| Greetings!
Two weeks ago I was fortunate to help with a planning conference conducted by Marvin Weisbord and Sandra Janoff, the creators of the "Future Search" methodology. The client's goal was to improve the delivery of AIDS medications and treatment in Africa.
It was a privilege both to help on such an important issue and to spend time with Marvin and Sandra with whom I trained twice over the years. The conference vividly reminded me how effective Future Search's methods and philosophy really are.
These principles are the same that inspire much of our work at Business Advisors Network. Here are some of the powerful aspects.
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What is Future Search? |
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Future Search has a long track record of delivering solutions to previously intractable questions. It does so by bringing together all the stakeholders in one meeting even if the number of participants is large (between 60 and 80 persons.)
Future Search topics have ranged from corporate strategy to process reengineering, from tough community issues to peace processes in war-ravaged areas of the world. Future Search is particularly impressive in its capacity to unblock "hopeless" situations and to do it very quickly. Without going into details, I want to review two key ingredients of what makes Future Search work (to learn more, visit the site of Future Search): 1) Making time for the group to be together long enough for the conversation to deepen.
2) Following a framework that allows participants
- to discover common grounds instead of focusing on differences,
- to envision a future that transcends whatever the issues/problems of the past were,
- to define action steps around which participants are energized.
Even when skepticism and doubt exist at the beginning of a Future Search, people invariably make room for optimism and motivation at its conclusion.
During the typical 3 days of a Future Search, stakeholders discover new information, including how others think and feel about this information and how much in common all participants really have. For this learning to happen, two conditions are absolutely necessary:
- A listening environment: all opinions are valid; opposing views are acknowledged, but not debated.
- Participants engage in authentic communications.
Leaders have a key role in setting these conditions right at the beginning. They must also lead by example throughout the conference. A Future Search is structured to encourage authenticity. The most striking example of that is when each stakeholder group reports openly on what they are proud of having done about the issue at hand and what they are sorry for. This happens one day into the conference when people have gotten to know each other better. All participants get to witness every one acknowledging their own "mistakes." With that admission of fallibility, the level of trust in the room rises tremendously, so does the determination to find and work on new possibilities.
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| Holding the Vision |
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Future Search demonstrates how change can happen quickly by focusing on consensus and action for the future instead of settling grievances. It requires that leaders hold such vision and not be deterred by the two common hurdles of time and money.
Time: the idea of attending a 3-day meeting raises resistance in most. The objection is usually that a one-day retreat is already stretching the limits of the feasible. Businesses already suffer from too many meetings. But what contributes to the frequency of meetings is that most remain superficial because of the lack of focus, distracted participants or the absence of key stakeholders and decision-makers. (Also see Meetings That Count in our March newsletter.) Typically difficult issues get dragged around from one incomplete and inconclusive meeting to another. Eventually a considerable amount of time is spent on the topic; to say nothing of the time squandered working around the unresolved issues, in conflicting activities, or on unfocused unproductive work.
Money: the other point of resistance; a long meeting is invariably viewed as too expensive. But too expensive in relation to what? The cost of weeks (often months) of wasted energies is never tallied; neither is the overall opportunity cost of not having a clear direction for the company. Only the cost of a 3-day strategic event is easy to tally. And you then often hear the "killer" question "Is this really necessary?"
Most of the time, the answer is: Yes! Working on change is about the unknown. At the beginning you don't know what you don't know. The leader needs to trust that the process will deliver a break-through. And it will. It takes an inspired and determined leader to hold the vision that, whatever the conflicts and hurdles of the past, a new path to improved results is achievable quickly. | |
Engaging others in finding solutions is always the better path even in hard times. Yet when things are rough, opening up to others may not come so easy. In such situations, we help our clients with one-on-one off-the-record conversations when they can privately explore where they are stumped and eventually regain their balance and clarity of action. One phone call can be all it takes.
Sincerely,
Alain Bolea |
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When Business Leaders Struggle ... Personally |
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Business owners invest themselves completely in a vision of their business and the journey to build its future. Most of the time they have the know-how and grit to fend pretty well for themselves and bring their dream into reality. But when something happens that shakes the owner's confidence to take care of what needs to be dealt with, whether it is slumping revenues, needing to let people go, or handling a serious health issue, the same can-do business owners can find themselves incapable of responding quickly or effectively.
Bob Dunham, founder of the Institute for Generative Leadership, looked at what happens when leaders face scenarios that appear to drain them of power. What usually happens is that leaders, and not infrequently their companies, contract. They focus on the breakdown only, reverting to their own conditioned reactions to threat; that is stopping communications with others, working harder with more determination and believing that no one else knows what to do and that they have to figure it out on their own.
The real work, however, Dunham says, is to first face the fact that there's a breakdown, then engage in conversations and actions that enable leaders to regain their footing.
Overcoming a leadership breakdown takes several skills:
- Acknowledge to those who need to know that a breakdown has occurred.
- Request help from groups of people willing and able to provide support.
- Accept what has to be accepted about the situation.
- Design and take action for resolution.
The skill most likely to be missing? Involving others to support the leader to design and take the proper actions.
Dunham offers a series of questions to help leaders avoid the severe consequences of a lack of effective response to such breakdowns:
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Have you declared the breakdown?
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What led to this loss of power? Where can you locate or produce new power?
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Are you doing more of what hasn't worked?
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Are you calling on allies or building allies for your situation?
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Do you have committed listeners who can provide you feedback on your assumptions, strategies and capabilities?
Most leaders will at some point encounter a personal breakdown. The question is what happens next. Will they isolate themselves and do more of what has not worked or face the facts, ask for support, and move forward?
Scott Brumburgh
(From "Leadership, Power, and Care" by Bob Dunham, 2003 | |
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