• This new edition includes a new preface and an entirely new chapter on facilitating future searches and is updated throughout
• The first book to provide step-by-step guidelines for planning and running future search conferences, now fully revised and expanded with new information and many additional real-world examples
• Presents a cutting-edge, whole-systems improvement technology with a proven successful track record on every continent

SINCE ITS PUBLICATION in 1995, Future Search has gone around the world. Indeed, so many people now use the basic principles to do such a wide variety of tasks, and so much has been learned in the past several years, it became imperative to bring Future Search up to date. In this new edition, Marvin Weisbord and Sandra Janoff thoroughly update, refine, and expand their step-by-step handbook to the future search process. They offer proven principles and updated techniques based on extensive practice in the field. They include a new chapter with trade secrets on group dynamics and effective facilitation philosophy and methods, all essential for running a successful future search-and widely applicable to all interactive meetings.

What is a "future search?" In short, it is a meeting that uniquely enables people to take down the walls that keep them apart. Future Search details this highly successful way for organizations and communities of all types to apply global thinking and democratic values to achieve rapid, whole-systems improvement.

In this widely successful approach, diverse stakeholders in an organization, community, or issue come together for two or three days to explore their shared past, present, and future in a global context. What makes this meeting different from other look-alikes are the transformative underlying principles: Get the whole system in the room; think globally (the "whole elephant") before acting locally; focus on the future and common ground; self-manage tasks and take responsibility for action.

The practical uses of this approach are unlimited. Future searches have resulted in stakeholders becoming better able to understand and take responsibility for their joint situation. Others have provided a way to create a shared vision and action agenda for the future while fully facing the past and present. If your goal is a values-based umbrella for action across lines of culture, class, race, ethnicity, status and educational background, future search is for you.

Weisbord and Janoff provide guidance for every step of the way, from a detailed discussion of conditions for success to setting up rooms and facilitating the conference. In addition, they include a wealth of resources such as handouts, sample client workbooks, follow-up reports, and other practical tools. And in a new chapter, the authors place special emphasis on their underlying philosophy and theory, showing how these translate into simple, effective facilitator actions that most people can learn.

For more information about Future Search, please visit www.futuresearch.net.