Walk Out Walk On
A Learning Journey into Communities Daring to Live the Future Now
By: Margaret Wheatley, Deborah Frieze
Published: April 11, 2011
Format: Paperback, 288 pages
ISBN-10: 1605097314
ISBN-13: 978-1605097312
Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers
"This book takes you on a Learning Journey to places that will inspire, disturb, and provoke you, and to meet people who will delight, nourish, and encourage you", write President Emerita and founder of The Berkana Institute, Margaret Wheatley, and former co-president of The Berkana Institute and co-founder of the Berkana Exchange, Deborah Frieze, in their life affirming and transformational book Walk Out Walk On: A Learning Journey into Communities Daring to Live the Future Now. The authors take the reader on tour of seven world locations, where change is happening in very real and tangible ways through the actions, collaboration, and motivation of local people, as they recreate their communities through their own workable solutions to problems.
Margaret Wheatley and Deborah Frieze share the very personal stories of seven very different communities on five continents, where the local people changed their lives, and of those around them, through ingenuity, caring, and self-organization. The authors share what they call a Learning Journey where they lived and worked with, as well as learned from, the people in communities in Mexico, Brazil, South Africa, Zimbabwe, India, Greece, and the United States. In each of these inspirational stories, the authors introduce the reader to people who walked out on their formerly limiting beliefs and assumptions, and walked on reinvent their lives and communities that are healthy, sustainable, and based on networks of relationships.
Margaret Wheatley (on left in photo left) and Deborah Frieze (on right in photo left) present an intimate portrait of how the people, who become "walk outs who walk on" not only transform their own communities in deep and profound ways, but even more importantly, discover an inner strength and resilience within themselves. As seen through these wonderful accounts, that sense of personal empowerment becomes part of the overall fabric of the recreated community.
The authors discovered communities that had discarded formerly limiting ideas and had found abundance with the people around them. The people profiled in these Learning Journeys left their falsely confining pasts behind, and took the bold step forward to self-determination and community renewal. When the mistaken ideas of backwardness, shortage of money or resources, and a lack of expertise were revealed for the paralyzing beliefs they were, the people created their own change and their own world. The authors share how they conduct their Learning Journeys in four components:
* Immersion
* Observation
* Relationships to other examples
* Reflection
For me, the power of the book is how Margaret Wheatley and Deborah Frieze present an empowering message of hope for real change created by the people themselves. The Learning Journeys traveled in this delightful book don't take place in the halls of government, but in the homes, small businesses, and the streets of the profiled communities. The very real stories of what is truly happening in the world, beyond the bright lights of the media and the corridors of power, are those of people utilizing their own ideas, intelligence, creativity, and local abundance to build their own worlds on their own terms.
The imaginative people in these journeys have much to teach others about walking out on former artificial and often self-imposed constraints, and walked on to create their own communities on their own terms. The authors enhance the concepts and journeys presented in the book by sharing many photographs of real change as it happened through the efforts and ingenuity of the people in the visited communities.
I highly recommend the community building and thought provoking book Walk Out Walk On: A Learning Journey into Communities Daring to Live the Future Now by Margaret Wheatley and Deborah Frieze, to anyone seeking an idea building book where people take the idea of building their own futures into their own hands. Not content to simply sit back and wait for outside ideas or official help, the residents of these communities empowered themselves and created their own communities to suit their own needs. The people profiled in these journeys discovered they had creativity and abundance both within themselves and in their communities. By making the choice to create their own futures, the people worked together to make their own destinies a reality.
Read the eye opening and idea packed book Walk Out Walk On: A Learning Journey into Communities Daring to Live the Future Now by Margaret Wheatley and Deborah Frieze, and discover how making the conscious decision to walk out on past limitations and perceived barriers, and walking on to a new future is more about changing worldviews than about money or resources. The profound lessons shared in this fine book can be repeated in any community and in any country of the world. All a person has to do is decide to walk out of the old and walk on to a brighter future.
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