Transcript FUTURE SEARCH A LEARNING WEBINAR

FUTURE SEARCH
TEN PRINCIPLES for Changing the
World One Meeting at a Time
Sponsored by: Marv Weisbord and Sandra Janoff,
Co-Directors, Future Search Network
Webinar Agenda
 Introductions
 Ten Principles
 Questions &Answers
Sandra Janoff, Ph.D.,
and Marvin Weisbord
have led hundreds of
meetings and trained
more than 4000 people
worldwide to use their
principles. They codirect Future Search
Network (FSN), an
international non-profit
that pioneered the
"whole system in the
room" for effective
planning. FSN received
the “Outstanding
Global Work Award”
from the OD Network.
Marv and Sandra
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Principle #1 - Get the Whole System
in the Room
 KEY: People with Authority, Resources, Expertise, Information, and Need in
the same room. Make it hard to avoid responsibility.
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Principle #2 - Control What You
Can, Let Go What You Can’t
 Control: Purposes, Agenda, Air Time, Room, Who Attends, Group Size
 Let Go: Participant Attitudes, Behavior, Motivation & Commitment
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Principle #3 - Explore The Whole
Elephant

Look at all aspects of a situation before acting on any part.
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Principle #4- Find Common
Ground
 Treat problems and conflicts as information, not action items, Resolution not
needed to find common ground.
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Principle #5 - Let People Be
Responsible
 No need to diagnose group norms
 Or “pysch out” motives.
 Free yourself from “hidden agendas,”
 “Resistance,” and “Defensiveness”
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Principle #6 - Master the Art
of Subgrouping
 A little-known structural method

to keep groups on task
 Learn to tell functional
 from stereotypical subgroups
 Use functional subgroups to head
off unproductive conflict.
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Managing Yourself
[Four Leadership Principles]
 Make Friends With Anxiety
 Get Used to Projections
 Be A Dependable Authority
 Learn to Say No (If You Want Yes To Mean
Something)
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Principle #7 - Make Friends with
Anxiety
 Work with “blocked excitement
 Contain anxiety in yourself and in a group
 Turn anxiety to creative energy
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Principle #8 - Get Used to
Projections
 Accept “projections,” loved and hated parts you see reflected in others.
 Awareness of how you project makes it easier to work with diverse people

Learn how to avoid “taking it personally”
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Principle #9 - Be a Dependable
Authority
 Accept your authority without being authoritarian
 Learn to accept authority projections on you
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
Principle #10 - Learn to Say No If
You Want Yes to Mean
Something
 Watch out for requests for “outcomes” and
 “Deliverables under impossible conditions
 Stick to your experience and your boundaries
 Offer alternatives
No
NO
NO! How about...
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Resources
 http://www.futuresearch.net
 See web site for public workshops in 2012.
 Weisbord, Marvin & Sandra Janoff. Don’t Just Do Something, Stand There!
 Ten Principles for Leading Meetings That Matter, San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler,
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2007.
Janoff, Sandra & Marvin Weisbord. “Three Perspectives on Future Search: Meeting
Design, Theory of Facilitating, Global Change Strategy.” in Scandinavian Journal of
Organizational Psychology, Volume 13, 2003.
Weisbord, Marvin & Sandra Janoff. Future Search: Getting the Whole System in the
Room for Vision, Commitment, and Action. 3rd Edition. San Francisco: BerrettKoehler, 2010.
Weisbord, Marvin & Sandra Janoff. “Faster, Shorter, Cheaper May be Simple; It’s
Never Easy.” The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, Vol. 41, No. 1, 70-82, 2005.
Weisbord, Marvin. Productive Workplaces: Dignity, Meaning and Community in the
21st Century. 3rd Edition. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass/Wiley, 2012.
Comments? Questions?