{"product_id":"future-search-isbn-9781605094281","title":"Future Search","description":"Future Search is among the best-established and most effective methods for enabling people to make and implement ambitious plans. It has been used to redesign IKEA’s product pipeline in Sweden, develop an integrated economic development plan in Northern Ireland, and demobilize child soldiers in Southern Sudan. Written by the originators, this book is the most up-to-date account of this powerful change method.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e This third edition is completely revised, reorganized, and updated with nine new chapters. It contains new cases and examples, advice on combining Future Search with other methods, and a summary of formal research studies. The chapters on facilitating diversity provide a theory, philosophy, and method for working with any task group.\u003cbr\u003e Marvin Weisbord and Sandra Janoff offer specific guidance for Future Search sponsors, steering committees, participants, and facilitators and new ideas for sustaining action after the Future Search ends. They’ve added striking evidence of Future Search’s efficacy over time, examples of its economic benefits, guidelines for making Future Searches green, and much more. They include a wealth of resources—handouts, sample client workbooks, follow-up methods, and other practical tools.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e If you want to do strategic planning, product innovation, quality improvement, organizational restructuring, mergers, or any other major change requiring stakeholder engagement, this book is your guide.Preface\u003cbr\u003e Introduction\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Part I: Learning\u003cbr\u003e 1         Any Sector, Any Culture: Future Search Cases from Everywhere\u003cbr\u003e 2         The Ripple Effect: How One Meeting Can Change the World\u003cbr\u003e 3         Conditions for Success\u003cbr\u003e 4         Origins of Future Search Principles\u003cbr\u003e 5         In Pursuit of the Perfect Meeting\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Part II: Planning\u003cbr\u003e 6         Is Future Search for You?\u003cbr\u003e 7         Generating Money with Future Search\u003cbr\u003e 8         Planning to Succeed\u003cbr\u003e 9         Attending to the Details\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Part III: Doing\u003cbr\u003e 10         Facilitating by “Just Standing There”\u003cbr\u003e 11         Riding the Roller Coaster\u003cbr\u003e 12         Same Principles, Other Uses\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Part IV: Sustaining\u003cbr\u003e 13         Follow-up That Works\u003cbr\u003e 14         Listening to Leaders\u003cbr\u003e 15         Future Search Research and Evaluation\u003cbr\u003e Epilogue: Could This “New Paradigm” Really Be an Old One?\u003cbr\u003e Appendices\u003cbr\u003e Acknowledgments\u003cbr\u003e Photo Credits\u003cbr\u003e Index\u003cbr\u003e About the Authors“An important process that constantly reaffirms my faith in people’s capacity to work together when issues are big and vital”\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e—Margaret Wheatley, author of \u003ci\u003eLeadership and the New Science\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eTurning to One Another\u003cbr\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003eMarvin Weisbord, an international consultant for more than forty years, is the author of Organizational Diagnosis and Productive Workplaces Revisited and editor and coauthor of Discovering Common Ground. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Sandra Janoff, consultant and psychologist, works with Fortune 500 companies, small businesses, communities, and nonprofits on whole systems transformation.\u003cb\u003eIntroduction\u003cbr\u003e \u003c\/b\u003eFirst let us summarize 30 years of experience. The major Benefit of Future Search is transforming a system’s capability for action. You can do that in a few days when you observe our principles. We believe we can save you considerable trial and error if you take advantage of our experience. A bit of management history may help you appreciate why Future Search came into being.\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eProductive Workplaces\u003c\/i\u003e (Weisbord, 1987) described how planning methods evolved on two axes: the “who,” from experts to everybody; and the “what,” from problem-solving to whole-systems improvement. A century ago, as the industrial revolution picked up steam, expert problem-solving (e.g., “scientific management”) became the gold standard, surviving to this day as a tarnished relic. after group dynamics was discovered, many adopted participative management when they found how hard it was to implement an expert’s solutions. When “systems thinking” hit the work world in the 1960s, experts rose to new heights, solving—on paper—whole systems of problems at once. By the 1980s it became clear that for progress in a speeded-up world of increasing diversity, nothing less would do than “getting everybody improving whole systems.” This became a central tenet of what people now call “large-group interventions” (see “Learning Curve”).