Emergent Queer Leadership

Adaptive and relational leadership begins with understanding self. This article discusses the first of 5 principles that guide relational leadership.

By Justina Thompson — June 20, 2023

Tags: alignment, being present, building community, building trust, community dynamics, decision making, leadership, lessons learned, lgbtqia+, mindfulness, pride month, queer leadership, queer lives

Happy Pride Month! June is great because it's the start of the summer season with lots of sunshine, warmth, good fruit, fun, and hopefully rest from the rush of classes! It's also a time when lots of lovely queer folks celebrate themselves, their communities, and the many nuances that identities can hold. There was no specific reason for me to introduce a queer identity in my first piece about connections between sustainability and campus experiences, but now that June has rolled around this is a great time to share a little more about the intersectional lens my queerness brings to a loving lens of the earth and sustainable spheres of influence.

When we think about resilience, we think about capacity to maintain function or adapt during disasters and catastrophes. Even in relation to climate resilience specifically, we think about how to maintain normalcy, or a sense of survival when hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, and fires tear apart neighborhoods and communities. Unfortunately, queer folks must navigate the same sense of survival and normalcy on a regular basis when it comes to safety, housing security, and especially health care. Over the decades, this has translated into a robust community support network of information and resource exchange so that queer folks can have greater access to what they need, even if traditional systems are operating in direct contradiction to those goals. Relying on deep systems with diverse sets of strengths will better prepare an environment or community in the face of an emergency, and this is just one of the general lessons we can take away.

That same lesson is one that remains present in conversations of imagining new, environmentally just futures or community-based solutions for climate change. Especially when the authors or curators of these pieces are queer themselves, they do not shy away from infusing their community dynamics and nuanced identity into their work to bring new meaning to all who may read. One of these authors is adrienne maree brown, and her infusions are present through her book titled “Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds.” The book offers principles and elements of emergent strategy for adaptive and relational leadership. Diving into the principles to start, this piece will explore a bit of what the principles offer in connection to earth and land-based practices, what they offer in connection to community building, and ultimately how they can be utilized as a guiding lens for leadership throughout your academic journeys!

Adaptive and relational leadership begins with understanding self. That means creating the environment to look within, understand your capacity, strengths, and areas where you may be best complimented by the strengths of others in your network. Starting with opportunities to understand what you bring as a leader in your campus sphere is an initial step to future embodiment of leadership.

Small is good, small is all. (The large reflects the small.)

Microbiomes refer to the small networks of insects, bacteria, and other forms of life that we can't see but have a great impact on the way we exist! Within our bodies, the microbiome in our guts are essential for breaking down the food into absorbable nutrients. The same is true for nutrients available by the roots of plants and crops that grow in gardens and farms. These forms of life are too small for us to see, yet thriving life isn't possible without them, and they work together in systems to create the conditions for the life we see above ground.

The same can be said about the efforts and habits sustained to see growth in academic journeys. This is true for the actions of taking notes in lecture, studying and reviewing notes as steps to be prepared for the test. But this also applies to smaller actions like greeting professors and classmates, and building the foundation for relationships of peer study support, mentorship, or other forms of guidance and support in the network that makes up campus life! Outside of academic performance, each day of the academic experience is a chance to also learn more about yourself as a learner and individual in a system of others. Regular small moments of reflection and self-connection will contribute to a lens that views growth and self-transformation across and months and years spent on campus.

Change is constant. (Be like water).

Water is a powerful element. It sustains life across many species, and its lack of form supports adaptation in the highest form. Shapeless, formless, water conforms to the shape of the container that it's in. It can flow with the geographies and slopes of the surrounding natural landscapes, and with enough force and volume, can also crash and disrupt the built environments we know around us. With consistency and force, water can even wear away stone which may otherwise be viewed as indestructible.

s a student or young learner, settling into a new academic environment can bring on waves of new feelings that very quickly become overwhelming. Change comes from most if not all directions as a door to a new stage of life is opened. Stability is usually associated with calm and peace, but the sooner change is recognized as a constant force in life, the sooner a nature of adaptation and movement can bring those same feelings. New information is constantly being received in academic environments and creates the perfect opportunity to integrate new knowledge into routines, relationships, and general mindsets. Take the nature of water as a guiding friend to navigate change novelty in the landscape of learning.

There is always enough time for the right work.

Our earth is consistently being compromised for the sake of instant gratification and cutting costs in the structure of nicety we know today. A current growing consciousness brings the reality of the future we may inherent to the forefront of our minds, and is finally calling into question how we can make decisions, create products, and connect with each other in ways that won't have a negative impact on the Earth and the future environment we'll have to live in. Presently, the systems set up make it harder to think about how to make an event zero-waste or carbon neutral, accessibility is not always incorporated, and this means people get left out. But in order to build deep community relationships, and preserve an Earth for us to live on in the future, it's going to take extra steps in the planning processes to get it right. The extra time is worth it, even if others have to be convinced of that fact.

On a campus and learning journey scale, this directly relates to how intention is infused into the steps and decisions make. Taking extra time to reflect, set goals and objectives at an individual and communal level lays the foundation for the 'right' work, which can have a fluctuating definition. Leading with time to establish values, whether personal or collective is the first step to making time for the right work.

Beginning with the internal reflections required to be a strong leader, there's a second piece that takes the reflection and puts it in connection the relationships you hold as a leader. These next few principles focus more on the relational aspects of leadership by the guidance of emergent strategy.

There is a conversation in the room that only these people at this moment can have. Find it.

In biology, we learn about life cycles and ecosystem hierarchies of predators and prey. If any one part of that ecosystem is removed, imbalance is likely and populations of predators have the potential to decrease or find a new source of food, and all the ripple effects that come with it. Ecosystems are especially curated and adapted to be a series of symbiotic relationships, that keep balance.

Mycelium networks refer to a deep and vast system of roots that thrive below the surface of the earth we walk on. This network communicates, from trees to other sources of vegetation in forest floors, sending signals for nutrients, water, etc. and delivering what's requested! This conversation is a sign of a healthy biome or ecosystem, and channels for exchange of needs particular to the life 'in conversation.' All of these beings and pieces play a specific role, and call out specific needs, a unique conversation that can only happen with that the "people in the room at this present time".

In a time where conversations across difference will be the ones to create understanding and collective power, taking advantage of the folks who show up to planning, action, and support will present a unique set of strengths and abilities, even as this group adapts and changes shape. When shared interests or academic paths bring particular learners into the room, taking advantage of that unique composition and finding the points of generative discussion is an essence of leadership to be harnessed.

There are five still five more principles that guide around relational leadership, so stay tuned for part 2 to continuing exploring emergent strategies, their groundedness in nature, and their potentials in learning journeys.

Justina Thompson

Justina "Farmer J" Thompson is the Farm Education and Volunteer Manager at Urban Creators, Philadelphia, PA. Justina intentionally attended school in Philadelphia so she could “connect her passion and experience to the ongoing environmental justice work in the area.” As a speaker, educational curriculum designer, program leader, and community organizer, Justina possesses extensive knowledge on urban farming inspired to work in the field of environmental justice from a young age.

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