Discovering Common Ground How Future Search Conferences Bring People Together to Achieve Breakthrough Innovation, Empowerment, Shared Vision and Collaborative Action

Discovering Common Ground brings together cases from around the world of a breakthrough new approach to strategic planning, empowerment, consensus building and whole systems improvement. In this approach - called a "future search conference" - people with diverse interests who have a stake in an organisation or issue come together for 2 or 3 days to explore their mutual past, present, and future in a global context, seeking common ground to invent ideal futures and generate creative strategies.

Marvin Weisbord consulted with business firms, medical schools, and hospitals from 1969 to 1992. He was a partner in the consulting firm Block Petrella Weisbord for 20 years and is a fellow of the World Academy of Productivity Science. Productive Workplaces (2012), now in its third edition, is considered a classic. He also authored Organizational Diagnosis (1978) and Discovering Common Ground (1992). He is co-director, along with Sandra Janoff, of Future Search Network (formerly SearchNet), an international non-profit dedicated to community service, colleagueship, and learning.