Hi everybody! I will also, as many of you have done, express my thanks for the many inspiring and wise conversations on the list. I open my Email every day, eagerly looking for your contributions. Now I would like to have a little feedback on my thoughts after a four day workshop on how to facilitate a Future Search Conference, it was the first time I´ve experienced this meeting form.
Firstly, I felt that personally this is not my cup of tea. It is much too structured and controlled. I agree with Harrison when he says why complicate things. I lacked joy and inspiration and it made me greatly appreciate the freedom of OS. But, you might have experiences from a real Future Search, the energy might be different there from a simulated workshop. Here we were people from all kinds of places and our theme was very wide How to create participation and new meeting forms in community work. So we really didn´t have a common focus, that we could gather around and also do something about. No natural work groups. I would be interested to hear your experiences. I also reflected on this procedure to have the whole system in the room all the time. I can see that it would be very unpractical to break out in small groups since the time for different tasks is quite short and you report every now and then. But.. I felt the difference in the group energy, that the attention is split between an individual in the group and the rest of the room. Is this feeling of being part of a whole group more important than creating intimacy and real listening in a breakout group? Is one way better than the other? I have of course thought of the idea to have the whole Open Space system in the same room too. Any thoughts? I realise that there might be situations where you need all this information about the past, the present and the the future and in the different aspects (global, local, personal) and the list making. But is it really necessary for the creation of a preferred future and future projects? What type of situations would call for a Future Search, instead of Open Space? Or would the choice more depend on the sponsors need for controlling a process? Best regards Agneta Falk