Hi my fellow Open Space practitioners, Sandra Janoff, a co-creator of Future Search and her Future Search Network partner Michael Donnelly are offering a training on Managing a Future Search in Philadelphia on November 17-19. Here’s a link to information about the workshop itself: https://www.tickettailor.com/events/futuresearchnetwork/1865305. More about "why now?" is below. For those of you unfamiliar with Future Search, per The Change Handbook, it is a practice "To evolve a common ground future for an organization or community where stakeholders build high commitment to action and rapid implementation.” I once asked Sandra what she saw as the essence of Future Search. Her response: it gives people a lived experience of their system. In fact, something I learned from Sandra and her Future Search co-creator, Marv Weisbord, was a rubric for how to think about who makes up a system. You want the people who ARE IN: those with Authority, Resources, Expertise, Information, and Need. Coupled with demographic diversity, that is the framework I use when inviting to an Open Space. I’m sharing this invitation on this list because, while different in form from Open Space, Future Search, and the principles that shape it, were seminal in my own learning about systems change. I wish that for you too. Peggy _________________________________ Peggy Holman peggy@peggyholman.com Bellevue, WA 98006 206-948-0432 www.peggyholman.com Enjoy the award winning Engaging Emergence: Turning Upheaval into Opportunity <https://peggyholman.com/papers/engaging-emergence/> "An angel told me that the only way to step into the fire and not get burnt, is to become the fire". -- Drew Dellinger Join the Open Space practitioner’s conference - the World Open Space on Open Space (WOSonOS <https://www.wosonos2025.org/>) - in Kenya, November 6-8. > Begin forwarded message: > > From: Future Search Network <fsn@futuresearch.net> > Subject: Future Search is Taking a Stand. A simple action can make a big impact! Help us help you help everyone > Date: September 24, 2025 at 3:25:07 AM GMT+5:30 > To: Peggy Holman <peggy@peggyholman.com> > Reply-To: Future Search Network <fsn@futuresearch.net> > > > > Taking a Stand - Making a Difference > > This is a short one. Its important. We have lots of news to share with you and we will get to that over the coming weeks. For this one we want to ask you for a helping hand please 🙏. > > The world doesn't feel so safe right now for so many, there is a lot of language of crises, ominous clouds, rising authoritarianism, growing inequality, mental health stress and we could go on. We don't want to be part of the chorus. We want to make a difference. > > Making a difference in the midst of this drama means doing something different and being brave. Bringing diverse groups together around an important issue is different. Involving people who don't normally meet decision makers as key stakeholders is different. Taking time to learn each others realities is different, and moving from talk to action is certainly different. Today, despite all the progress, nearly all of our processes of decision making, strategizing, problem solving, and development are fragmented and completed only in parts. In society and in organisations the consequences are clear. We still are a long way from achieving Marv Weisbords's paradigm of "Everybody Improving Whole Systems". > > So here's our dilemma. We have a solution, one that we know transforms lives, grows capacity to solve problems, celebrates difference while not squashing anyone's identity. And we have a need, or thousands of them; potential applications all over the world where Future Search can make a real difference, right now, today. We need to grow. We want to amplify. > > One of our best routes to growing is to have people trained on Future Search, who will then go on to champion this way of working in their communities, issues, organisations