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Summary: Strategic planning enters the 21st century
Review: As the Director of the Colorado Center for Chaos and Complexity, I have frequent occasion to survey the literature on applications of the new sciences of complexity, as well as on more fundamental developments. Irene Sanders' new book is an extremely valuable addition to the growing body of work applying ideas from chaos and complexity to strategic planning and management techniques. In fact as a direct result, I have hired Irene to be Director and Chair of our Business Network, and have charged her with bringing her vision of a wholistic and systems view of the planning process to the national and international business communities. Her insight and recognition that the process of strategic planning should account for the emergent characteristics of an organization is in complete accord with the modern view that reductionist thinking cannot begin to capture the full span of that organization's dynamical behavior. I fully expect that Irene and her systems view will quickly become the standard for organizational planning by which all others are measured. We at the Colorado Center for Chaos and Complexity feel privileged to be associated with Irene Sanders, and look forward to a long a successful association.
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Summary: Linking understanding to complexity theory over the ages.
Review: Besides being a wonderful strategy resource for any organization, this book provides an absolutely wonderful view into the epistimology of complexity theory. From the presocratics to current day paradigms, Irene Sanders has collected a detailed and readable history of knowledge and its marriage to the complex world. This book is highly recommended for practitioners, academics working on their dissertation (like myself), and those with an eager interest in complexity theory.
Rating:
Summary: Linking understanding to complexity theory over the ages.
Review: Besides being a wonderful strategy resource for any organization, this book provides an absolutely wonderful view into the epistimology of complexity theory. From the presocratics to current day paradigms, Irene Sanders has collected a detailed and readable history of knowledge and its marriage to the complex world. This book is highly recommended for practitioners, academics working on their dissertation (like myself), and those with an eager interest in complexity theory.
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Summary: Outstanding application of chaos theory to strategy.
Review: Ever since Gleick popularized the chaos literature, social scientists have been trying to find appropriate applications of chaos theory to human behavior. While it seems to be a natural application, most of the attempts have been unsatisfying. This book is an exception. Sanders has done an outstanding job of summarizing the basic concepts of chaos theory, placing them in historical context, and applying them to the area of strategic management. While her basic distinction between forecasting and foresight seems obvious in retrospect, it is a crucial link in the application of theory to practice. Most books and articles on chaos in organizations do little more than tell us that the real world is chaotic and we need to live on the edge. Through the use of Futurescapes, Sanders has provided a practical way to use chaos theory to identify "perking events" in the business environment. Many of these events seem, at first, top be no more significant than the flapping of the butterfly's wings. But, as chaos theory has taught us, it is just these seemingly insignificant events that can trigger major events in the future. This is a deceptively simple book. It is easy to make the simple complex; it is a gift to make the complex appear simple. I highly recommend this book to both academics and practitioners.
Rating: 
Summary: A good introduction
Review: Irene sees the beauty of the science of complexity. I was looking for a framework that would bring into focus (1) the relationship underlying the science of mathematical complexity and (2) long-term planning with incomplete, fragmented, and non-linear information. This book is a step in this direction. The 1st half of the book is the history of chaos theory that leaves you with a limited understanding of the scope of the science. The second half of the book is far better, and I enjoyed it. Someone wrote in their review it should be required reading for high-school students. I agree. It is a good introduction. Thanks Irene for a good tool to frame our discussion of this emerging field of science.
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Summary: Smooth Reading
Review: Many years ago, in the late 80's, I read James Gleick's Chaos: Making a New Science book. I was not enlightened very much. A couple of years ago, I read Margaret Wheatley's Leadership & The New Science, and also A Simpler Way. I got a much better picture of the subject, and I began to take an earnest interest in the New Science. I read a few other authors' books but they did not strike a common chord with me, although they fueled my pursuit. I stumbled on to Irene Sanders' book by chance because of its cover title. I was intrigued when I scanned the book index and found many interesting stuff: insight, foresight, geographic intelligence, Futurescape vs. Mindmap, imagery, new planning paradigm, new science, perking information, scenario building, thinking in pictures, visual models, whole-brain functioning, etc. All my kind of stuff. I have read the book many times because of my deep personal interest in Strategic Thinking, and I have not been disappointed. I love the author's break down of the Strategic Thinking process into two components: - insight about the present; - foresight about the future; and her argument that visual thinking stimulates both processes. She also defines and makes very clear distinctions between the terms `insight' and `foresight' as well as `forecast.' She then moves on to introduce her seven principles of Strategic Thinking in the context of the New Science, and elaborates at length her ten-step Futurescape mapping process. To me, her Futurescaping is an extremely innovative expansion of the Mindscaping process created by Nancy Margulies in her book, Mapping Innerspace, which I had reviewed earlier. She goes on further to differentiate her Futurescape from the traditional mind-mapping process, developed by Tony Buzan. I thought that was great, as I have always felt that mind-mapping is only good for organising personal notes and dumping quick ideas on to paper. I love to play with the Futurescape mapping process, in the light of its ability to present the big visual picture, showing the dynamic interactions and inter-relationships of abstract concepts as well as complex issues. With hindsight from my own consulting work, I am firmly convinced that Futurescaping can be a very powerful tool for strategic visioning by companies/organisations, as part of their annual business planning exercise. It will allow "left-brain thinkers" to work harmoniously with "right-brain thinkers" to form a whole-brain approach for designing the preferred company future. Frankly, just learning - and mastering - the Futurescaping process in your life and/or business will be worth more than the money you are going to spend on this book! The book is divided into two equal parts: with Part 1: Understanding the New Science, and Part 2: The Art & Science of Visual Thinking. In the first part, she outlines and explains many of the New Science terms very well. For once, "butterflies and hurricanes" make some real sense to me. The second part is essentially the application part of the author's visual models. As the author puts it, it is also the framework for the new planning paradigm, as defined by the New Science. While reading this book, it reminds me of another good book, The Next Common Sense, by Michael Lissack. There seems to be a common thread among the two books. Both authors argue and support very strongly the visual thinking metaphors as powerful tools for comprehending complexity. I strongly recommend readers to get hold of the book. Again, this is another good book that you just can't read it in one go and put it on your shelf. You have to peruse it, think about it, reflect, and then make use of the Futurescape mapping process. To paraphrase the author, `The present is the future in its most creative state.' Futurescaping will allow you to put your creativity to work. On the whole, the author's writing style is very easy-going.
