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The Search Conference is two and a half day, large scale (30-84 participants) event made up of a variety of specific tasks designed to help an organization define its values, history, mission, environment, current trends and implications and find the common ground on which to develop a future vision and the strategy and action plans to achieve it.

THE BASICS OF SEARCH CONFERENCES

Pick the right opportunity
Whole system in the room - broad spectrum of viewpoints
Everybody's a expert - peer participation
Search for common ground
Future focused actualize ideals and values, no fixing past mistakes
Output and action oriented
Encourage self managed learning ad planning
Open system exploration
48 hours minimum across 3 days
Healthy conditions

MINIMAL CRITICAL SPECS FOR A SUCCESSFUL SEARCH CONFERENCE

A successful Search Conference is built upon a set of principles. These are more important than individual techniques. What "works" is not this exercise or that one, but a particular integration of the basic principles. It's these principles, not the methods, that make this event different from many other "participative" meetings:

There are no specific outcomes described in advance.
There are no problem-solving activities.
There are no speakers.
There are no training exercises.

At the same time, there are three features you rarely see combined in one meeting:

The broad scope of the work a global perspective in advance of local action
A large and unusually broad work group, including customers, suppliers, workers, managers and community
A self-managing structure that enables strangers to cooperate from the first hour.

PLANNING THE SEARCH

It often takes more time to plan than do. The Search process begins with a series of two to four planning meetings with the Conference facilitators and a planning committee to build rapport, define the key questions of the conference, and to identify the stakeholders whose participation is essential to the outcome and implementation of the vision to be planned. Once these tasks are accomplished, the planning committee is responsible for securing the commitment of those who will attend and for dealing with the logistics of the Conference itself.

THE CONFERENCE ITSELF

The Search Conference is designed to a set of principles known to produce the desired outcomes. It uniquely enables all stakeholders to understand their joint situation better and to take responsibility for it. The Conference involves 30 to 84 people for two and a half days. The outcomes from the Conference are consensus on a desired future and the action plans for moving toward it.

During the Conference, participants, working in either mixed or similar stakeholder groups, engage in five tasks that lead to the co-creation of their shared vision:

Task #1 establishes the history, differences, similarities and shared values of all the stakeholders participating in the Search, and, in so doing, helps the group realize the common bonds that unite them.

Task #2 moves toward the present working to identify the external threads impacting the organization's key question being addressed.

Task #3 focuses the group internally, identifying and assessing the situation in stakeholder groups.

Task #4 establishes consensus around the group's vision.

Task 5 outlines action plans and commitment for realizing that future.

The design of the Conference challenges and changes old assumptions and encourages new thoughts and ideas to surface. The experience of working together in new ways excites and energizes participants, who often, for the very first time, experience how differently others might see the very same issue, while sharing many similar convictions and values. The Search Conference starts an effective change process and generates a commitment to follow through. Instead of going back to "business as usual," or embarking on a major sales effort to enlist support for the vision, a critical mass of the whole system has actually experienced this process. The momentum has been set - change is already on its way.

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Case Study

Find out what a participant in a Peoplesworth Future Search Conference had to say - complete with pictures!

Go to: www.maine.rr.com/Around_Town/features2001/YCTC/default.asp

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Article

Creating the Future You Want

I recently had the privilege of helping a client, Bunker Hill Community College, create a shared vision of its future and an expanded sense of itself. One hundred and twenty faculty, staff, students, educators, business leaders, and community members took part over two days. Our bold theme: "Transforming Bunker Hill Community College: A New College for a New Century." Our bold planning method: a Future Search Conference.

What is a Future Search Conference?

Future Search is a planning process that helps organizations and communities find common ground, articulate a shared vision of their future, and craft the means to attain it.

Using Future Search:

Minimizes risk, because the methodology is proven and powerful.
Saves time, because all work is done in two or three very intense days.
Builds ownership, because it involves key stakeholders from the organization or community.
Finds common ground, rather than solving problems, among diverse participants.
Creates results, generating a shared vision and action plans, consistently.

Who's invited?

Every constituency that has a major stake in the future of the organization or community is invited. For a corporation crafting its future, like Whole Foods, Inc., that means managers, workers, consultants, customers, and suppliers. For communities seeking common ground on a topic like quality schools, like Somerset, MA, it means educators, business people, clergy, public servants, and community leaders.

What happens?

The conference completes four tasks via small, self-managed groups.

Defining the historical forces that have shaped the organization or community.
Defining the current trends that are impacting the organization or community, and what stakeholders are doing about them.
Envisioning the preferred future of the organization or community in an engaging, creative way.
Drafting action plans to begin to realize that future

Why use Future Search?

Consider a Future Search Conference if, like Bunker Hill Community College,

You wish to take a bold, fresh look at your future
You wish to draw diverse stakeholders together around a shared vision
You believe planning can be fast, and fun, as well as powerful.

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Link:

For more information visit the Future Search Network: www.futuresearch.net

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