Title: Walk Out Walk On: A Learning Journey into Communities Daring to Live the Future Now
Authors: Margaret Wheatley and Deborah Frieze
Target Audience: Students
Date: 2011

Succinct Summary: Filled with experience and vivid examples, Walk Out Walk On expresses values supporting community-based development and global citizenship as well as exploring the balance between service and self-benefit. The authors challenge the accepted assumptions in international development and encourage brave new methods for supporting communities in their development.

Reviewer quotes:

1. “They discuss viewing people as citizens instead of as clients… It’s a wonderful section about material possessions and the importance of gift-giving and trading… It’s all about making oneself vulnerable and trusting that someone, somewhere will provide. Then they go into how to do your part, balance service with self-interest, community vitality with economic security.”
   – Teresa Cook, Book Buzz

2. “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.”
   – Google Books

3. “The unifying theme among the communities they visited is that no matter the continent – and five are covered on these journeys – people want to be part of problem solving, not just be the unwitting recipient of the latest great idea… Wheatley and Frieze challenge experts to acknowledge how frustrating it is to solve problems independently and to develop relationships with others who are also affected by these same problems.”
   – Chris Bond, Murphy Business Blog

For more stories of those who chose to walk out and walk on, visit the Walk Out Walk On Community Blog.