\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eProductive Workplaces\u003c\/i\u003e proposed that only “everybody improving whole systems” would prove satisfying in a fast-changing world—satisfying, that is, if you believe that economic results need not be compromised to achieve dignity, meaning, and community. For us Future Search is a learning laboratory for “getting everybody improving whole systems.” The enthusiastic response to this concept—letters, phone calls, requests for help—led to \u003ci\u003eDiscovering Common Ground\u003c\/i\u003e (Weisbord et al., 1992), a work that sought to uncover the principles and the practices common to Effective large-group planning.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Planning methods have evolved on two axes: the “who,” from experts to everybody; and the “what,” from problem-solving to whole-systems improvement.\u003cbr\u003e From \u003ci\u003eProductive Workplaces Revisited\u003c\/i\u003e (Weisbord, 2004). Used by permission.\u003cbr\u003e We wrote the first detailed description of the FS method in the 1995 edition of this book. In the 2000 edition, we presented the evolving FS model, our experiments with tasks and techniques, and examples from many cultures, where, contrary to conventional wisdom, people were able to get long-lasting action from a single meeting. We also provided a philosophical rationale for “hands-off” facilitating, later elaborated in \u003ci\u003eDon’t Just Do Something, Stand There!\u003c\/i\u003e (Weisbord and Janoff, 2007).\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003eChanges to the Third Edition\u003cbr\u003e \u003c\/b\u003eThis Third Edition, based on input from dozens of FSN members, contains 10 new chapters and five chapters rewritten to reflect new learning. We now tell the FS story with greater confidence, more-diverse examples, and clear-eyed comments from pioneers in cultures everywhere.\u003cbr\u003e Specifically, we have revised the text in the following ways:\u003cbr\u003e  Updated the design with subtle refinements that simplify the flow and improve the output (Chapter 5 and Appendix A)\u003cbr\u003e  Added new cases based on our own and colleagues’ recent experiences in diverse cultures and sectors (Chapter 1)\u003cbr\u003e  Documented the “ripple Effect” of Future Search by showing results sustained in various sectors over many years (Chapter 2)\u003cbr\u003e  Offered specific guidance for FS sponsors, steering committees, participants, funders, and facilitators (Chapter 6)\u003cbr\u003e  Noted several examples of the economic Benefits of Future Search (Chapter 7)\u003cbr\u003e  Added more advice on planning and the use of virtual technologies (Chapters 8 and 9)\u003cbr\u003e  Preserved the emphasis on our core philosophy and theory of facilitating (Chapters 10 and 11)\u003cbr\u003e  Described FS variations and integration with other methods (Chapter 12)\u003cbr\u003e  Incorporated many more examples of how to sustain action with effective follow-up (Chapter 13)\u003cbr\u003e  Interviewed leaders around the world to discover what Future Search means to them (Chapter 14)\u003cbr\u003e  Surveyed research and evaluation studies for formal evidence of what works (Chapter 15)\u003cbr\u003e  Introduced provocative thoughts on why Future Search has crossed so many cultural boundaries (Epilogue)\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003eWhat Makes Future Search Different?\u003cbr\u003e \u003c\/b\u003eFuture Searches enable organizations and communities to learn more together than any one person can discover alone. Bringing the “whole system into the room” makes feasible a shared encounter with complexity and uncertainty leading to clarity, hope, and action. The key word is \u003ci\u003eshared.\u003c\/i\u003e When we explore common ground with others, we release creative energy, leading to projects that all value and none can do alone.\u003cbr\u003e Future Search, even three days’ worth, is time efficient. People need not master abstract concepts to do good planning. They need only show up and use the skills, experience, and motivation they already have. We are seeking what people already want to do and never dreamed they could. Rarely do people encounter these key conditions for action all at once. Every meeting thereafter becomes more productive.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003eWhen to Hold a Future Search\u003cbr\u003e \u003c\/b\u003ePeople use Future Search for three main purposes:\u003cbr\u003e  To create a shared vision and action plan for an organization, network, or community\u003cbr\u003e  To enable all stakeholders to act on common ground and take responsibility for their own plans\u003cbr\u003e  To help people implement an existing vision that they have not acted on together\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003eA Short Overview\u003cbr\u003e \u003c\/b\u003eThe FS design depends on sticking to a set of reliable “conditions for success.” These start with four core principles that are the focus of Chapters 3 and 4:\u003cbr\u003e  “Whole system in the room”\u003cbr\u003e  Global context for local action\u003cbr\u003e  Focus on future and common ground, not problems and conflicts\u003cbr\u003e  Self-management and responsibility for action\u003cbr\u003e We advocate full attendance, healthy meeting conditions, working across three days instead of doing it all in two, and public commitments for follow-up.