Synopses & Reviews
No One Is Coming to Help. Now What?
In this era of increasingly complex problems and shrinking resources, can we find meaningful and enduring solutions to the challenges we face today as individuals, communities, and nations?
In Walk Out Walk On, we invite you on a learning journey to seven communities around the world to meet people who have walked out of limiting beliefs and assumptions and walked on to create healthy and resilient communities. These Walk Outs who Walk On use their ingenuity and caring to figure out how to work with what they have to create what they need.
From Mexico to India, from Columbus, Ohio to Johannesburg, South Africa, we discover that all communities have the intelligence and inventiveness to solve their seemingly insolvable problems. “We discovered a gift inside ourselves,” one Brazilian said, “something that was already there.”
“If there is any hope for us, it lies in rediscovering and recreating community. Do not doubt this is possible. Read Walk Out Walk On and see for yourself—and see your self.”
—Peter Senge, author of The Fifth Discipline and coauthor of Presence and The Necessary Revolution
“Exuberant and galvanizing, this book takes us to where the future is happening—not in the corridors of power but at the grassroots where a ‘trans-local’ movement is unleashing human creativity and smarts.”
—Joanna Macy, author of World as Lover, World as Self
“This book gives insight and beauty to what is becoming the new, new world—an intimate journey with communities and citizens creating a future with their own hearts, hands, and relationships.”
—Peter Block, author of Community and coauthor of The Abundant Community
Synopsis
At a time when most communities resources are stretched past the breaking point, how is it possible to deal with the enormous challenges that families, neighborhoods, cities, regions, and nations face today? This inspiring book takes readers to seven communities around the world where the people have walked out of limiting beliefs and practices that precluded solutions to major social problems, and walked on to discover bold new ways to meet their needs.
This book is a true learning journey, filled with intimate stories and portraits of the people and places the authors came to know through years of working together to transform their communities. The journey begins in Mexico, then moves to Brazil, South Africa, Zimbabwe, India, Greece and the U.S. The authors lives and ways of thinking have been transformed by these experiences and relationships – an experience they hope to recreate for the reader through vivid prose and photos. The reader will experience first hand how a change of beliefs about people results in new capacities and the possibility of a more healthy future.
Synopsis
In this era of increasingly complex problems and shrinking resources, can we find meaningful and enduring solutions to the challenges we face today as individuals, communities, and nations?
In Walk Out Walk On, we invite you on a learning journey to seven communities around the world to meet people who have walked out of limiting beliefs and assumptions and walked on to create healthy and resilient communities. These Walk Outs who Walk On use their ingenuity and caring to figure out how to work with what they have to create what they need.
From Mexico to India, from Columbus, Ohio to Johannesburg, South Africa, we discover that all communities have the intelligence and inventiveness to solve their seemingly insolvable problems. "We discovered a gift inside ourselves," one Brazilian said, "something that was already there."
Synopsis
No One Is Coming to Help. Now What?In this era of increasingly complex problems and shrinking resources, can we find meaningful and enduring solutions to the challenges we face today as individuals, communities, and nations?
In Walk Out Walk On, we invite you on a learning journey to seven communities around the world to meet people who have walked out of limiting beliefs and assumptions and walked on to create healthy and resilient communities. These Walk Outs who Walk On use their ingenuity and caring to figure out how to work with what they have to create what they need.
From Mexico to India, from Columbus, Ohio to Johannesburg, South Africa, we discover that all communities have the intelligence and inventiveness to solve their seemingly insolvable problems. "We discovered a gift inside ourselves," one Brazilian said, "something that was already there."
Walk Out Walk On is the winner of a silver medal in the social change category of the 2012 Nautilus Book Awards.
About the Author
Margaret J. Wheatley is President Emerita and founder of The Berkana Institute, Meg has been working with people for many years to develop new practices and ideas for organizing people and communities. She is an internationally acclaimed speaker and author of several bestselling titles: Leadership and the New Science, A Simpler Way, Turning to One Another, and most recently, Finding Our Way.
Deborah Frieze is an author, entrepreneur and social activist. As former co-president of The Berkana Institute and co-founder of the Berkana Exchange, Deborah joined Berkana in 2002 to help bring its vision into the world and grow the Institute. She serves as a board member and is leading several initiatives, including Feeding Ourselves Sustainably, Swaraj University and multiple Sharing Our Learning projects. Deborah has an MBA from the Harvard Business School.
Table of Contents
Part 1: The Journey
Why the world needs us to walk out and walk on
Who we are
Part II: Preparing for the Journey
Setting your intentions
Preparing to be disturbed
Noticing the world we're in
Part III: The Journey
Eight communities that have walked out and walked on
South Africa: From problem to place
Zimbabwe: From Efficiency to resilience
Brazil: From power to play
Mexico: From scaling up to scaling across
India: From transacting to gifting
Greece: From intervention to friendship
Canada and U.S.: From separation to interdependence
U.S.: From hero to host
Part IV: Bringing It Home
What do you notice now?
Who do you choose to be?
Appendix: Sustaining Curiosity