Participation level:
- High (Stakeholders participate in decision)
Innovation level:
- High (Innovative)
Facilitator skill level, and other support required:
- High (Specialist skills)
- Medium (Computer & other expertise)
Can be used for:
- Engage community
- Develop community capacity
- Develop action plan
- Communicate an issue
- Large (> 12 people)
- Medium (2-12 people)
Search conferences seek future plans or visions that are practical and implementable for an organization, community or environment.
The search conference will identify specific actions which must be taken. Empowering the people responsible to make these changes allows search conferences to produce much more useful results than standard strategic planning methods http://www.ccnr.net/searchconf/search.htm.
- Develops creative and achievable strategies.
- Produces collaborative and participative approaches.
- Generates consensus.
- Develops shared values.
- Develops commitment to strategies formulated.
- Combines formulation and implementation.
- Integrates cultural, regional and/or value differences.
- Achieves completion of a task in two or three days (and sometimes evenings) that would take months if left to specialized analysts and experts. (http://www.buzzblick.com/search.htm)
- Focus is on learning, not teaching.
- Conflict and differences are acknowledged, but not dealt with.
- Equal status of participants is supported.
- Personal commitment and ownership are emphasized.
- Self-managing teams are used.
- Shared meaning is developed.
- Can be logistically challenging.
- Can be time consuming (2-3 days).
Organizing Search Conference
How many people to organize?
Time required:
- Long (> 6 months)
- Medium (6 weeks-6 months)
Cost:
- High (> AUD$10,000)
- Medium (AUD$1,000-AUD$10,000)
Search conferences have three broad stages: pre-planning; the conference; and implementation.
Pre-planning
- First Planning Session: (6-8 hours) Determine whether a Search Conference will meet your needs. If it will, decide on the conference themes and purpose, arrange a venue and draw up an invitation list.
- Secure keynote speakers. Their presence should break the ice and set the flavour of the event, but not dominate it.
- Second Planning Session: (3-4 hours) This serves as a progress 'check-in' and a time to redirect efforts if necessary. Questions are answered and all conference plans are finalized. It is best to hold this session with the facilitator present, however, when travel costs are a major concern it is possible to substitute an extensive telephone conference call between the planning group and the facilitator.
- The Search Conference: (One full day or more). The participants will share information, discuss issues, and complete a series of small and large group tasks, which culminate in a strategic goal setting and action planning session. These tasks should encompass the following:
- Analyze the environment (background, possible future, what is working/not working)
- Analyze the'SYSTEM', what routines, practices, restrictions, rules and structures influence the present known community issues, the community itself and its environment.
- Plan how our system can best flourish, within our environment. (This should develop realistic action plans engendered through new understandings.)
- Follow-up Session(s): This is a time to celebrate individual and group successes. Evaluate the ultimate success of the conference by how easily the action plans can be implemented. Progress is assessed and plans are modified as needed.
- People are give roles and deadlines set.
- The action plans are put into practice.
References
Description
A search conference is a large-group task-oriented 'conversation' (Emery & Purser 1996)
Search conferences emphasize face-to-face interaction among stakeholders to create a new community. The process of meeting and discussion engenders new ideas. The venue and seating plan of the conference are designed to engender conversation and good relationship building.
Search conferences have been used to help organizations to merge when they have differing visions and to bring together trade experts to develop curricula based on their tradecraft and skills. In a community setting, search conferences have allowed 'ordinary' citizens to use their local knowledge in developing plans for economically depressed regions.
Search conferences are held over one or more full days, during which participants explore ambiguity and difference in the interests of forwarding research and action.
This page originally copied with permission from the Citizens Science Toolbox
[Search Conference][http://www.openingspace.net/facilitation_facilitationMethods13.shtml] - a chart from Peggy Holman and Tom Devane's //The Change Handbook: Group Methods for Shaping the Future//, Reprinted with permission of the publisher. Copyright *1999 by Peggy Holman and Tom Devane Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc., San Francisco, CA, USA. Adapted to online form by Lisa Heft.
