1. Create a design team consisting of yourself, Manager of Development, Manager of Sustainability, Vice President of Strategy, myself, and any other necessary participants.
2. Convene design team either in person or via conference call to set parameters and specific goals for meeting in January. These decisions ¾ the charter of the meeting ¾ will determine any other pre-work required such as data gathering.
3. Decide (as a design team) which people possess key information and will be able to move the process forward concerning sustainability at Oil Company. Talk to these people and get their input to assist the team in designing an effective and inclusive meeting. (Also ascertain which of these people should be potential participants in such a meeting.) In our experience such a participative approach will help insure the success of the meeting; people increase their engagement when they have input prior to the actual event.
4. Design the meeting. Our initial assessment is that the Search Conference format would best serve your group. Where there is a clear need for planning a future state of affairs and an implicit need for high involvement for a large group of people, the Search Conference has proven to be a good match. However, the design process itself would determine if this format would best serve Oil Company’s specific interests in this case.
5. The common elements of a Search Conference include learning about relevant changes in the external environment, posing what a desirable future for the system in question might look like, and developing precise and concrete action plans that might help to bring about that desirable future. The usual Search Conference, if the design team chooses that method, would require modification for use in these circumstances.

Search Conferences

In order to create a shared definition and approach towards sustainability at Oil Company, the design team might employ the Search Conference method. Search Conferences create commitments to bring to life a state of affairs that does not presently exist and is not expected to occur naturally within the desired time. They are large group meetings designed to engage the collective learning and creativity of people to create a new future. The Search Conference inspires participants to find common ground around not only a new direction and future but also around the strategies and joint actions for getting there.

Segments

The usual segments of such a meeting include:

• what the environment is for this organization right now
• what their desired future is in some domain (in this case, a shared definition and approach towards sustainability)
• what their present state is in that domain
• what their relevant history is
• what the barriers are to getting to or achieving the future
• what the action plan will be to overcome those barriers and thus realize that future
• who will be accountable for what ¾ by when ¾ in that action plan

Mechanism

A Search Conference typically involves 20-50 people. In determining who will attend the Search Conference, the design team looks to those people whose knowledge and experienc

e is needed to deliver a definition and approach concerning sustainability at Oil Company. One of the key tasks that the design team addresses is participant selection.

When the Search Conference is convened, participants work in self- managing small groups on tasks that facilitate constructive dialogue and systemic thinking in order to create realistic outcome ¾ a shared definition of and approach to sustainability. Participants construct a desired end point, a vision of what sustainability would look like at some specified future date. Then the group ‘walks backwards’ to identify actions, processes, and components essential to that vision. The conference would alternate between this breakout group mode in which teams work separately on these issues and large group mode in which all participants share their work with each other. People leave their rank at the door and work as peers with others during the conference.

Two consultants serve as Search Conference facilitators. Their function is to co-design (with a company design team, as already described) and co-construct (with those at the conference) the environment for getting this work done. The consultants help the participants to begin their work together in a facilitated setting that permits both useful collaboration and coaching. The consultants do not focus on the content of the meeting, that is, what sustainability looks like, but rather the process that allows the participants to gain ¾ and own ¾ the most useful data generation, diagnosis of the present situation, and action plans concerning this subject.

The sponsors and consultant would meet to debrief the Search Conference. The consultants or members of the design team turn the documents of the previous meeting (usually easel pad sheets or butcher block paper produced by the structured conversations on subtopics such as desired future, environment, obstacles, etc.) into a single packet that all participants might reference. The participants of this follow-up meeting review the assigned tasks

stipulated within the action plans, address how they will be achieved, and tie up other loose ends. They assess the immediate effects of the meeting. The sponsors also coordinate any communication that must go beyond the boundaries of the Search Conference team to other units of the company. Finally, they discuss subsequent meetings or activities that would further support their aims and objectives regarding sustainability.

I hope that this proposal addresses the concerns specified in your Request for a Proposal. I emphasize again that our approach is to work out the details of the meeting and its methods in collaboration with you and your colleagues. I would be glad to answer any questions that you might have or to provide additional information that you may require.

T.J. Elliott

Notes

 cc Technical Document: The Search Conference versus Conventional Planning

Add to that document, the following passages extracted from our knowledge map:

The work is based on field-tested research and three important assumptions about people:

1. People want and need a sense of purpose or meaning in their work; Work gets done more effectively when people feel that they have a bright future, have power to affect that future, and feel that their talents are valued
2. People want to learn;
3. People want to have a say in creating their own future; Common direction and focus are essential to organizational results.

The most formidable barriers to implementation are not resources or how to organize but how people think, communicate, and work together to deliver on the desired results.

Search Conference processes combine 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 this method to translate open systems theory into a design for leaning and planning in community. The methodology has been used widely around the world for decades.

Conference call notes after receipt of letter

Gain a greater degree of understanding about sustainability

Shared vision of sustainability.

Folks that leave take away some thoughts that they can apply to their current work E,G., if they have a discussion of what is going on. What is the transfer of learning of this stuff that they hve picked up.

Now they are looking at early February.

Sustainability now comes under Pierre LaPlante who is SVP for Business Challenges and Sustainability

what is the appeal of the concepts that are being presented?

what is the likely impact of those on the people that are participants?

what are the similar oiutcomes that you have been able to produce?

Time

There is the factor of being able to engage a larger group in an exercise.

The output needs to be not so much a concrete set of actions that will implement sustainability as a road map of the actions going forward that will allow participants and even the entire company to get a better handle on sustainability