The opportunity to take a three-day journey of curiosity, discovery and growth brought 39 experienced facilitators together in West Auckland in August. The occasion; the first training event in Aotearoa for facilitation of the globally recognised Future Search principles-based approach to action planning. The training was offered by the Centre for Social Impact (CSI), in partnership with the global Future Search Network (FSN), and drew on the extensive Future Search experience of CSI Associate and Future Search trainer, Miranda Cassidy-O’Connell.
“We had facilitators from a really diverse range of backgrounds, all dealing with complex systems and challenges,” Miranda says. “At a time when the social impact community is increasingly focused on systems transformation, the purpose of the training was to build a strong cohort of certified Future Search facilitators who can help “bring the whole system into the room’ and bring people together to find and act on common ground.”
The work areas of participating facilitators included well-being, sexual violence, health, housing, whānau, hapū, iwi, community and youth development, te taiao, environment, creativity and music, disability, advocacy, Te Tiriti, digital strategies, Pasifika leadership, climate action and more.
“CSI, with the support of the Clare Foundation will continue to awhi this cohort of forty Future Search facilitators,” Miranda says. “The aim is to make Future Search an accessible and highly useful pathway for systems transformation across many challenging situations in Aotearoa.”
The new Aoteaora Future Search facilitators are already applying the newly learned Future Search principles in their daily work, with some actively exploring Future Search as a go-to method for many complex situations, such as infrastructure development, health and social services, awa/river regeneration and more.
Seven of the newly trained Future Search facilitators joined CSI’s September hui on systems change and shared details of the Future Search process. The FS facilitators supported the 80 participants to experience identifying a complex challenge they wanted to tackle and then consider the voices who would need to be in the Future Search room. Topics ranged from regenerating the ocean floor to reducing vaping harm. Participants deeply engaged with the experience and have increased interest in how Future Search could assist in transforming their systems.
More information on Future Search in Aotearoa is found at here.
“...everybody improving whole systems is the paradigm we need to be living in and that working with the diversity of the system, while not always easy, is always worth it.”
- Sandra Janoff, Co-founder of Future Search Network.