Search
A participative community planning
process 1by Bob Dick, with ideas contributed by Frank
Denham, Robyn Cross and Eve Robinson
This is a resource file which supports the regular public program "areol" (action research and evaluation on line) offered twice a year beginning in mid-February and mid-July. For details email Bob Dick bdick@scu.edu.au or bd@uq.net.au
... in which a consensus-seeking process is described, and the steps of a detailed participant workbook are presented
Contents
- What
this document is about: a brief word to
organisers
- Why
have a search
- The
overall process for the day
- A
note
on the process
- Using
this workbook
- Working
well together
- Some
groundrules for effective work
- Latecomers
- Choosing
items
- Notes
Preface
This is a guide to structured one-day searches for community planning. It has now been through five major revisions and a host of minor ones. By now a well-tried process, this particular variety of search has now been used for over fifteen years or more. This has occurred in a variety of settings and with a diversity of participants.
Version 6, the previous revision, represented a substantial revision of earlier versions. Previous versions attempted to include substantial advice to organisers. This was becoming so cumbersome, however, that edition 6 was much briefer than version 5. In edition, the overall structure of the process was somewhat changed to save time, and the wording substantially simplified. Version 7 is a much the same as version 6.
A detailed set of suggestions for organisers may eventually appear, to replace that portion of the earlier editions.
Acknowledgements
I owe a lot to a lot of people. Three, however, deserve special mention. The contribution of Frank Denham has been substantial. He has been involved in many searches with me over the years, and has almost always had some useful suggestions to offer. Many of the details of wording and format are his. I have used several ideas from Robyn Cross, who assisted with two searches in Belyando shire. She helped to simplify the language. Eve Robinson has contributed a number of ideas as we have worked together on searches associated with the program. At the time she was project officer for the Small Town Self Help program in the Queensland Small Business Corporation. In this program a number of one-day community searches have been run, with numbers ranging up to 110 participants.
I learned about search initially from John Damm, and have profited from discussions with many of the people who developed and used it in Canberra. Fred and Merrilyn Emery, Alan Davies and Alastair Crombie deserve mention.
In fairness to the Canberra people, I should say that some of them have expressed misgivings about this particular design. Among other things, they regard it as mechanistic. However, participants don't experience it as such. And it is a time-efficient design which often gets further into action planning than some other searches I have seen used.
I also enjoyed working on search designs with Lloyd Vidler, of the Uniting Church, and Dell Woodcock, formerly of the Small Business Development Corporation. Other suggestions have been provided from time to time by the people who have helped facilitate small groups at some of the searches, by others who have taken part in them, and by people who have studied with me at the University of Queensland.
What
this document is about:
a brief word to organisers
This is a description of a brief "search." It is presented in the form of a participant workbook for a one-day search in a community setting; but it also serves the purpose of an introduction to one possible process for a brief search. There are several varieties in the family of processes which go by the generic name of search. This is just one of them.
Search is a participative strategic planning activity suitable for small to medium numbers of people. It is sometimes known as futures search, or search workshop, or search conference.
In the form in which it is presented here, it can work well even in inexperienced hands, though there are restrictions. It is safe for numbers up to about 25 or 30 if you are not pushed for time -- an evening plus a full day works quite well with small numbers. It is briefer than the versions described in earlier editions. Nevertheless, I overestimated the robustness of the earlier versions. If you have only one day, or if numbers grow beyond about 30, even this shortened version is rushed and may require skilled facilitation.
Obviously, a day and a half would be better. I have prepared it as a one-day design because in community settings it is hard to get participants to come along for longer.
The easiest way to learn how to use the process is to attend a community search.
You are welcome to copy this book in whatever numbers you require if you are using it for a search and you do not sell it at a profit. It is currently formatted for back-to-back printing; I suggest you do that if you can. Done back to back the instructions for a step and the corresponding worksheet are on facing pages.
You might also consider tailoring this document to fit the situation you intend to use it in. This can be done by changing "your community", whenever it occurs, to "Organisation X" or "Community Y" or whatever. To help in this, this document is also available on disk (800k 3-1/4" floppy) as a Microsoft Word 5.1a document file suitable for use on a Macintosh Plus or any of the more recent Macintoshes.
To participants...
Welcome to a community "Search".
Search is a process which helps you to agree on your goals for this community. It is part of a project to make your community more of what you want it to be.
Why have a search?
If people have a shared vision to aim for, they can work together to achieve it. They can make things better for everyone in the community. But to do this they must first know what they agree on -- they must have a shared vision which is public. This planning day will help you to agree on the shared vision, and to begin your plans for working towards it.
There is probably more agreement than you realise. In normal talk people often focus on their differences. Agreement is often ignored: not even talked about. Search is a way of getting to the agreement, and using it as the start of plans for the future.
This planning day provides you and others with a chance to compare your wishes for the future, and begin to achieve them.
Although there is a lot to be done, most people find planning days using search to be enjoyable and worthwhile. We hope you do too.
You will find a summary of the overall process for the day below.
The overall process for the day
The steps in the day's process are as follows:
- Introduction and overview
- Optional: community history
- Develop a shared vision
- Wider influences
- Identify "stakeholders"
- Optional: other information
- Add to the shared vision
- Identify key plans
- Set up working parties
A note on the process
From time to time you will work in small groups, probably for almost half of the day. This is not for talk, but instead to be guided through a step-by-step process. By the end of the day you should have a shared vision, and the start of some plans for achieving it.
At first you work on the shared vision. You then add to this to take into account...
o the outside world;
o the needs of other people
o and perhaps other information
You then decide which parts of the shared vision should be given first priority, and what groups of people might be able to do something about this.
