AROUND THE WORLD

WALKING OUT AND WALKING ON

Walk Outs are people who bravely choose to leave behind a world of unsolvable problems, scarce resources, limiting beliefs and destructive individualism. They walk on to the ideas, beliefs and practices that enable them to give birth to new systems that serve community. This is the story of an emerging movement of pioneering leaders and communities around the world who are self-organizing to create healthy and resilient communities.

UNITIERRA, MEXICO

FROM SCALING UP TO ACROSS

Taking things to scale doesn’t happen vertically through one-size-fits-all replication strategies. Visit Universidad de la Tierra, an alternative to institutional education, and the Zapatistas, a people’s movement for self-determination. In both places, there is a deep, unshakable belief in the power of people to claim their right to live and learn as they see fit. Observe how their experiments move horizontally, scaling across villages and nations, trans-locally, as many people learn from their discoveries and are inspired to try their own.

ELOS INSTITUTE, BRAZIL

FROM POWER TO PLAY

Most leaders believe that it’s their job to motivate people, that without their directive control, no work gets done. The most common way to motivate people is through external means, using punishment and reward. Experience Warriors Without Weapons, where play, not power, evokes people’s passion, creativity and motivation to work hard on seemingly overwhelming challenges.

JOUBERT PARK, SOUTH AFRICA

FROM PROBLEM TO PLACE

Today's approach to social change posits that large and complex issues must be addressed one by one, with institutions and experts who specialize in that particular problem. Explore tiny Joubert Park in Johannesburg, where people have created changes in education, public safety, arts, ecology, food and more using the principle of start anywhere, follow it everywhere.

KUFUNDA, ZIMBABWE

FROM EFFICIENCY TO RESILIENCE

Conventional attempts to solve problems of scarcity focus on efficiencies--attempting to do more with less by cutting budgets and staff, minimizing resources, optimizing outputs. Kufunda Learning Village has achieved resilience in a time of total systems collapse by choosing a different approach. They engage in a wide range of small local actions that give them the capacity to continuously adapt to an unpredictable and chaotic world.

SHIKSHANTAR, INDIA

FROM TRANSACTING TO GIFTING

The transactional culture of today promotes self-interest and scarcity; people strive to take as much as they can and accumulate more than they need. In a gift culture—common in many traditional societies--generosity prevails and money loses its power. Shikshantar is experimenting with gift culture, replacing mindless growth with the confidence that we have what we need.

AXLADITSA-AVATAKIA, GREECE

FROM INTERVENTION TO FRIENDSHIP

In our pursuit to find what works, we seldom notice how disempowering it is when we look for answers from experts and best practices created elsewhere. At the Art of Learning Centering at Axladitsa-Avatakia, participants walked out of dependence on experts and learned to trust the capacities and creativity available in friendship to address their community’s needs.

COLUMBUS, OHIO, USA

FROM HERO TO HOST

When a community stops waiting for a hero to save them, it discovers internal resources and solutions to solve otherwise intractable problems. People in Columbus, Ohio, are walking out of heroic leadership and walking on to a new “operating system” of using conversational processes to address complex problems, such as healthcare, homelessness, poverty, public safety and more.
book

Journey With Us

In Walk Out Walk On, authors Meg Wheatley and Deborah Frieze 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.

Excerpt

Are you a Walk Out?

When systems start to go downhill, we have a choice. We can struggle to fix the current system or we create new alternatives.

Gallery

Zimbabwe

Kufunda Learning Village is an excellent example of what it means to “live the future now” in the face of total systems collapse.

Video

Cycle Yatra

Twenty-five cyclists in India head out on a weeklong cycle yatra, a journey out of the city and into the arms of gift culture.

Download

From Hero to Host

Something extraordinary is happening in Columbus, Ohio. Leaders are no longer heroes, instead they’re engaging with the community.

Award

Terry McAdam Book Award

Among other honors, Walk Out Walk On won the The Terry McAdam Book Award from The Alliance for Nonprofit Management in 2011.

Map

Walk Out Walk On Map

The Walk Outs Walk On map is a tool so that Walk Outs can become visible to one another and connect. Add yourself to the map!