Future Search Conference

• A shared vision is desired
• An action plan in needed
• Other efforts have been delayed
• New leadership is taking over (especially valid for organizations)
• A key transition is at hand –eg. Changing markets, technology, customers, etc.
• Opposing parties need to meet and have no good forum
• Time is growing short

Go slow when... 

• Leadership is reluctant
• Minimum conditions are not met
• Nobody but you wants it
• The agenda is preconceived
• People have no planning time
• Everybody but you wants it – and it’s your decision

A Future Search will be more effective when...

1. It is presented as a milestone at a choice point in a community’s or organization’s life;
2. Large numbers of diverse people are involved;
3. Top managers and/or community leaders are involved and have a deep wish to succeed with this event;
4. Participants include a cross-section of groups with a stake in the focal issue or community, or of functions, levels, and “outside” stakeholders like customers, suppliers, government officials, and community members;
5. Participants manage information, analysis and action planning themselves;
6. The focus is broadly on opportunities, not narrowly on specific problems;
7. Facilitators stay out of the way when people are working productively, and become active when there is conflict or avoidance of tasks
8. Everybody’s reality is validated as legitimate and deserving to be heard. No one seeks to edit, rewrite or bury any statement.
9. The whole is explored before acting on any part.

A Future Serach may fall flat if...

1. Too few people are invited – 25 make up for more opportunities;
2. Not enough stakeholder variety. We need many view-points / actors;
3. Avoiding large group dialogue at any stage.
4. Reducing the total time, imagining that 2 ½ days’ work can be done in a day or so.
5. Featuring keynote speakers or presenters. That changes the tone and dynamics of the meeting away from shared views of participants. We want people to accept responsibility for their own plans;
6. The emphasis shifts from appreciating to complaining over past and present problems;
7. The group recreates unresolved conflicts of shirks the assigned tasks;
8. Leaders don’t support initiatives that come out of the conference or use the opportunity to speak for their own vision;
9. Consultants seek to diagnose and fill a group’s needs, or pre-empt time for training (e.g. style instruments, surveys, skill exercises, group games). This shifts control from participants to an external source, depriving the group of responsibility.

Usually for four or five sessions, each lasting 1/2 day.

Day 1, Afternoon

• Focus on the Past:
  People make time lines of key events in the world, their own lives, and in the history of the future search topic. Small groups tell stories about each time line and the implications of their stories for the work they have come to do.
• Focus on Present, External Trends:
  The whole group makes a “Mind-Map” of trends affecting them now and identifies those trends most important for their topic.

Day 2, Morning

• Focus on Present, External Trends:
  Stakeholder groups describe what they are doing now about key trends and what they want to do in the future.
• Focus on Present:
  Stakeholder groups report what they are proud of and sorry about in the way they are dealing with the future search topic.

Day 2, Afternoon

• Ideal Future Scenarios:
  Diverse groups put themselves into the future and describe their preferred future as if it has already been accomplished.
• Identify Common Ground:
  Diverse Groups post themes they believe are common ground for everyone.

• Confirm Common Ground
  Whole group dialogues to agree on common ground.
• Action Planning
  Volunteers sign up to implement action plans.

Source: http://www.futuresearch.net/method/methodology/index.cfm