A Search Conference's goal is to produce an adaptive relationship between your organization and it's uncertain, changing environment.

It's designed to identify a desired endpoint and increase the effectiveness of strategic planning by giving those actually affected by change more control over their purposes and directions. A Search Conference is a structured participatory process where groups of concerned and active individuals scan through turbulent environments for: 1. A desired outcome for themselves and 2. Generate a strategy for achieving it. The process emphasizes collaborative, experiential learning and community planning - 'jigsaw' puzzle solving. This is achieved through the interaction of the participants who, drawn from a relevant domain, identify, evaluate, and adapt to trends in their environment. The process allows for the creation of shared visions and initiates the deployment of those visions by creating self-managing teams responsible for working the specifics of how to make the plan happen. How does it work? A Search Conference's goal is to produce an adaptive relationship between your organization and it's uncertain, changing environment. It is designed to identify a desired endpoint and increase the effectiveness of strategic planning by giving the people - those actually affected by change - more control over their long term purposes and directions. In a search twenty to fifty people puzzle through confusion, uncertainty and mixed signals from the environment to identify a set of key business drivers/strategic initiatives. Self selected implementation teams form around each strategic initiative (three to seven in total) and plan how they will overcome obstacles and involve other organization members to achieve the plan. Why does a Search Conference work? The Search Conference is designed for planning in rapidly changing environments. A search operates on a specific set of empowering assumptions. In a search people act as if...