About Future Search

Future Search is one of the most powerful and democratic methods for bringing together individuals with various points of view to discuss a specific topic or issue, to reach common ground and to plan the steps toward their desired future.

Future Search is an interactive planning process used world-wide in diverse cultures to achieve shared goals and fast action. Future search leads to cooperative planning that lasts for years.

Future Search makes a difference.

More about Future Search

It is a large group intervention created by Marwin Weisbord and Sandra Janoff influenced by experiences from hundreds and hundreds of users from all around the world.

What makes a Future Search unique? Basically a Future Search is a conference structure - a planning meeting - that makes it possible for a business (or any kind of social system) and its stakeholders to increase its ability to act and to take responsibility for the mutual work that will result in its achieving its common vision and future goals.

A Future Search conference is unique, not in the separate elements, but in the combination of them.

The basic idea is to gather the »whole system in the room«. That is, a cross-section of the most important stakeholders. A Future Search conference usually takes 50-80 people.

All stakeholders will broaden their perspectives and be able to view more of the whole, to see more of »the elephant«. The conference typically focuses on the borders and separation lines between different stakeholder groups and addresses issues that no one could identify before the conference took place.

A »self-managing« structure makes it easy for people that don't know each other to cooperate from the very beginning.

The Future Search conference has no prepared outcomes - it has a firm structure of time and tasks.

There are no problem solving activities.

There are no speakers or lecturers invited.

A Future Search includes no education or training moments.

Rather than focusing on solving the problems of today, people gather to share experiences and to create ideas for a more ideal future. By focusing on the future, less energy spills over on today's problems which often prevent people for seeing the possibilities of the future.

The Future Search leads to action plans and commitments - the regular work of selling the ideas is virtually done by the end of the conference.

Originators of the Future Search are Marvin Weisbord and Sandra Janoff. They have more than 20 years of experience of developing this tool.

The ideal Future Search conference for 48 hours over three days has 64 participants. It is facilitated by a man and a woman. Pre-conference planning has been worked through by a steering committee with representatives from the sponsoring organizations.

More than 4 000 facilitators have been trained around the world.

Future Search conferences have been implemented in all parts of the world, in the industrialized part as well as in the third world, in industry as well as in public sector and non-profit organizations.

A&L Partners have a cooperating and networking relationship with Marvin Weisbord and Sandra Janoff. We received our Future Search training from Marvin and Sandra. We are active members of the Future Search Network.

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