Welcome back to the Create More Possibilities blog! My name’s Petra and I’m a Liberatory Leadership Coach, Facilitator, Radical Social Worker and Emergent Strategist. I help marginalized leaders cultivate liberatory power so they can show up powerfully and fully to make deeper impact. 

I developed this blog series to serve as a preview into how I am engaging in my Emergent Strategist practice and to give folks ways they can apply the Emergent Strategy principles into their work, relationships and life.

BACKGROUND

If you’d like to read more about how I found Emergent Strategy and began applying it to my life, you can start with this blog post: What is Emergent Strategy?

For this post, I will be combining two of the Emergent Strategy principles focused on trust. My intention here is to reference and break down each of the Emergent Strategy Principles as a way to help us move towards more concrete practices and skills. 

PRINCIPLE: TRUST THE PEOPLE. (IF YOU TRUST THE PEOPLE, THEY BECOME TRUSTWORTHY). 

Within this principle, adrienne maree brown describes how ‘trust is a seed that grows with attention and space’. It’s not something that happens over night or something we can necessarily prove to others. Yet, trust is one of the most necessary ingredients to change. This principle in particular is about how we can extend, grow and deepen trust as a practice. 

PRINCIPLE: MOVE AT THE SPEED OF TRUST. FOCUS ON CRITICAL CONNECTIONS MORE THAN CRITICAL MASS—BUILD THE RESILIENCE BY BUILDING THE RELATIONSHIPS.

In my work, I have seen this attention to trust literally change what is possible because of the time, energy and intention that was taken in advance (ideally, not as a reactive measure) to prioritize trust. Let’s say there’s a decision that needs to be made, one that you are unsure about how to navigate, but then you think about the people who are helping you to make that decision.

Can you remember a time when this group of people had to make a difficult decision together in the past? Did you trust that these were the right people to be involved? Were you all able to share the power and responsibility equitably? Was authentic participation possible? This is the potential of living into this principle.

As a Coach, I’d love to work with you to brainstorm how you might live into this value. If you’re interested, here’s ways that I can help you: Work with Me 

In the meantime, I’ll give you some ideas about how you might practice this principle. Feel free to consider what is useful and leave the rest.

SELF: How does this principle show up in how I relate to myself?

🖤Trust Yourself: I’m not sure if I would call this the first step but it would definitely be up on the list of priorities to begin developing trustworthy relationships. Sometimes we don’t trust others because we don’t trust ourselves. Developing this self-trust will look different for everyone. For some, it might mean keeping promises to yourself, extending compassion or forgiveness for the past or making good choices based on the data you have.

For me, phrases and affirmations (much like the Emergent Strategy principles) have always been a grounding force in my life. One of the affirmations that have guided me this year is the one I created alongside my vision board: I love me so much that I am committed to riding the wave and picking up the pieces afterwards in my risk-taking. My self-trust, this year, is defined by having my own back, being willing to fuck shit up and learning from it.

🖤Be accountable: Speaking of fucking shit up 🙃 since we’re all going to be doing some of that, it’s important that we combo that with accountability. One of the ways to build the muscle of accountability is to address the shame, guilt and/or perfection that can show up when we do something that doesn’t go as planned.

I remember a time when one of my supervisor’s misread a contract that resulted in my team and I having to do work we already said no to (and really didn’t have the capacity to do). My supervisor wanted to brush the fact that he messed up under the rug but I pushed him to be honest. Octavia Butler tells us Kindness eases Change and she’s never wrong.

FAMILY & FRIENDS: How does this principle show up with my family and friends?

🖤Wellbeing Check-in’s: This suggestion comes after my time completing TRACC’s Movement Trauma Healing Training with a good friend of mine. One of the exercises we learned was about developing regular communication with a fellow healer so that we can remind each other to take care of ourselves. We’ve decided on a frequency that feels good to us and came up with questions we’d like to ask each other. If you’d like to do this with your friend, here’s an example: Check-in on Yourself 

🖤Be transparent: If you can’t do something, say you can’t. If you don’t know or understand something, don’t fake it till you make it. Ultimately, you get to choose to what extent, to who and when you get to practice this level of transparency. I will say, the more you do it though, the more freeing and lighter you will likely feel. Your future you will thank you.

WORK: How does this principle show up in my work and with colleagues?

🖤Schedule trust-building opportunities: Trust is something that deepens in small ways, over time. One of the ways we can prioritize trust is by building into how we operate as a team or organization. One of the ways I cultivated trust with my team is by having a recurring, daily meeting called Morning Huddle.

During this time, I would share updates, hold space for questions or wonderings and a check-in prompt. As a social worker, I understand one of the ways to combat compassion fatigue and burnout is connection, real connection.

🖤Set clear expectations: One of the fastest ways to break or dissolve trust is by holding someone to a particular standard that you have not communicated and that they have not agreed to. Instead, let’s be clear, honest and as transparent as we can possibly muster up in the front end so that everyone is operating from this same information.

Many folks have a hard time navigating what others may consider “unspoken rules” so let’s avoid all that by moving through the discomfort of figuring out what we’d like and how to communicate that effectively. We can always check-in later after we’ve laid this foundation.

NEXT STEP: If you’re curious about what a-ha’s or practices might come up for you, you can sign up for my A Daily Practice workbook below.

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