Future Search: An Action Guide to Finding Common Ground in Organizations and Communities

by Marvin Weisbord, Sandra Janoff

Future Search is among the best-established and most effective methods for enabling people to make and implement ambitious plans. It has been used to redesign IKEA’s product pipeline in Sweden, develop an integrated economic development plan in Northern Ireland, and demobilize child soldiers in Southern Sudan. Written by the originators, this book is the most up-to-date account of this powerful change method.

This third edition is completely revised, reorganized, and updated with nine new chapters. It contains new cases and examples, advice on combining Future Search with other methods, and a summary of formal research studies. The chapters on facilitating diversity provide a theory, philosophy, and method for working with any task group.
Marvin Weisbord and Sandra Janoff offer specific guidance for Future Search sponsors, steering committees, participants, and facilitators and new ideas for sustaining action after the Future Search ends. They’ve added striking evidence of Future Search’s efficacy over time, examples of its economic benefits, guidelines for making Future Searches green, and much more. They include a wealth of resources—handouts, sample client workbooks, follow-up methods, and other practical tools.

If you want to do strategic planning, product innovation, quality improvement, organizational restructuring, mergers, or any other major change requiring stakeholder engagement, this book is your guide.

Genres: Business

288 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2010

Reviews

[Sanne Roemen · Rating 5 out of 5]

After reading it on Kindle I bought the paper version and reread it from cover to cover. This is a fundament for facilitating change.
Integrating the 'don't just do something, stand there!' mindset into a Large Group Intervention methodology. Based on dialogic principles. Ranges from the basic principles to a practical, day to day format with work- and planning sheets. In the final section they go into how this method relates to other methods like Appreciative Inquiry, Open Space, World Cafe and how they can be used in conjunction. Also with a rarely seen open mind they touch on different ways the Future Search methodology has been adapted. I love this one. I predict it's going to become a grimy, thumbed, wrinkly companion for life.

[Ryan Barretto · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a book with which you can help others create their own miracles.

The authors have been extremely generous in sharing their knowledge, much more than most others. It's a must read for those in the facilitation, community building world.

I will revisit this book more times than I initially thought when buying it.

[Austėja Žvaginytė]

Very practical book to read for all Future Search practitioners!