The UnBecoming Framework
Equity-Centered Strategy &
Communications for Transformational Change
UnBecoming is an equity-centered strategy and communications framework supporting nonprofits, social impact organizations, academic institutions, philanthropy, movement collectives, and social entrepreneurs navigating complexity, transition, and systems change.
Rather than optimizing organizations to function within failing systems, UnBecoming supports the work of divestment and (re)creation—releasing extractive, misaligned practices and (re)creating strategies, narratives, and practices rooted in collective care and impact.
Personal transformation, organizational transformation, and systemic change are interdependent.
UnBecoming offers a structured yet adaptive approach to navigating systems transformation with clarity, integrity, and accountability.
UnBecoming in Practice
Excavate – Assess & Reveal Root Causes
Surface how dominant systems and practices show up in organizational practices, leadership, communications, and partnerships. This phase centers deep listening, assessment, and truth-telling to identify misalignment and root causes of inequity.
What this supports:
- Organizational Strategy
- Narrative and communications assessment
- Leadership and culture alignment
- Community-informed insight gathering
Potentiate – Release, Realign, and Redesign
Actively unravel from narratives, structures, and strategies that no longer align with mission and vision. This phase supports on-the-ground learning, tending to transition, and reconnecting to shared values, vision, and purpose.
What this supports:
- Strategic planning and initiative design
- Equity-centered communications roadmaps
- Funder and partnership alignment
- Change management and transition support
Originate – Implement and Activate Strategy
Co-design and implement strategies, communications, and partnerships rooted in collective power, impact, and accountability. This phase centers implementation, interdependent learning, and iteration to support sustainable change.
What this supports:
- Strategic communications platforms
- Narrative strategy and messaging systems
- Cross-sector partnerships
- Leadership capacity and governance alignment
UnBecoming Thought Lineage
Lineage, Learning, and Practice
These resources are a selection of the intellectual, movement, and organizational lineages that directly inform my UnBecoming framework. They are offered as acknowledgment, gratitude, and invitations—to learn, reflect, and deepen practice at the intersection of personal, organizational, and systems transformation.
This is by no means an exhaustive list. It is a living library that will grow and evolve.
Systems Change + Social Transformation + Transformative Justice
- Pedagogy of the Oppressed – Paulo Freire
- Framework for a Just Transition – Movement Generation
- Doughnut Economics – Kate Raworth
- Lifecycle of Emergence: Using Emergence to Take Social Innovation to Scale – Margaret Wheatley & Deborah Frieze
- The Two Loops Model of Change: How I Became a Localist – Deborah Frieze (Margaret Wheatley, Berkana Institute)
- Leverage Points: Places to Intervene in a System and Dancing with Systems – Donella Meadows
- The Serviceberry: An Economy of Gift and Abundance + Braiding Sweetgrass—Robin Wall Kimmerer
- Healing Justice Lineages: Dreaming at the Crossroads of Liberation, Critical Care, and Safety— Cara Page, Erica Woodland
- We Do This ‘Till We Free Us: Abolitionist Organizing and Transforming Justice—Mariame Kaba
- An Abolitionists Handbook – Patrisse Cullors
- Practising Everyday Abolition—Sarah Lamble
- Emergent Strategy— adrienne maree brown
- Liberated to the Bone – Susan Raffo
Narrative Power + Collective Leadership + Communities of Practice
- Centering Blackness: The Path to Economic Liberation for All – Anne Price, Jhumpa Bhattacharya and Dorian Warren
- Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center – bell hooks
- Combahee River Collective Statement—Combahee River Collective
- Communicating Justice 101: The Organizer’s Essential Guide to Strategic Communications—Youth Media Council
- Toward New Gravity: Charting a Course for The Narrative Initiative—Narrative Initiative
- What is Narrative and Solidarity Infrastructure—and Why Are We Building It?—BLIS Collective
- Field Guide: Narrative Research Strategies—Spitfire Strategies + Narrative Initiative
- Communities of Practice: Within and Across Organizations – Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger
- Supporting Pioneering Leaders as Communities of Practice – Margaret Wheatley
- Challenging Sexual Prejudice, Creating Safe Spaces, Promoting Sexual Diversity: A Case Study of LGBTQ Youth Activism in the San Francisco Bay Area (2005)—Jenn Schindel, PhD
- Gender 101—Beyond the Binary: Gay-Straight Alliances and Gender Activism (2008)—Jenn Schindel, PhD
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