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eParticipant Terminology\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003c\/b\u003eWe use the following terms to describe parties involved in Future Searches:\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cb\u003eSponsors:\u003c\/b\u003e those from an organization, community, or coalition who initiate a Future Search\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cb\u003eSteering committee (or planning group):\u003c\/b\u003e those selected by a sponsor to help frame the task, select the stakeholders, manage the logistics, and plan for follow-up\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cb\u003eStakeholders:\u003c\/b\u003e participants from diverse backgrounds considered by sponsors to be essential to the success of the Future Search\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cb\u003eFunders:\u003c\/b\u003e those who invest in projects and programs related to the purpose of the Future Search\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003eFacilitators\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cb\u003e(also FS managers or consultants):\u003c\/b\u003e experienced professionals who plan and manage Future Searches in collaboration with sponsors.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eStructure\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003c\/b\u003eA Future Search typically involves 60 to 100 people who share a common purpose. We do five activities of two to four hours each, 16 to 20 hours in total, spread over three days: review the past, explore the present, create desired future scenarios, discover common ground, and make action plans.\u003cbr\u003e Mixed groups—each a cross-section of the whole—work on the past and the future. Stakeholder groups whose members have a shared perspective work together on the present. Everybody validates the common ground. Action planning employs both stakeholder and self-selected groups. Every task concludes with a whole-group dialogue.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eRiding the Roller Coaster\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003c\/b\u003eFuture Search sets up powerful dynamics that can lead to constructive outcomes. We experience the conference’s peaks and valleys as an emotional roller-coaster ride, swooping down into the morass of global trends at one moment, soaring to idealistic heights at another. Uncertainty, frustration, and confusion usually resolve into fun, energy, and achievement. We believe that good contact with our ups and downs leads to realistic choices and constructive action.\u003cbr\u003e Future Search accommodates diverse learning styles. Some people seek facts; others tune in to feelings. We provide a variety of activities to help people engage on many levels. All have a chance to contribute their best. Future Search requires no training, inputs, data collection, or diagnoses. Instead people tell their stories and listen to one another. In Future Search we aspire to acknowledge what we discover as an inescapable part of our shared world. In short we look for buried potential that already exists.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e A Future Search typically involves 60 to 100 people who share a common purpose focusing on five topics over three days: the past, the present, the future, common ground, and action planning. \u003ci\u003eNote:\u003c\/i\u003e this diagram represents only an overview of the three-day process; for a step-by-step agenda, see Chapter 5 and Appendix A.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eMoving toward Implementation\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003c\/b\u003eFuture Search participants bridge barriers of culture, class, age, gender, ethnicity, power, status, and hierarchy by working on tasks of mutual concern. The FS process interrupts the tendency to repeat old patterns—railroading, fighting, running away, complaining, blaming, or waiting for others to fix things. Future Search gives people a chance to express their highest ideals. Instead of a meeting requiring people to change their behavior, Future Search changes the conditions under which people interact. That is something we can control, and it enables surprising outcomes.\u003cbr\u003e No process, however comprehensive, guarantees action. Still we have seen more plans implemented from Future Searches than any planning method either of us has used over four decades. People act quite apart from whether they had a good time, liked the facilitators, resolved their differences, or felt finished. Action requires that people believe in shared goals and trust one another enough to cooperate. It also requires committing resources—of time and energy and sometimes money. In this edition we show how Future Search stimulates shared goals, trust, and resources.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003eFuture Search Pushes the Boundaries of Organization Development\u003cbr\u003e \u003c\/b\u003eWe see Future Search extending traditional organization development (OD) in new directions.