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The Netherlands, march 8, 2004
Annemieke Stoppelenburg & Mario Verweijen
A short impression of a week's stay
From February 15th till 21st Marvin Weisbord and Sandra Janoff stayed
in the Netherlands. The invitation to come over came from
FS-procesbegeleiding, a new small firm established with the sole
purpose to explore and promote Future Search in the Netherlands and to
perform future searches regarding all kinds of possible issues.
In order to give the Dutch network a swift start, they invited Marvin
an Sandra. In this week two major events were scheduled: On Tuesday
17th a "lecture" was organized in cooperation with a top 5 Dutch
consultancy firm. Marvin and Sandra spoke of past, present and future
of Future Search, both the methodology and the (international) network.
The meeting was attended by some 40 people: consultants, managers and
policymakers.
First Marvin put the theoretical basis in a historical setting,
going back to the forties, the time Lewin and Lippit did their research
on democratic and autocratic forms of leadership. It appeared that
democratic managed teams performed better than both autocratic lead
teams and those teams that were managed according to the "laissez
faire" principle.
Marvin and Sandra explained the 4 basic principles of a Future
Search (all in the room, explore the whole, common ground and
self-management).
The lecture was illustrated with a great number of vivid descriptions
of self-experienced cases. Two really eloquent people showed us the
real power of storytelling. Our favorite one-liners: "I used to
understand organizations without having any understanding of
communities, now I understand communities and don’t understand
organizations anymore." And "Sometimes something works, nothing
never works."
To us this showed a deep shift in mind-set, and a great talent for proportion.
After this 3 hour "lecture" Marvin and Sandra went to Woudschoten, a
beautifully located conference center in Zeist. There the
learning workshop was to be experienced.
It appeared that the learning workshop is actually a simulation of a
real Future Search, accept differences in time lines. For
starting up, all 23 participants were asked to tell what expectations
they brought with them, what specific things they would like to learn
or discover. Marvin and Sandra just gave a brief reply: "we have
found out that Future Search is learnable. The real big question is
whether it is teachable". At that specific time, we didn’t know the
answer. Now we can say: 'yes, the principles and process are
teachable". But, it is like training for your drivers license: only the
actual doing will show whether or not one has grasped and internalized
all things learned.
Theoretical and practical background
As quit a few consultants were participating in this workshop, Marvin
and Sandra paid special attention to the theoretical and practical
background of future search. We were guided through the work of
Lewin, Lippit, McGreggor, Schindler-Rainman, Bion, Trist, Emery and
Asch in a rollercoaster speed.
Learning
Marvin and Sandra paid some attention to the process of
learning. Every person has his own way and his on speed of learning. In
a group, people will learn different things from the same origin. "We
are all going to the same different meeting", as Marvin put it.
From a facilitator point of view, it was really remarkable that Marvin
and Sandra did not intervene in the process of the group.
We learned and experienced that a group is very capable of making the
decisions that are necessary: "the facilitator is working hard doing
nothing" in order to keep the group whole. Feelings, emotions are
there, let them be, as long as they don't overwhelm a participant. That
is one of the main tasks for the facilitators in keeping the group
whole.
A group, e.g. a well selected group, has all resources needed to make a
grand design of the future. There is knowledge, creativity,
interaction. The only thing the group hasn't got is time. "Time is the
only resource". Another main task for the facilitators is keeping track
of time. "Keeping the group whole in the time available". That is what
we have learned.
Middletown
We experienced being in a Future Search. A case was selected:
Middletown, a city with a great plan for redesigning the centre of the
city. The mall, the train station, the trade fair, the public, the
local government, all were involved in this redesign.
Playing a role with not all the information available, it still was an
experience to all of us. True emotions were felt, resistance found it’s
place while time, the only resource, was cut just a little bit more
then in a real Future Search. Common ground was found, the group
was whole, an action plan was made, it really was some experience being
there.
A fun part: cultural differences
From the beginning Marvin and Sandra told us that Future Search can be
used through different cultures. The experience we had, proved them
right. Nevertheless, we had our bit of fun, because of the
cultural differences between two Americans and an room full of
Dutchies. Every time someone gave a short presentation,
Marvin and Sandra started clapping. That is not the way we are used to
show our appreciation, so we were amazed and amused. During
the workshop, Marvin and Sandra adapted and stopped clapping
themselves, while the Dutch adapted the other way around and started
clapping
Some reactions of the participants
"It was a great workshop and I was
impressed by the tutors. I have already informed the network for urban
innovation about this method. I expect that a Future Search with all
parties involved could make a miracle happen working on the
revitalization of the old neighbourhoods."
"We had a meeting trying to find out
what ways we can use Future Search in our local government, perhaps
developing our policy on education, or setting up a schedule for
city-oriented activities."
"the process of Future Search is
great! By using the common history and searching for the common ground
in stead of looking for the differences as we are used to do an future
search has dynamics other working conferences lack".
 Network Activities
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