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By Marvin Weisbord & Sandra Janoff
Future search is an innovative planning conference used world-wide by
hundreds of communities and organizations. It meets two goals at the same time,
(1) helping large diverse groups discover values, purposes, and projects they
hold in common; and (2) enabling people to create a desired future together and
start implementing right away. Many sponsors have used future search to
transform their capability for cooperative action in a relatively short time.
Future search is especially helpful in uncertain, fast-changing situations.
Participants need no prior training or expertise. People build on what they
already have. Conferences focus on a wide range of purposes in schools,
hospitals, churches, communities, government agencies, voluntary networks,
foundations, business firms, and non-profits in every sector. Because future
search is largely culture free, it has been adopted with success by people from
all walks of life in North and South America, Africa, Australia, Europe and
South Asia.
A future search usually involves 60 to 70 people--large enough to include
many perspectives and small enough that the full group can be in dialogue at
each step in the process. This makes possible a shared picture of the "whole
elephant." (For larger groups, conferences may be run in parallel or in
sequence.) The optimal length is about 2 1/2 days. When people stay engaged in a
task for that long, they are more likely to make a notable shift in their trust
of each other and in their capability for action. The task is always The Future
of _________(fill in the blank).
The conference is designed to principles that enable people to work together
without having to defend or sell a particular agenda. This opens the door to
creative new opportunities. Future Search Principles
- Get the "whole system in the room.
- "Think globally, act locally--Explore the same world.
- Work toward common ground/desired futures
- Self-manage conversations/action plans.
The first principle involves "getting the whole system in the room." That
means inviting people with a stake in the purpose who don't usually meet, thus
enlarging everybody's potential for learning and action. The second involves
putting the focal issue in global perspective, helping each person to see the
same larger picture of which they have a part.. The third means treating
problems and conflicts as information rather than action items, while searching
for common ground and desirable futures. The fourth invites people to manage
their own small groups in talking about and acting on what they learn.
The work is done in four or five half day sessions, 16 or more hours of
actual work. There are five tasks. The first establishes a common history, the
second, a map of world trends affecting the whole group. The third step calls
for an assessment by stakeholders of what they are doing now that they are proud
of and sorry about, an important step toward mutual understanding. Next, people
devise ideal future scenarios, living their dreams as if they have already
happened.
A mind map of present trends helps everybody focus on talking about the "same
elephant."
Then all groups identify common ground themes--key features that appear in
every scenario. The whole group confirms their common future, acknowledges
differences and makes choices about how to use their energy. In the final
segment, they sign up to work together on desired plans and actions.
Future Search Agenda Future of ________ 5 to 20 years Out
Task 1: The Past: Where We've Been
Task 2: The Present: Trends Affecting Us & What We're Doing Now
Task 3: "Prouds" & "Sorries"
Task 4: The Future: What We Want To Do
Task 5: Common Ground & Action Planning
Most groups are surprised at how much they agree upon and how many values
they hold in common. Many communities and organizations discover capabilities
they did not know they had. They take actions they did not believe were
possible. Having done numerous "change" projects over the last 30 years, in
business, education, government, health care, social services and communities,
we don't know a better way to spend 16 hours than searching for common ground
before making action plans.
Staging a future search means changing our assumptions about large, diverse
groups. In these meetings we learn that most people can bridge lines of culture,
class, gender, ethnicity, power, status and hierarchy if they will work as peers
on tasks of mutual concern. They can do this despite stereotypes, prejudices,
and "isms" that lie deep in all of us. They can do this despite skepticism and
sometimes-gloomy predictions of what will or won't happen. Freed from the
impulse to put pressure on each other to solve intractable problems, people
often find common ground none of them knew existed.
Moreover, we have concluded that the more diverse the group, the more
important it is that the people in the room arrive at their own meanings,
conclusions, concepts, and goals. So we resist the temptation to "organize the
data" for a group, or to impose our categories and priority-setting mechanisms.
Instead, we help people understand what it is they are saying to each other and
what choices they can make.
The most valuable thing we have learned is that it is much easier to change
the conditions under which we interact than it is to change each others'
attitudes, "styles," and deeply-held beliefs. In creating a more-level playing
field and equal chance to participate, we make it possible for people to see
issues from many more angles.
For decades it was assumed that the best way to bring a large group together
was in the presence of an expert speaker or panelists who would answer peoples'
questions. The belief that someone else has the knowledge we need is deep in us.
So is the belief that if others tell us what to do we can do it. Future search
turns those assumptions upside down.
Instead of speeches, we have working sessions among a wide range of parties
who have information, authority to act, and a stake in the outcome, regardless
of their status, skills, or attitudes. In addition, we assume that complex
planning issues require value choices more than expertise and "data." We believe
that people make different choices when they are in dialogue than they would
make working alone or only with familiar faces. We assume people already have
the skills and motivation to do more than they are doing now. What they need is
opportunity.
We assume that each person has a piece of reality, and that each needs access
to all in order to get a more whole picture. We assume that we need go toward
the mess together--the confusion and chaos--and do something about it. These are
common sense assumptions that hold up well in practice.
The success of a future search is determined during the planning--in
accepting conditions that will make future action more probable. So we invite
diverse people who have a stake in the agenda. We visit the larger context
before confronting the planning issue. We work in self-managing groups. We meet
for at least 16 hours (excluding breaks and meals) over three days in windowed
rooms. We have people learn from each other rather than expert speakers. And we
delay action planning until we have a consensus on the future.
In our enthusiasm, we do not mean to imply that a future search is easy work
or that 16 hours can make up for years of inertia or conflict. The process is
simple, not easy. Figuring out the appropriate task and how to get the right
people into the room is hard work. Putting on a future search requires changing
many assumptions about what can be done in one short meeting. But the meeting
process is simple, astonishingly so to the two of us, who have spent decades
chasing rainbows with more elaborate methods that are not up to the task. Facing
ambiguity together--instead of trying to squeeze it out of a meeting--leads
people to a new world view and to creative new ways of working. We invite you to
explore future search as a way to improve your own capability for trust,
creativity, and long-lived action.
Future Search Network makes future search conferences available to non-profit
and public organizations regardless of ability to pay. We also distribute books
and videotapes and offer public workshops in the United States and abroad. We
are glad to discuss your needs and potential applications of future search.
Marvin Weisbord and Sandra Janoff are co-directors of
Future Search Network, a world-wide
network based on community service, colleagueship and learning. They are
co-authors of FUTURE SEARCH: An Action Guide to Finding Common Ground in
Organizations and Communities (Berrett-Koehler, 1995).
For more information call or write
Future Search Network
Resources For Human Development, Inc.
4700 Wissahickon Avenue, Suite 126
Philadelphia, PA 19144-4248
tel. 215 951-0300, 800 951-6333
fax 215 849-7360
Jennifer Nuemer, Program Manager
fsn@futuresearch.net
Copyright 1994-01 by SearchNet & Future Search Network. Permission granted to
reproduce if Future Search Network's address appears.
Taken from
http://www.futuresearch.net Used with permission.
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