\u003cbr\u003e First, OD was conceived not as a single meeting but rather as a strategy for large-scale systemic change. An FS meeting requires fewer than three days.\u003cbr\u003e Second, whereas OD depended on many people accepting the “need for change,” Future Search depends on the right people accepting an invitation to spend a few days together.\u003cbr\u003e Third, OD originally was based on consultants’ diagnosing gaps between what is and what ought to be. This was intended to “unfreeze” a system, leading people to reorder their relationships and capabilities. Nearly always the action steps involved training, on the theory that people did not know how to do what they said they wanted to do. Future Search requires no diagnosis and no labeling of participants as “cooperative,” “resistant,” and the like. The greater the diversity in the room, the less useful will be any particular conceptual scheme. We have no preconceived issues except those raised by participants, so we have nothing to fix.\u003cbr\u003e We don’t work to improve relationships among people or functions. Rather we set up conditions under which people can choose new ways of relating. We don’t separate social issues such as diversity, trust, communication, and collaboration from economic and technical issues. We are unlikely to run a Future Search on diversity. Rather we propose that diverse people explore how they want to live and work together.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003eExperiencing “Current Reality”\u003cbr\u003e \u003c\/b\u003eAs facilitators we don’t judge information as good or bad, complete or sketchy, useful or futile, appropriate or redundant. Whatever people do or say—their words, behaviors, wishes, and reactions—belongs to them. Whatever happens is an expression of the stake-holders. For example, people will not suddenly give up authority\/ dependency needs because they spent a few days as peers, but they may learn more about their ability to work together with shared responsibility. So we are interested in participants’ experiencing what already exists, as fully, deeply, and humanly as possible. Then people are more likely to make rational choices about what they want to do.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003eSharing the Work\u003cbr\u003e \u003c\/b\u003eOurs is an encounter with the whole—self, community, and world. But we do not offer expert systems analysis. Rather we set up a situation that involves the whole person on many levels. We ask people to share the work, move around, live with uncertainty, and make their dreams visible. In a Future Search, people talk over issues they have not raised before with people they have never met. Many take responsibility for matters previously avoided or ignored. It is common for people to voluntarily commit to actions made possible only because of the other people in the room.\u003cbr\u003e Although we evolved our procedures mainly with people who can read and write, Future Search does not depend on literacy. This work can be done entirely with spoken or symbolic communication. The results have been repeated in many cultures and in culturally diverse groups.\u003cbr\u003e We believe that meetings designed on the principles we advocate lead to these outcomes:\u003cbr\u003e  Participants taking personal responsibility\u003cbr\u003e  Fast implementation of action plans\u003cbr\u003e  Lasting relationships among stakeholders\u003cbr\u003e Ten years ago we called this an “unproven hypothesis.” In this edition we offer persuasive evidence of a strong link among our theory, practice, and outcomes. We can say with greater certainty than before what works and what doesn’t. To evaluate our assertions, see if you can re-create our core principles and track what happens afterward.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003eDesign Limits—in Systems, in Us\u003cbr\u003e \u003c\/b\u003eFuture Search offers participants a way of working that they find easy to do. Not everybody takes advantage of the mode; not everybody believes in it; not everybody can imagine doing so much so fast or, as some see it, requiring more time than any meeting is worth. We’re not surprised when potential sponsors and consultants worry about losing control or opening up issues they would rather not air. Rarely have we led a conference where, at some moment, we did not feel anxiety. We have come to recognize it as an old friend that nearly always precedes energy and creativity.\u003cbr\u003e Our meeting design requires, but does not guarantee, purpose, leadership, stakeholder involvement, and courage. You can’t affect people who don’t attend or expect others to take responsibility for plans made without them. We do not recommend Future Search for people who have no reason to work together. Moreover, ours is not a method for working through all imaginable human conflicts. We are actualizing what is waiting to happen, what people can do readily in the short time available.