Future Search: An Action Guide to Finding Common Ground in Organizations and Communities [Anglais] [Broché]

"This long-awaited gem could be billed as the world's most unpretentious book. These recognized experts simply talk about their work-what they do, why they do it the way they do, how their work has changed over the years, where their boundaries are-it's amazing. They 'empty the bag' and share everything they know: how to conduct a meeting with prospective clients, how to work with a planning team, how to design a conference, as well as samples of workbooks, worksheets, and letters to participants."

Summary

This booklet gives an overview of the Search Conference, a change strategy which helps members of an organization or community discover common ground and create self-managed plans to move forward toward their desired future.

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Description

Why future search? As a society we have painted ourselves into a technological corner. We have more ways to do things than ever before. Yet a lot of what matters to us is not getting done, despite the large sums we spend. We experience high walls between haves and have nots, experts and amateurs, leaders and followers. In future search meetings we take down the walls. We take control of our own futures. We take back responsibility for ourselves. We discover that we can learn from and work with people from many walks of life.

Future searches enable us to experience and accept polarities. They help us learn how to bridge barriers of culture, class, age, gender, ethnicity, power, status, and hierarchy by working as peers on tasks of mutual concern. The future search process interrupts our tendency to repeat old patterns--fighting, running away, complaining, blaming, or waiting for others to fix problems. And it gives us a chance to express our highest ideals.

In future searches, major systemic changes occur in the planning process. A diverse group of 6 to 10 people meets from a few days to a few months. They agree on a task and invite a spectrum of stakeholders. They also agree to a novel set of conditions, e.g., meeting for 16 hours over three days, skipping speakers and expert input, putting off action until near the end, and working interactively. In a meeting structured this way, people discover new capabilities no matter what agendas come up. This opens up the door to new, unpredictable, highly desired, and long-lived cooperative action that is a high order of systems change.

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Synopsis

The Collaborating for Change series offers concise, comprehensive overviews of 14 leading change strategies in a convenient, inexpensive format. Adapted from chapters in The Change Handbook, each approximately 48-page booklet is written by the originator of the change strategy or an expert practitioner, and includes

* An example of the strategy in action
* Tips for getting started
* An outline of roles, responsibilities, and relationships
* Conditions for success
* Keys to sustaining results
* Thought-provoking questions for discussion

If you're deciding on a change strategy for your organization and you need a short, focused treatment of several alternatives to distribute to your colleagues... Or if you've decided on a change strategy and want to disseminate information about it to get everyone on board, the Collaborating for Change booklets are the ideal choice.

Other titles in the Collaborating for Change series:

* Appreciative Inquiry
* The Conference Model
* Future Search
* Gemba Kaizen
* Open Space Technology
* The Organization Workshop
* Participative Design Workshop
* Preferred Futuring
* Real Time Strategic Change
* The Search Conference
* The Strategic Forum
* The Think Like a Genius Process
* Whole-Scale Change
* Whole Systems Approach --Ce texte fait référence à lédition Broché .

This nuts-and-bolts guide to "future search" conferences--a new way of conduct ing meetings to effect dramatic change--explains how to run a meeting at which diverse people with a stake in a single organization or issue come together to seek a common ground and generate creative strategies and a broad commitment. 25 charts. Online promo. --Ce texte fait référence à une édition épuisée ou non disponible de ce titre.

Explores a promising way for enabling diverse groups of people with a stake in an organization or community to plan their own future. Offers principles, techniques, and examples for running successful future search conferences. Softcover. DLC: Planning--Methodology.

Marvin Weisbord, an international consultant for more than thirty years, is the author of Organizational Diagnosis, Productive Workplaces, editor/coauthor of Discovering Common Ground, and coauthor of Future Search. He is co-direcor, along with Sandra Janoff, of Future Search Network (formerly SearchNet), an international non-profit dedicated to community service, colleagueship, and learning.

Sandra Janoff, consultant and psychologist, works with Fortune 500 companies, small businesses, communities and non-profits on whole systems transformation. She is co-director, along with Marvin Weisbord, of Future Search Network (formerly SearchNet) an international non-profit dedicated to community service, colleagueship and learning.