Discovering Common Ground.

In 1960, a jet-aircraft company in England was forcibly merged with a piston-engine company by the British government. The two corporate cultures were completely dissimilar, and the new company leaders were worried about squabbling and in-fighting between the management of the two old companies.

Since 1960, the future-search-conference methodology has been developed and made extremely useful in a variety of strategic contexts. This new book offers a comprehensive guide to this methodology, which provides participants a way to reach common ground on important issues.

The future-search conference has been used in a wide variety of situations in the public, private, and independent sectors and is especially effective in bringing together people from different backgrounds and outlooks. Examples of successful search conferences include one to outline the future of nature tourism in the Windward Islands, one for strategic planning in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and one for designing a conservation strategy for Pakistan.

The meetings involve strategically designed but free-form dialogues in which all participants play a role and become stakeholders. At the outset, participants are urged to share their visions of global history and global futures. They then pursue their visions of their country or region in the global context, look at the current problem or situation in that context, and examine their personal stake in the situation.

Certain levels of dialogue and interaction must be reached and shared before the discussion can move on to different and more-involved subjects. The key element is building personal interaction and trust. Belief in a common purpose among all the participants can overcome initial differences of opinion. The critical outcome of the conference is the design of an action plan for the future of the organization, to be implemented by the stakeholders.

The book offers chapters on how to organize and lead the conferences, case studies on the usefulness of the methodology, and lessons from previous uses that outline the most appropriate contexts for the conferences' maximum usefulness. Discovering Common Ground is a useful tool not only for conference planners, but also those interested in leadership, management, and conflict resolution.