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Future Search is a 2 1/2 day planning meeting based on principles that lead to far-reaching constructive changes. It leads to rapid mobilization of resources and high commitment to act among key stakeholders. Often, a Future Search causes positive ripples that continue for years. The reasons for these successes can be found in an underlying structure and process that is quite different from typical planning processes.
- Review of the Past: People create time lines of key events in the world or country, their community, and in their own lives, relative to the Future Search topic (e.g. poverty /creating prosperity), by writing their contributions on a common time line. Small mixed-stakeholder groups tell stories about each time line and the implications of their stories for the work they have come to do. This establishes a shared history among all community stakeholders, which is a critical foundation for collaboration.
- 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 (e.g. poverty/creating prosperity). The mind map makes visible a broad pattern of concerns rarely faced in any setting where people can act together. The result is that the group is collectively aware of nearly everything at this point. This work promotes whole-community understanding and ownership of the "mess"--the contradictory, confusing, fast-shifting, present reality--and forms the foundation for committed action.
- Stakeholder groups describe what they are doing now about key trends and what they want to do in the future. This allows the whole community to hear the extent to which various stakeholder groups share common or diverse concerns, which usually to unspoken in ordinary meetings. This activity demonstrates that many community members worry about the same issues, want to live in the same kind of world, and that there is a great deal more going on than anyone realized, creating optimal conditions for discovering common ground.
- Stakeholder groups report what they are proud of and sorry about in the way they are dealing with the Future Search topic (e.g. poverty/creating prosperity). This activity makes perceptions of the system's own behaviour--good news and bad--public, which is needed for people to get beyond blaming and complaining and into taking responsibility.
- Ideal Future Scenarios: Mixed stakeholder groups put themselves into the future and describe their preferred future as if it has already been accomplished. Every group observes the others and makes notes on themes they hear among all presentations. This activity creates a shared vision for the future and points toward specific action projects the community can undertake.
- Identify Common Ground: Mixed stakeholder groups post themes they believe are common ground for everyone and identify things that are not agreed. Groups pair up with another group and merge two sets into one. This activity allows the whole group to identify and sort through what is common ground versus what is not agreed, which empowers the whole system to determine what they want to work on together.
- Confirm Common Ground: The whole group dialogues about the common ground as they have identified it, to learn about and agree on what they are actually saying to each other about what they want together. This activity ensures that the group only moves forward to action planning on things that are truly common ground.
- Action Planning: Volunteers sign up to lead the development of specific action plans from the list of common ground, planning groups are assembled, and action plans are created. This activity produces concrete preliminary project plans and a diverse group of people to further develop and implement the plan.
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