By Barbara O’Hearne, Vice President
Midwest Region

A client’s quarterly newsletter recently crossed my desk, and inside was a comprehensive report celebrating the 10-year outcomes of a Future Search held in 1999. It was all good news.

The client, a faith-based association, took a leap of faith, engaged in months of planning, trained facilitators, designed workbooks, put together the array of materials needed for the process and conducted a Future Search.

What is a Future Search?
It is a planning meeting where 64 to 80 people representing the various stakeholders in an organization are invited to engage in a conversation about its past, present and future. Participants meet for 16 hours over three days. Sounds impossible – but it is possible and it happens again and again all over the world in the profit and nonprofit sectors. By spending time together, people find common ground through determining the future for their organization. From that common ground they create teams to develop action plans with timelines and accountabilities on how to move forward.
A few days in a Future Search conference can bring about more change and action in an organization than a series of small meetings over many months. The collective wisdom and agreement on common ground by a group of committed individuals is more creative and has a greater chance of buy-in and successful implementation.

I have facilitated several Future Searches and am enthusiastic about the process and outcomes. They are task focused. They bring together people who have resources, expertise, leadership responsibilities and accountability, with those who have a need for the organization’s services. People who would likely never be in the same room become engaged in a conversation about the desired future of the organization. Everyone’s input is of equal value.

It is important to get the right people in the room. If your leadership staff and board members are not engaged, you should not undertake a Future Search. The final report will be a dust collector on someone’s shelf.

By bringing together the whole system and a variety of stakeholders, Future Search brings forward what is possible in an organization. If there are problems or conflict in the organization, it is treated as information and not the focus of the conference.

What I find effective about a Future Search is its design: engaging in dialogue about the past, present and future. The variety of creative small group/large group activities moves the process along at a fast pace. The role of the facilitators is to provide easy guidelines for the large group to manage their own planning and time.

In my view, the role of the facilitators is to introduce the process, establish guidelines such as roles and responsibilities of the facilitators and participants, then get out of the way. Participants’ self-management and responsibility for action before, during and after the Future Search are critical to success. By the end of the Future Search conference the facilitators have effectively worked themselves out of a job. The participants now own the conference and are responsible for implementation of the action plans.

A brief outline of a three-day Future Search includes:

Day 1.
Focus on the Past. Participants fill out a timeline of key events in the world, in their own lives and in the history of the Future Search topic. Small groups tell stories about each timeline and the implications their stories have for the Future Search topic.

Focus on the Present, External Trends. This is a large group activity using a “mind map” that identifies current trends important to the organization.

Day 2.
Focus on Present, External Trends. In small stakeholder groups, usually eight people, participants share what they are currently doing about key trends, as well as their ideas for the future.

Focus on Present. Working again in small stakeholder groups, participants discuss and report on the “proudest of prouds” and the “sorriest of sorries” related to how they are dealing with the Future Search topic. It is not about blame or shame. It is about what is.

Ideal Future Scenarios. Gathered into diverse groups, participants create often funny and compelling scenarios by acting out the future as if it a reality.

Identify Common Ground. The diverse groups discuss the themes they believe are common ground for everyone. These themes are posted, to be dealt with the next day.

Day 3.
Confirm Common Ground. The large group sorts the common-ground themes, then discusses and reaches agreement on the common ground. They discuss what needs to be done to ensure the future of the organization.

Action Planning. Each participant signs up for a team to develop action plans and assume responsibility for implementation.

Why do I like Future Search? It works well with certain groups that are willing to try new ways of planning. It is creative, fun, highly interactive, and all ideas, thoughts and opinions are respected.

I do not believe that there is only one way to facilitate planning. The more tools a consultant and the leadership of an organization have, the better. My experience has shown me time and time again that one size does not fit all.

But many people find the promise of Future Search hard to believe until they experience it.