form.[14]Walking on is often invisible. None of us can do this work alone. When we gather together, we learn quickly from one another, discovering new ideas and solutions. Little by little, our work becomes recognizable as evidence of what's possible, of what a new world could be.[15]This is a book full of deep insights on how to work together on what we care most about. See for yourself. See your self.Notes:[1] Margaret J. Wheatley and Deborah Frieze, Walk Out Walk On: A Learning Journey into Communities Daring to Live the Future Now (Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2011), p.14.[2] Ibid., p.35.[3] Ibid., p.44.[4] Ibid., p.45.[5] Ibid., p.46.[6] Ibid., p.68.[7] Ibid..[8] Ibid., p.69.[9] Ibid., p.70.[10] Ibid., p.72.[11] Ibid..[12] Ibid., p.219.[13] Ibid., pp.220--225.[14] Ibid., pp.227.[14] Ibid., pp.226.

The writers take us on a journey from certainty and solutions to curiosity and questions. They reaasert the power of community to act together to build healthy resilent communities with what is at hand. Be prepared to be inspired and to change

Walk with Deborah and Meg through the looking glass into a whole new world. We can embrace a more constructive, positive, more sustainable future - together.

Like some of Wheatley's other works, this book touches the mind, heart and soul. It provoked me to think intensely, consider the world (and myself) in new ways and understand community and the human journey more deeply than I ever have. For me, this was one of those books I wanted to share with others as I was reading it. There were times I had to put it down, simply to digest what I had read in the previous pages. This is not a quick read. It is thick and rich... and worth the time it takes to get through it.