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Summary: CHAOS CAN BREAK DOWN STALLS TOO!
Review: Ms. Sanders has done us all a favor by writing STRATEGIC THINKING and sharing her insights about accepting and using complexity and chaos to develop better future alternatives. I read another book this year that discusses our ability to understand and remember something we have not experienced before. That ability is infinitesimally small. We have to have had experiences in order to have a place to internalize something new to use it now in the future. Ms. Sanders "visual thinking" reminds me of this research by asking us to see events and patterns, to prepare ourselves to adapt to change to be more successful in the future. Understanding and using chaos theory in business has been difficult and technical. People have many misconceptions about the difficulty of learning, using and applying ideas, especially ideas from other disciplines. They get "stalled" into believing that this does not apply to them. They procrastinate because it seems hard to understand. They do not communicate well because they are afraid they will sound silly or naïve. STRATEGIC THINKING provides a process, "FutureScape" to help people walk over these stalls relating to chaos and complexity. For a more general understanding of how these and other common stalls hold back progress, I also recommend you read THE 2,000 PERCENT SOLUTION, by Mitchell, Coles and Metz. You will find this to be a compatible process for hurdling over your stalls to make progress at a much faster rate with many more benefits in the future.
Rating:
Summary: Readable, informative and enjoyable
Review: Ms. Sanders provides the reader with a lucid historical perspective of scientific thought and epistemology in the first chapter of the book. Ms. Sanders then proceeds to elucidate the brief history and development of new science and chaos theory. The uniqueness of this addition to the new science discussion lies in her application of new science to the process of strategic thinking and planning. She emphasizes the need to comprehend, discern, and proactively interact with the "whole picture" through a system she calls Visual Thinking and "FutureScape" which she claims to be akin to mindmapping but it encompasses an interactive element. Sanders continues the application of new science tenets to a specific discipline in the same way O'Murchu and Wheatley applied new science to theology and leadership respectively. Readable, informative and enjoyable.
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Summary: Concise, Non-Mathematical, Inspirational
Review: The author presents a very clear description of the differences between chaos, complexity theory, and complex adaptive systems. She also provides an excellent description of strange attractors which she then weaves into her approach to strategic planning. For a business in the planning function, "a strange attractor is an issue, event, or new development to which your system is sensitive" (p. 76). It is a force that holds the system variables in a pattern of behavior and thus creates the system boundaries. New strange attractors might arise in business from "emerging initial conditions" (changes or developments that are initially starting to take place, generally just below the surface conditions of an industry or system). Identifying these emerging new strange attractors, which can change an entire industry or group of industries, is the core of her book's strategic planning system. The book's system is based on the dynamics of change as described by the new science of chaos, complexity, and complex adaptive systems. It also incorporates a new visual thinking tool she calls "futurescape." I was inspired to interweave Ms. Sanders methods into my own personal model of strategic planning used with a wide variety of clients.
Rating: 
Summary: Visual thinking is the focus, not complexity theory
Review: This book aims to apply chaos and complexity theory to business strategy. Sanders does a fine job of compressing the vast intellectual history of science into a couple of concise chapters. She shows how previous physical world views from the Aristotelian to the mechanistic have influenced culture, including business thinking (most obviously with the re-engineering movement). The connection between complexity theory and Sanders' main offering to business strategists appear rather tenuous. The main lesson seems to be that complexity theory helps us to understand the dynamically interrelated workings of the world. The real theme of this book is not complexity theory but the use of visual thinking to gain insight and foresight in a complex world. Although the historical and expository parts of the book are well written and interesting, the main value comes from the second half on using visual landscapes ("FutureScapes") to assist in strategic thinking. While much of this will not seem particularly novel to those used to using MindMaps and similar techniques, Sanders does systematically lay out a procedure for applying this tool to strategic thinking. Don't expect to learn how complexity theory can directly solve business problem. Nevertheless, the 70 or so pages in the visual thinking section are worth studying and implementing.
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