Search Conferencing is a participative planning event that enables a large group to collectively create a plan that the members themselves will implement. They search for the most desirable future of a system.

Four Design Principles

• Getting the “whole system” in the room (or a representational cross section)
• Exploring the same global context as a backdrop for local action.
• Focusing on the future and common ground rather than conflicts and problems.
• Inviting self-management and personal responsibility for action during and after the conference.

Four Assumptions about People

• People are purposeful with the capacity to select and produce desirable outcomes
• People accept responsibility for a task that is meaningful to them
• People are ideal seeking under the appropriate conditions
• Given the above, people grow and contribute to the well-being of their system and this is transferable to others

What will happen?

The central point is a workshop - preferably off-site that involves meticulous pre conference planning, followed by ongoing learning and implementation. This participative, highly interaction methodology is also known as Future Search.

Three Phases of the Search Conference

Impact of Search Conferencing

“The desirable future for the world as it as been envisioned by people from hundreds of Search Conferences expresses a set of common ideals. The world people wish to bring into being is a world in which they can

• work together
• be joyful in their daily lives
• make wise decisions

Their desirable future always includes components that state:

• we all belong to the same human race
• we live together in peace
• we respect our differences
• we co-operate to better our world
• we care for the thing that most binds us, our physical home, the planet earth