Two unique, interactive workshops for business, non-profit, public sector and community leaders seeking to transcend conflicts and gain commitment for making and implementing strategic plans.

This is a rare opportunity to participate in Future Search workshops in Australia led by Sandra Janoff and Marvin Weisbord, world authorities on community development and founders of Future Search Network.

Join thousands of leaders worldwide adopting Future Search principles to achieve new levels of cooperation among diverse people.

Future Search is a planning meeting that enables a system to transform its capability for action very quickly. The meeting brings together 60-70 invited participants who have a stake in the future of an organisation or community. They engage in continual dialogue during which they explore their past, present and desired future. Only after agreeing on common ground do they make concrete action plans.

Future Search is purposeful, requires no expert speakers, and encourages dialogue and learning as a catalyst for action.

People build a community based on a motivating goal and a shared appreciation of the “whole elephant”. Moreover, they often devise new forms of cooperation that persist for months or years.

Broad Applications

Communities and organisations use Future Search to:

• Create a shared vision and practical action plans among diverse parties;
• Build commitment to implement a vision or strategy that already exists;
• Initiate rapid action on complex issues where no shared vision or coordination exists.

People have applied Future Search in many cultures and areas of society. Examples include:

• affordable housing in Santa Cruz, CA;
• economic development among the Inuit peoples of North America;
• welfare reform in Ramsey County, MN;
• health care in Auckland, NZ;
• sustainable communities in England;
• multi-level business planning and change in dozens of international corporate settings;
• media cooperation in Sweden;
• strengthening democratic practices in southern Africa; and
• educational reform across the United States.

The method is universally applicable and relatively culture-free, so consistent positive results are seen in a great diversity of situations.

Since 1991, over 3,000 people – from Asia, Australia, Canada, the Caribbean, Europe, India, Africa, South America and the United States – have participated in Future Search training. Hundreds have gone on to stimulate positive social, technological and economic cooperation around the globe.

These learning workshops give you the tools, insights, and support needed to manage successful future searches.

Workshop Leaders:

Marvin Weisbord and Sandra Janoff, PhD, are co-directors of Future Search Network, an international voluntary, non-profit association dedicated to community service, colleagueship, and learning. They have run future searches for business firms, NGO’s and communities in many of the world’s cultures and have taught Future Search to more than 3000 people.

Sandra Janoff, psychologist, consults to businesses and non-profits and runs workshops on systems-oriented group dynamics. Marvin Weisbord, internationally known consultant, is author of Organisational Diagnosis (1978), Productive Workplaces (1987), Discovering Common Ground (1992), and Productive Workplaces Revisited (2004).

They are co-authors of FUTURE SEARCH: An action Guide to Finding Common Ground in Organisations and Communities (Berrett-Koehler, 2nd Edition, 2000).

About Future Search Network:

History: Future Search Network started in 1993 when 120 practitioners agreed to offer pro bono services to non-profit agencies in exchange for an opportunity to practice what was then a novel planning method. FSN members today can be found on six continents, furthering cooperative global change through principle-based methods and a philosophy of “hands-off” facilitation.

Mission: FSN is dedicated to a more cooperative, healthful and sustainable world. It offers Future Searches and training in any culture and any language for whatever people can afford and conducts ongoing research into its own processes.

Impact: FSN works on social, technological and economic issues in the arts, business, community, congregations, education, environment, health care, and other sectors. Its

“ripple” research project documents constructive work that continues for years following a Future Search.

Visit the Future Search Network website:

See current news, photographs, our list of sponsors and descriptions of FSN work in many countries. You can also join FSN and register for workshops on the website:

www.futuresearch.net