“Futures That Work: Using Search Conferences to Revitalize Companies, Communities, and Organizations”

jstengel — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 16:13:21 GMT

A search conference is a participative planning event that enables people to create a plan for the most desirable future of their community or organization, a plan they carry out themselves. Search conferencing has a long, rich history. The first search conference happened in 1960 in Great Britain when leaders of two aircraft engine manufacturers came together in the first search conference to merge their two companies into one. The inventors of the method and the leaders of that first search were social scientists Fred Emery and Eric Trist. The search conference is a practical way to build communities of people who step up to the challenges of our turbulent times and take responsibility for making change happen in a purposeful way. As the world becomes more and more turbulent, the need is great for people to form communities to search for their desirable futures together. The search conference puts people in the driver’s seat of change, so they can steer together toward the future they want for their system, making adjustments as they go forward.

This book has a detailed description of what happens in a search conference, identifies the many ways it can be used, the principles that it is based on, how to plan for a search conference, and stories from many different organizations, from a Palestinian YMCA to Microsoft. It is a good guide for those who want to bring together a group of people to plan strategically and holistically and, importantly, in an accountable and sustainable way to implement what they plan. It also begins to shift organizations to a more open and participative culture.

Citation

Rehm, R., Cebula, N., Ryan, F., Large, M. (2002), “Futures That Work: Using Search Conferences to Revitalize Companies, Communities, and Organizations”, New Society Publishing and Hawthorn Press.

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“Futures That Work: Using Search Conferences to Revitalize Companies, Communities, and Organizations”

Citation