*Future Search is a technique designed to bring about
understanding and concensus in and among groups: the
discovery of "common ground".
*Future Search builds on existing skills and knowledge.
*Future Search enables all "stakeholders" (anyone with
a stake in the business, organization, group and/or the
results of actions) to "put their two cents in".
*Future Search can lead to concensus on a desired
future and the action plans to make it happen.
Future Search is ideal for organizations of any kind that
want/need to define long and/or short term goals, discover
new possibilities, increase commitment and arrive at a
common vision of the future.
A Future Search conference usually lasts from 2 to 3 days
and may include from 30 to 80 participants. There
is a great deal of flexibility in both the number of active
participants and the duration of the conference.
Through a process of "collaborative inquiry" task groups:
*Look at themselves within a "global perspective".
*Acknowledge what they hold as common ground.
*Assess the present.
*Generate an "ideal future".
Throughout the conference the groups get together and share
their "findings".
*To generate an "ideal future" the "task groups" reconvene
and come up with "action plans" which are shared with the
whole conference.
*Action teams are then formed, responsibility for
implementation taken, and lines of communication opened in
order to share knowledge and resources.
A major advantage of the Future Search Conference format is
the ease with which conferees can maintain communication,
coordination, collaboration and commitment after the
real-time conference "ends".
Task groups can meet in cyber-space to continue
conferencing via the internet, world wide web, intranets
and e-mail.
Through the use of conferencing software, action plans
generated at the Future Search Confernce can gain and
maintain momentum.
The excitement generated at the
conference can fuel hopes, dreams and action.
Weisbord, Marvin,
Discovering Common Ground;
How Future Search Conferences Bring People Together to
Achieve Breakthrough Innovation, Empowerment, Shared
Vision, and Collaborative Action.
A wide ranging collection of articles by Marvin Weisbord
and 35 international co-authors.
Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc., San Francisco, CA, 1992.