So that each of you is able to add something, you will spend a few minutes working alone from time to time. You will then usually pool your ideas within small groups. Ideas from small groups will then be collected for all groups. This will happen several times during the day -- working alone, then in a small group, then in the whole group.
An organiser will also help to guide you through the day. To save time or to help the process work well, (s)he may leave out or change some of the steps in the workbook. There may also be a facilitator in your small group, to help guide you through the process.
Using this workbook
This is your own copy of a workbook that will help to guide you through the process for the day. You may write in it as you wish; and you may take it with you at the end of the day.
Throughout this workbook there are pages you can use as work-sheets. If you fold a sheet back-wards down the centre, you will be able to see it while you work on a following page -- see the diagram at the left. That will sometimes be useful.
Working well together
A one-day search is rushed. There are many steps to work through, and often large numbers of people. If everyone tries to make it work well, you will make a good start, and enjoy yourself. Three things to remember are...
o If you help to keep your small group working well, it should be more enjoyable as well as more productive.
o The more you work together, searching for those things you all want, the better the plans you will develop.
o The more creative you are during the individual and small-group work, the better the ideas you will have to work with.
On the following page are two sets of suggestions, or "groundrules": on working well in groups, and on being creative.
Some groundrules for effective work
1. Working well in groups
- Agree on common
goals and work towards them
- Allow everyone to
have their say in small groups
- Attend to others;
try to understand what they are saying
- Build on the ideas
that others offer
- All be responsible
for how well the group works
- Let others know what you are doing (no hidden agendas)
2. Working creatively
Don't criticise Do not criticise any ideas when you are pooling your ideas to form a small-group list, whether the ideas are your own or someone else's.
Anything goes If an idea occurs to you, say it, or follow it up with another idea. Let your mind go wherever it wishes to go. Let the ideas of other people spark off ideas in your own mind too.
Latecomers
It is best if everyone is able to be here for the whole day. If people do arrive late, please tell them about the information below.
Welcome to a "Search workshop". It is to develop better plans for the whole community. It is a busy day; but in the past most people have found it worthwhile and enjoyable. We hope you do too.You have missed some of the search. This note will help you to know what has happened, and fit more easily into your small group.
A search workshop helps people to set common goals. There is a planned set of steps to achieve this. Common goals are developed, and then revised. And then some working parties are created to work towards those goals.
The other people in your small group have read some suggestions for working well together. For your benefit, here is a brief version.
Choosing items
During the small group sessions which follow, you first collect your group's items. You then decide their order of importance.
A quick and easy way of doing this is to use voting. Again, you work alone at first to decide your votes. Then you combine your votes with the votes of the others in your small group.
Adding up the votes then allows you to decide the order of importance.
Group choice by voting
- Work alone.
For now, ignore the items you gave. Jot down the numbers
of the three * most important items from other people.
You can include items which you had on your own list, but which other people actually gave to the group list.
- Now choose the three
* next most important items; you can include your own items
this time if you wish.
Steps 1 and 2 give you six items: three most important, and three next most important.
- When everyone is
ready, place two ticks next to each of the most important items
on the group list, and one tick next to each of the next most
important.
- Add up the ticks, and decide the order of importance of items.
* Facilitators may increase this for long lists and/or small groups
The process
1. Introduction
The organiser will explain the process for the day, and help you to choose small groups.
The small groups will be chosen so that each small group is as much like the whole community as it can be. The process will work better if the people in your small group are as different from one another as you can make them.
It will work best if everyone helps to make all the groups suitably mixed. If you can improve the mix by exchanging people between groups, please do so.
Step 1
Before you begin, please read below.
Identify common goals
The purpose of the search is to find out what everyone or almost everyone can agree on. It is not a forum for people to argue for their own interests, or the interests of their own group or organisation or community.
If there are issues of debate, or important minority views, these are best dealt with in other ways and at other times.
Act for the whole community
During the day, you are asked to act for the whole community. You are not here as a representative of any group or organisation or community. You are here to help to identify the goals that everyone or almost everyone would like to achieve.
Use the processes provided
To complete the tasks within the available time, there is no time for discussion or debate in the small groups. The way to complete the tasks in the time is to allow time for people to fill in the worksheet at each step, and then collect that material without discussion.
Information, not argument
When your small group is voting on an item it may sometimes be useful to provide brief information for other group members. It is not useful to debate the issue or to argue for your point of view.
2. Recalling the history
This is an optional step; it is usually left out. If it is included, your organiser will tell you. There are two sub-steps: working alone, and then telling the whole group about one or two important things from the history of the community.
Step 2(a)
Work alone. Use the worksheet below to recall some important history
Step 2(b)
If this step is included, the whole group will be guided by the organiser into telling some of the history
Worksheet 2(a): The history
Work alone without talking at first
Think back over your
time in the
community. Work back from now to
the past
What were the events you
recall which
were important to the community?
As you think of
something, list it on the
right. Leave two lines space under each
item
You may also include
events which you
were not here for, but which you heard
about from others
Make your list as long
as you can in the
time you have
Now look back over your
list. In the space you left below each item, write a few
words about why the event was important then? and what is
its importance now.
3. The shared vision
Step 3(a)
Work alone. Use the worksheet below: note down what you would like this community to be like
Step 3(b)
Join the other members of your small group. Pool your ideas, writing them on butcher paper
Step 3(c)
In your small group choose the most important of the items to report to the whole group. Choose those items which you think would be better for all members of the community
A way of choosing was described earlier
Step 3(d)
Choose someone to speak for your group. Join the other members of the whole group. Bring your butcher paper list with you, ready to give your items for a whole-group list. Bring about 8 items back to the whole group. (The organiser may vary this number.)
Worksheet 3(a): The shared vision
Work alone without talk at first
It is the year 2005
In the last 10 years,
everyone in this commun-
ity has done a superb job -- far bey