or practices. > > This year in particular we have decided we want to really supercharge that effort and in November (17th to 19th) we will be in Philadelphia, city of brotherly love, to offer a training on Managing a Future Search on a non-profit model. While we have never made cost be a barrier to getting trained, we are going further this year by making the price much more affordable. We know this is in contrast to typical models of training at this level. We don't care. It's too important. So for this training we have cut costs back to the bone! For our full spectrum three day Managing a Future Search course we have dropped the price to only $900. Beyond that we are promising to do our best to get people there for even less than that. We just want to cover costs! > > Here's our ask. Sign up, join us. Share this with your colleagues who need to know this work. Join Sandra  <http://tracking.futuresearch.net/tracking/click?d=CKDrnbvxD1VL8ziT-VlUIhzqEe5yrSKckFZ4ZHfxGfdfpp_EAcLaD2fySrUg3b2lP6pfX2W81I6_y2Go6icX-BD1dvErr25T5fBxk6ZEStBDT7gtivOkZWAbMJzAxRtZuayob0NVuFuBvrvgDjCok5gPDVpL-_KliJfIS7bwUnT50>and Michael  <http://tracking.futuresearch.net/tracking/click?d=6YgN0DFQukPrBk1uG7SxtIlfb53VIi_2wuhT44fbn-O0Kc1m9RxN3G5kdWTVwIjGGn1j-AW0mJV8pPySxljTfZa4q-gFkbh3gbxRQ8V2PxT4Cv8RmjruipYQ8BbXxkk-QyOdrI_NCzuoxrRBFNqkmSuogtMqC4SyF6QYHdWpgb1SR65plrgQ4lqcLzf0U8W4rQ2>on LinkedIn where you can add your voice and commentary to amplify this way of working. Act now so that we can grow our impact across the world! > > Thank you. > Click for Managing a Future Search  > <http://tracking.futuresearch.net/tracking/click?d=6MV6e4UtQXhrEQoRk-8PsSHMOXcdtZeUS3kwOkPCuhdEvjqwDfIctB-jnR6kUG3iEwsLQeP1QX2SNXOAHl_I4e8Zx3aUUeA5aSBVWQCOGgjEFxQcK0byMUHLOIqYxmfpjKHXdVfnTPu7G5sgaMKiod2UiR_8G2x1dAXycmy_3cInKbFmnRTbdh2FGhUaQ849eg2> > > Future Search in the World > > Miranda Cassidy O'Connelly (third from front left) with the Aotearoa / New Zealand Future Search Trainees > We are so happy that we have a brand new cohort of Future Search Network in Aotearoa New Zealand thanks to our friend and colleague Miranda Cassidy O'Connell who has just trained a beautiful group. She worked with the brilliant Centre for Social Impact to bring Managing a Future Search to a new audience. They will all be coming along to our upcoming online Learning Exchange on 14 November 2025. > > Sandra and Michael just had a fantastic experience running both Managing a Future Search and P-10 Facilitation Approach training workshops in Stockholm with a very engaged and motivated group. Scandinavia aligns so closely with our approach and has a huge heritage in this way of working. We were hosted by Anna Zingmark and Karoline Bottheim of Lanka Consulting who made a short video of the experience. > <http://tracking.futuresearch.net/tracking/click?d=QjmhgxRd-5xJJRAh5yPSDM5BTpqg8wSf8NUMlHTyBfv_sSjWJZBwzO6tKx0SNWNM0xu-fMSq1iT0ORWar3WMyrAdGe-msuGbqGRWpkGx1fIHxwPdX12BiXL8rmxSzM9k2A4XkLxJMCMMjo2E_M9xc3o1> > Please consider making a Donation to support the work of Future Search's non-profit mission to bring this to the world for whatever people can afford! Every donation has a real impact! > Click to Donate to Future Search Scholarship Fund > <http://tracking.futuresearch.net/tracking/click?d=8REPYbZ94cOn_ul_JxRkLAOREtDH6rm1J_LUfmDOxzBevRvuuX7hotLzEOVgenUYnTB6-NjqkIEByKFeFsGgeQrLUoGhtqYzKk0YXk-UlPOf_sJHc8sfvpbr2FcNVonoZJ9J_c6jAyQ3DLjOc-MYEPtnitHhFlLcN4TVzyB_TiP80> > > If you no longer wish to receive mail from us, you can unsubscribe <http://tracking.futuresearch.net/tracking/unsubscribe?d=E027BVEecgUYI7Dkx9ty8qDhcsZYgLDRzygXkYWvrOkn1mTCQ8Ce1pacym9fwm6H0cPPdArkncE12-OrVabeqpulHKSbNBytmDF54-bbtjEZ0>. > Future Search Network, 409 Arthurs Round Table, Wynnewood, Pennsylvania, 19096, United States, https://futuresearch.net <https://futuresearch.net/> > Unable to view? Read it Online <http://tracking.futuresearch.net/view?msgid=mBeoMpmLxO1yIddUOV5VyA2>