Future Search

This is an extensively revised and expanded edition of the classic, definitive, bestselling book on Future Search, which is one of most powerful methods for changing and improving all types of organizations and communities. If you want to do strategic planning, product innovation, quality improvement, organizational restructuring, or any other major change in a participative, whole system way, this book is your guide.

This text explores a new way for organizations and communities to apply global thinking and democratic values to achieve rapid whole systems improvement.

When the term ''future search'' appeared in Productive Workplaces (Weisbord, 1987), so many people sparked to it that we decided, after trying fancier names like ''strategic futures conference, '' to retain it. The response to the concept led to Discovering Common Ground (Weisbord et al, 1992), a work that pulled together principles and practices for value-based action planning. The earlier book presented a variety of high participation models and cases, most based on the Emery/Trist Search Conference, including early experiments with future search. In this book we focus on our evolving future search model. Here we go deeply into our sources and rationale, our experiments with tasks and techniques, and examples of how we and many colleagues have employed this model and its variations. We also provide a philosophical rationale for our design and facilitation practices

Future Search is among the best-established and most effective methods for enabling people to make and implement ambitious plans. It has been used to redesign IKEA's product pipeline in Sweden, develop an integrated economic development plan in Northern Ireland, and demobilize child soldiers in Southern Sudan. Written by the originators, this book is the most up-to-date account of this powerful change method. This third edition is completely revised, reorganized, and updated with nine new chapters. It contains new cases and examples, advice on combining Future Search with other methods, and a summary of formal research studies. The chapters on facilitating diversity provide a theory, philosophy, and method for working with any task group. Marvin Weisbord and Sandra Janoff offer specific guidance for Future Search sponsors, steering committees, participants, and facilitators and new ideas for sustaining action after the Future Search ends. They've added striking evidence of Future Search's efficacy over time, examples of its economic benefits, guidelines for making Future Searches green, and much more. They include a wealth of resources--handouts, sample client workbooks, follow-up methods, and other practical tools. If you want to do strategic planning, product innovation, quality improvement, organizational restructuring, mergers, or any other major change requiring stakeholder engagement, this book is your guide.

Beginning with the achievements of Mahatma Gandhi, and following the legacy of nonviolence through the struggles against Nazism in Europe, racism in America, oppression in China and Latin America, and ethnic conflicts in Africa and Bosnia, Michael Nagler unveils a hidden history. Nonviolence, he proposes, has proven its power against arms and social injustice wherever it has been correctly understood and applied. Nagler's approach is not only historical but also spiritual, drawing on the experience of Gandhi and other activists and teachers. Individual chapters include A Way Out of Hell, The Sweet Sound of Order, and A Clear Picture of Peace. The last chapter includes a five-point blueprint for change and "study circle" guide. The foreword by Arun Gandhi, the grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, is new to this edition.

This is H. G. Wells' 1906 work, “The Future in America”. Within it, he explores America's history and its relation to the future. Wells argues that America has evolved from a society that requires individual self-sufficiency into something new, and that what worked – and was indeed necessary – in the past may not be practical in the future. A fascinating insight into America's past, present, and possible future, “The Future in America” is highly recommended for fans and collectors of Wells' work. Contents include: “The Prophetic Habit Of Mind”, “Material Progress”, “New York”, “Growth Invincible”, “The Economic Process”, “Some Aspects Of American Wealth”, “Certain Workers”, “Corruption”, “The Immigrant”, “State-Blindness”, “Two Studies In Disappointment”, “The Tragedy Of Color”, “The Mind Of A Modern State”, et cetera. Herbert George Wells (1866 – 1946) was a prolific English writer who wrote in a variety of genres, including the novel, politics, history, and social commentary. Today, he is perhaps best remembered for his contributions to the science fiction genre thanks to such novels as “The Time Machine” (1895), “The Invisible Man” (1897), and “The War of the Worlds” (1898). "The Father of Science Fiction" was also a staunch socialist, and his later works are increasingly political and didactic. Many vintage books such as this are becoming increasingly scarce and expensive. We are republishing this book now in an affordable, modern, high-quality edition complete with a specially commissioned new biography of the author.

"Uncertain Path is a must read for wilderness and parks lovers who also know that climate change must be addressed if we are to be good stewards of our natural heritage. Bill Tweed is leading us down the right trail just in time." —Carl Pope, Chairman, Sierra Club "Author and naturalist Bill Tweed, like Muir, assumed that large, wild parks and wilderness areas could protect themselves, if we just let nature run its course. But on a hike along the John Muir Trail Tweed comes to the realization that, 'Natural' processes cannot lead reliably to 'natural' results in a world where climate change, global population, and habitat fragmentation have changed the operating rules...' It is a vital lesson we must all learn and act on—quickly and decisively—if we want to pass on a wild heritage to future generations."—Bruce Hamilton, Deputy Executive Director, Sierra Club “Bill Tweed has that rare combination of deep historical knowledge and even deeper passion for the national parks. He displays them both in Uncertain Path, a journey through the High Sierra that looks at the past and potential future of these American treasures. I can’t think of a better trail guide.”—Dayton Duncan, author of The National Parks: America’s Best Idea "This is history from the inside, intimate and provocative, growing from both the trail and from forty years of living with the Sierra Nevada. Younger generations are redefining the value of national parks just as global climate change transforms the very ecosystems that parks preserve. Tempered by managing parks and wilderness and people, Bill Tweed measures these sweeping changes with a clear eye. With deep concern and courage, he offers a sober vision of how to manage our national parks in the 21st century."—Stephen Trimble, author of Bargaining for Eden: The Fight for the Last Open Spaces in America "After nearly four decades as a park ranger revealing the secrets of nature to the visiting public, Bill Tweed took a 240-mile walk through the Sierra Nevada and took us along. Nothing escapes his loving attention, and like John Muir, Tweed sees each thing as connected to everything else, drawing rich conclusions about the future of the national parks. By all means, don't miss this trip."—Jordan Fisher Smith, author of Nature Noir "Bill Tweed's Uncertain Path is an invitation to the high country of the Sierra Nevada and also public land issues and philosophy. It's a wise and challenging exercise with a grand broad view."—Gary Snyder, author of The Practice of the Wild: Essays