A short video which says a great deal in only a few minutes about Future Search and getting the whole system in the room.
Watch it here
More information about Future Search - see my other blog entry - which has further links on it too. Click here
Whole system working is:
- Easily done
- Efficient and VFM - 2 facilitators can handle a group of 60, 100, 300 and more
- Effective in building resilient, connected & strategic communities or practitioners and clients / taxpayers / citizens
- Able to produce 'stractegies' (centred on action & results) rather than 'strutegies' (that look pretty on the glossy page - but that is all)
- Able to cut out endless carousels of linear consultation...
- Enlivening and empowering
Just get everyone together in a room for 1/2 day or more to:
- Review a service / project
- Plan a way forward
- Redesign or rethink a process or a service
- Write a new manual
- Sort our the requirements on a new system
- Tackle a wicked problem
- Etc
Original blog post here:
Hi Sheila - Yes - I had heard about that Future Search - indeed I blogged a link to it a while back - it is in the post linked above, as it happens. I agree with your points that FS (and other whole system approaches) are very able to nurture relationships that means that new things can happen to old issues. Thanks for your comments.
ReplyDeleteThis reminds me of a 'workshop' we ran a couple of years ago now, as part of the transfer of on-street parking enforcement from the Police to the Council - no specific 'approach' was used, but essentially we tried to ensure that every possible 'angle' for the new system was represented in the room (although we did forget the Police, which seems such an obvious ommission now!!)The approach was meant to bring people together to develop an understanding of things like the relationship between good lineage & signage (i.e. their legal standing and physical maintenance) and successful enforcement (i.e. parking notices that wouldn't fail if they were challenged); how good maintenance related to the management of works orders and payment, etc. (It didn't go as far as matching lineage & signage provision to public demand for enforcement, but some of what occurred during the day did 'rub off' in this area.)It went VERY well - by the end the right people were desperate to sit down together and do the right things to make the service a success - people who before had seen their activities as pretty much unrelated. Only one person in the room struggled, as they 'couldn't see what any of this has got to do with issuing parking tickets' - this was the IT rep, whom I'm not sure 'got it' even at the end!Note: By not including the Police, we missed the bits of the system re on-street 'enforcement' that wern't transferring, such as obstruction, etc, which became apparent quite quickly once the transfer occurred - you can't win em all!
ReplyDeleteAngelaThat is a great story - thank you for sharing it. I have been referring to 'hub & spoke' methods of planning projects / change as opposed to 'integrated mesh' methods. You probably get my drift. Having a small team in the middle whose job it is to consult with various stakeholders around the spokes of wheel - is not nearly as effective as bringing everyone together in a 'mesh' of face to face conversations - where everyone begins to see the whole picture from different angles. Your story seems like a perfect example of the power of a mesh method.
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