Future Search Conference Notes
Park City, UT - October 6-8, 1997
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Wildland
Fire Research Future Search Conference Notes Park City, UT - October 6-8, 1997 |
Appendix D - Future Search Conference Principles
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Principles [Back to Top]
------------------------------------1. An attempt is made to get the "whole system" into the same room. The whole system consists of stakeholders from inside and outside government fire research. Whereever they are from, all stakeholders should have a stake in the outcome of the Future Search Conference.
2. Stakeholders are asked to think globally but act locally.
3. Stakeholders, through participation in the conference, seek "common ground" -- issues that everyone agrees on. The only issues that move forward are issues that can be labeled "common ground."
4. The Future Search Conference is divided into smaller working groups. These groups are "self-managing" in that they come up with their own methods of time and conflict management.
5. Even though there are experts at the conference, no one person or group is seen or used as an expert.
6. A Future Search Conference is not a traditional problem-solving meeting. The goal of a Future Search Conference is to produce "ideal future scenarios" that stakeholders are willing to work toward in the future.
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Conference Structure [Back to Top]
------------------------------------1. At the Wildland Fire Research Future Search Conference, participants were asked to focus on their individual history and as a fire community. This history was recorded on a wall chart in the meeting room.
2. Fire Research stakeholders were asked to view the present. A large "mind map" with all the fire research trends on it was produced. The stakeholders were asked to vote on the most important issues.
3. The Future Search Conference facilitators asked the stakeholders to construct a list of "prouds" and "sorries"-- things they feel good about and things they feel sorry about in relation to the trends previously identified.
4. An ideal future scenario for fire research was developed and presented as a skit by each mixed stakeholder group.
5. From the ideal future scenarios, common themes were listed.
6. Action plans were developed from the list of common themes, but only if the fire research stakeholders were willing to individually commit to working on them.
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References [Back to Top]
------------------------------------Bunker, Barbara Benedict and Billie T. Alban. 1997. Large Group Interventions: Engaging the Whole System for Rapid Change. Jossey-Bass Publishers. San Francisco.
Weisbord, Marvin and Sandra Janov. 1995. Future Search: An Action Guide to Finding Common Ground for Organizations and Communitites. Berrett-Koehler, San Francisco.
"Certainly the most exciting and richly textured organizational event I have participated in recently are "Future Search Conferences ..." The richness of interpretations and the multi-layered complexity of the future scenarios that are created have convinced me of the powers of observation and perception that participation brings forth. In these conferences, wave functions collapse into all sorts of strange and powerful interpretations because the whole system is in the room, generating information, thinking about itself and what it wants to be."
-- Margaret Wheatley, Leadership and the New Science: Learning about Organizations from an Orderly Universe"To be a bureaucrat is to experience ourself as a victim. It takes strength and courage to acknowledge that the success and failure of our project, our function, our business, in fact our lives, is our own creation. . . . Having the courage to see the part of the problem that we have created, that is our rake we have stepped on, empowers us to take action to fix it."
-- Peter Block, The Empowered Manager: Positive Political Skills at Work"Don't get too prepared . . . . A lot of people who want to go into business want to know everything. They never do anything. My idea . . . is get out on the damn field and start kicking the ball . . . . All I had was the inspiration. I didn't know that much about soccer. I didn't know there were even two sizes of soccer balls . . . . So the next thing with inspiration is "get out and start doing something." The doing part of it is picking up the phone, calling a few friends, and saying, "Why don't you meet me over on Mercer Island and I've got an idea here. I really feel it." So when they come over, I pull out the soccer ball. They already have their crutches, and we start kicking it . . . . Then things start happening."
-- Don Bennett, businessman and first amputee to climb Mount Ranier, on the Founding of the Amputee Soccer League; from The Leadership Challenge
Title: RMRS-P-1:
Wildland Fire Research - Future Search Conference Notes: Appendix
D
Electronic Publish Date: December 16, 1998
Expires: Indefinite
Last Update: August
19, 2008