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Facilitation

Future Search (Weisbord & Janoff)

Future Search is a large-group planning meeting in which a whole system of stakeholders, typically 60-80 people, works through past, present and future to find common ground and plan action together. It was developed by Marvin Weisbord and Sandra Janoff and is used worldwide by the Future Search Network.

5 phasesFacilitation
When to Use This Framework

When a few voices dominate or quieter people don't contribute

Your group discussions aren't balanced, you need better ways to include everyone, or conversations go in circles.

When an issue cuts across organisations or communities and no single party can act alone, and the key stakeholders are willing to spend several days together.

The 5 Steps
Follow this sequence to apply Future Search (Weisbord & Janoff)
1

Past

Mixed groups build timelines of key events in the world, in their own lives and in the history of the topic, then share what the patterns mean.

2

Present

The whole group maps trends affecting the issue. Stakeholder groups then say what they are doing now, what they want to do, and what they are proud of and sorry about.

3

Future

Mixed groups imagine a preferred future as if it has already happened, describing what exists and which barriers they overcame.

4

Common ground

The whole group identifies the themes everyone can support, treating unresolved conflicts as information rather than action items.

5

Action planning

Participants commit to concrete actions and take personal responsibility for them. A review meeting 6-12 months later checks progress.

What You'll Achieve

Ensures every voice is heard and the group's collective intelligence is unlocked.

Use it as the design for a whole 2.5-3 day event: five half-day sessions in a fixed order, with stakeholder and mixed groups alternating. Invest heavily in inviting the right mix of people before the event.

Practical Tips
How to get the most out of this framework
  • 1
    Use structured turn-taking to balance voices
  • 2
    Start with individual reflection before group discussion
  • 3
    Create safe spaces for minority opinions
  • 4
    Summarize and synthesize regularly
Best For
  • Community and regional planning
  • Cross-organisation or multi-stakeholder strategy
  • Organisational change involving many functions
  • Groups of roughly 40-80 people
Key Principles
  • Get the whole system in the room
  • Explore the whole context before acting on part of it
  • Focus on common ground and the future, not on problems and conflicts
  • People are responsible for their own participation and action
Watch Out For
  • Recruitment of the right stakeholders is the hardest and most important part.
  • Requires a long, uninterrupted time commitment that many organisations find hard to secure.
  • Deliberately does not resolve conflicts in the room, which can frustrate participants who want them settled.
Related Frameworks
Other Facilitation frameworks you might find useful
Belbin Team RolesThe Belbin Team Roles framework identifies nine distinct behavioral clusters that contribute to effective team performance. By understanding these roles, facilitators can build balanced teams, leverage individual strengths, and mitigate potential weaknesses to enhance collaboration and achieve team objectives.
Liberating StructuresA repertoire of more than 30 simple interaction patterns, such as 1-2-4-All, Troika Consulting and 15% Solutions, that replace presentations and open discussion with structured formats where everyone contributes. Each structure is specified by five design elements: invitation, space and materials, distribution of participation, group configuration, and steps and timing.
Six Thinking HatsEdward de Bono's method of 'parallel thinking' in which a whole group adopts the same mode of thinking at the same time, signalled by six coloured hats: facts, feelings, caution, benefits, creativity and process. It reduces adversarial debate because everyone looks at the issue from the same angle before switching.