A Search Conference™

What is a Search Conference?

Search Conferences are large group meetings designed to engage the collective learning and creativity of people, inspiring them to find common ground around new strategies, future directions and joint actions. The process combines the best practices associated with strategic planning, systems thinking, and creative group dialogue – empowering people to take part fully, rise above self-interest, and make decisions for the common good.

Fred Emery and Eric Trist, joined later by Merrelyn Emery developed the method to translate open systems theory into a design for learning and planning in community.

A Search Conference typically involves 20-50 people whose presence is based on how their knowledge and experience can deliver on the purpose of the search conference. Participants work in self-managing small and large group(s) on tasks that facilitate constructive dialogue, systematic thinking, and realistic action plans for creating and implementing a shared vision. The process is designed to identify a desired endpoint and increase effectiveness of strategic planning by giving the people – those actually affected by change – more control over their long-term purposes and directions.

Based on the theory of open systems thinking, the Search Conference is an intervention designed to place an organization in a continuous active adaptive relationship with its environment (customers, markets, competition, technologies, demographics, etc.)