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003eThe “Answer” Is in Us, Not a Meeting Design\u003cbr\u003e \u003c\/b\u003eWe believe that FS principles are widely applicable to life and work today. To use them, though, we can’t just encounter systems “out there.” We also need to work on ourselves. In particular, we have to learn to let go of the need to fix other people. We hear many questions that start, “Yes, but how do you get \u003ci\u003ethem\u003c\/i\u003e to…” followed by “show up,” “stay the whole time,” “listen to each other,” “not talk too much,” “say what they really think in front of so-and-so,” or “make practical plans.”\u003cbr\u003e Our answer is, “We don’t.” The spirit of Future Search is self-management and discovery. We expect participants to share leadership and organize their own work. We tell people everything we know about success. We show up when we think we will succeed. And we trust people to do whatever is in their own best interest. If the right people come to a Future Search, stay the whole time, and say what they wish, we ask no more.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003eRelated Processes\u003cbr\u003e \u003c\/b\u003eMany conference processes overlap ours. One is the Search Conference pioneered by Eric Trist and Fred Emery (Weisbord et al., 1992) and developed further by Merrelyn and Fred Emery (Emery, 1993). Our method owes a great deal to their work and differs in several respects (for example, our emphasis on the “whole system in the room” and our evoking personal experiences and creative future scenarios as a backdrop for action).\u003cbr\u003e We consider Open Space Technology (OST), invented by Harrison Owen (1997), a twin in spirit to Future Search. In OST people select their agendas and groups. In Future Search predetermined groups work the same tasks toward a common future. Both models invite participants to manage their small groups, and both build a strong communal spirit.\u003cbr\u003e Another related process is the Dialogue Group of the late physicist David Bohm, developed further by William Isaacs (1999) and his colleagues at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. We share with this model the norm that all issues are valid and that all views be heard. Unlike dialogue groups, Future Searches are structured, task focused, actively managed, and time-bound toward action.\u003cbr\u003e We also note the participative strategic-planning conferences—Whole Scale Change and Real Time Strategic Change—of the late Kathleen Dannemiller (Dannemiller-Tyson Associates, 2000) and Robert Jacobs (1994). We share with these models a common ancestor in the large-group meetings of Eva Schindler-Rainman and Ronald Lippitt (1980). In the Dannemiller\/Jacobs conferences, leaders take a central role in setting the context, giving information on future directions, and fielding questions. In a Future Search, leaders, experts, and special interests participate along with everybody else. Also, the OST and Dannemiller\/Jacobs conferences can accommodate hundreds of people at once in contrast to our preferred 60 to 100.\u003cbr\u003e Two related processes that emerged since our previous edition are Appreciative Inquiry (AI), developed by David Cooperrider (2005) and associates, and the World Café, devised by Juanita Brown and David Isaacs (2005). The Appreciative Inquiry Summit (Ludema et al., 2003), incorporating many aspects of Future Search, builds on positive experiences derived from premeeting interviews. Future Search accepts all experiences as relevant. The World Café features structured, self-managed conversations and can be run with any number of people in any time frame.\u003cbr\u003e We continue to learn from, encourage, and support all open-system processes. Their similarities and differences seem minor to us compared with the need for helping people experience wholeness in a time of unprecedented complexity and bewilderment. For us the concept of “best model” is an anachronism. We think the metaphor for these methods is a kaleidoscope: Everybody has the same bits of colored glass. Each personal “shake” provides new patterns. We believe that the best model for you is one that squares with your goals, values, intuition, and capabilities. Indeed you should use no other.\u003cbr\u003e Many people now integrate various large-group methods, including Future Search, into new change strategies. We have added Chapter 12 to this edition to highlight this trend. Several others are experimenting with multiple conferences that raise strategic and logistical questions outside the scope of this book. We urge the reader to learn how to run single events before getting into multiple anythings. We see Future Search as a basic building block of social and personal change. If you can replicate our experience, you will open for yourself a world of new possibilities.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003eHow the Third Edition Is Organized\u003cbr\u003e Part I: Learning\u003c\/b\u003e Chapter 1 provides an overview of results in many sectors and cultures, Chapter 2 follows cases that ripple through society for many years after an initial Future Search, and\u003cspa\u003e\u003c\/spa\u003e","brand":"Berrett-Koehler Publishers","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46302321770725,"sku":"NP9781605094281","price":34.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9781605094281.jpg?v=1767727814","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/future-search-isbn-9781605094281","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}