Have you ever felt that change
management and organisation development initiatives take
a long time and may face resistance in the
implementation stage? Then you should meet Marvin
Weisbord and Sandra Janoff and see how they manage
change faster and easier. I had the opportunity to meet
and spend some time with them last year and undergo
training with them last month.
Marvin, now 76, could not hide his smile when he
mentioned that it is easy to create an environment that
has a positive influence on human behaviour than trying
to change human behaviour. Marvin and Sandra were
teaching ‘Future Search’, a large group planning
methodology, to a group of organisation development
consultants in Philadelphia last month.
‘A future search’ is a large group planning meeting that
brings a ‘whole system’ into the room to work on a task-focussed
agenda. In a future search, people have a chance to take
ownership of their past, present and future, confirm
their mutual values, and commit to action plans grounded
in reality.”
When I first met Marvin and Sandra last year, I was
looking for a tool that helps diverse stakeholders to
come together and find common ground for future action.
I had realised the importance of looking at
organisations as complex living systems and how
inter-dependent are the different stakeholders in the
system.
But most of the organisation development and training
was still focussed on working with specific target
groups like the sales, marketing and top management
teams, etc.
Marvin and Sandra insist on a “whole system” in the room
for three days. This means 30-64 diverse stakeholders —
a cross-section of people concerned with the activities
of the organisation or community undertaking the search.
People with resources, expertise, formal authority and
need meet for 16 hours spread across three days. People
explore their past, present and desired future. Through
dialogue they discover their common ground and then they
create action plans.
In case you are planning an intervention on “how to
create exceptional customer care”, the first thought
that may come into your mind may be on training staff on
customer care. But then you have done this already. In
fact, you have done this many times in the past. Have
you got the desired results? Now what is the alternative
that could get you the desired results faster?
• Get the “whole system” in the room. Invite a
significant cross-section of all parties with a stake in
the outcome.
• Explore the “whole elephant” before seeking to fix any
part. Get everyone talking about the same world. Think
globally, act locally.
• Put common ground and future focus in the front while
treating problems and conflicts as information, not
action items.
• Encourage self-management and responsibility for
action by participants before, during, and after the
future search.
Future Search facilitators believe:
• Every person and group is doing the best they can with
what they have every minute of every day.
• People do only what they are ready, willing and able
to do.
• People need not change their own minds or anyone
else’s for a group to discover its common ground and
potential for action.
Written by Santhosh Babu
Published in The Financial Express: Sunday, August 27,
2006.
