Editorial Review:
The future is happening today, and the most successful organizations will be those that understand the dynamics of the "big picture" in which their decisions are being made. This book describes how to understand and influence that picture. Irene Sanders pioneered the application of chaos theory and complexity to strategic thinking -- the most essential skill in today's fast-paced business environment. Now, in this straightforward, easy-to-read book, she shows how the most up-to-date strategic thinking is done, and how you can begin using it in your enterprise.Sanders' original and practical approach moves far beyond traditional forecasting, futuring and scenario-building. The new science of chaos and complexity has shown scientists and business professionals alike the importance of looking at the world as a whole system, rather than as a collection of deterministic principles. Consequently, the human mind -- through the integration of intuition and intellect -- is now recognized as the only information processor capable of understanding the level of complexity in today's global business environment. By engaging the mind's eye through the use of visual thinking, Sanders shows you how to develop insight about the present and foresight about the future, thereby allowing you to see and influence the future as it is emerging. The new planning paradigm presented in Strategic Thinking and the New Science is nothing less than a transformation of the science of business. For the first time in history, we have the knowledge, tools and techniques to develop visual thinking as the essential insight/foresight skill of the future. In addition to breakthroughs neuroscientists have made about brain-mind interactions, artists and psychologists are revealing the role of imagery in the creative process. And now, the new field of scientific visualization brings all of this information together with computer graphics to demonstrate how visual images can be used to engage our imaginations, enhance learning -- and stimulate our deeper levels of awareness. In this groundbreaking book, Sanders is the first to define the new model of strategic thinking -- a model that is bound to revolutionize organizations of all types as they begin to see and influence their futures -- today.
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Strategic thinking has two major components: insight about the present and foresight about the future  2008-04-16
1. Strategic thinking has two major components: insight about the present and foresight about the future.
2. What we thought would change almost never did, yet change was constant and often unexpected.
3. In a world of sameness, the only possibilities are somehow something might change.
4. One way to look at history is a collection of campfires of thought - dotting social, cultural, and political fields of time.
5. By listening to the historical voices we will learn how we gained our preferences for linear, mechanistic thinking and the assumptions upon which we live and begin to understand the limitations of this worldview.
6. Myths account for the mundane as well as the extraordinary giving form to the formless.
7. Writing allowed ideas and information to be stored, transferred, compared, supplemented, and critiqued.
8. Together, philosophy and science represented the cultivation of knowledge through reasoning, experimentation, critique, and proof.
9. The Greeks believed that all things work or change according to their basic natures. The results of philosophy and science eliminated myth as the probable cause of natural phenomena. The Greeks developed a formal system of scientific inquiry.
10. Plato envisioned two realms: a superior changeless realm of ideas and forms and an ever-changing material world. Plate believed that the truth existed only in the realm of ideas and forms. The world we see and experience through our senses is but a shadow of the true reality. The senses were in opposition to reality.
11. Plato believed various noninterfering gods ensured stability and order in the universe.
12. Aristole believed that natural objects behave in certain ways according to their natures.
13. Aristole believed form and matter were inseparable. Qualities do not exist without matter, and matter is differentiated by its qualities. Form follows function - favoring observation and description over experimentation.
14. Aristole believed the universe was eternal; no beginning, no end. He believed the earth was round and the center of the Universe, with the sun, moons, stars, and planets revolving around it in perfect circular orbits. The celestial realm was made of a perfect and unchanging fifth element called the aether following unchanging cycles. Aristole believed that the motion in the celestial realm was not forced but inspired by the perfection of a supreme and changeless diety whom he called the Prime Mover.
15. The Artistotelian-Ptolemaic cosmos was based more on conceptualization than on observation and experimentation.
16. From its center in Rome, the Roman Church worked to resolve doctrinal disputes among local churches by developing a unified doctrine and a disciplined organization. The Roman Catholic faith assumed three roles: keeper of the faith, translator of important written works, and indoctrinator to the masses. Formal education remained a privilege for the upper class.
17. During the dark ages (500-1000 Ad) some monastic traditions allowed an encourage monks to continue annotating, transcribing, and translating ancient texts while at the same time building libraries. The libraries were safe havens for classic works to survive.
18. Learning began to the spread from the monastries into society during the Renissance (1000-1450 AD). During this time period Latin and Greek texts were recovered primarily from Islamic texts used in their Universities.
19. The Roman Church wanted to be viewed as the center of society and adopted the doctrine of the earth being the center of the Universe. The church institutionalized the earth centered worldview. To question the church was heresy.
20. The Protestant Reformation spread across Europe in the 1500s and lead to the French revolution. The Protestant Reformation promoted freedom of religion and religious tolerance.
21. The inquisition was used to force conformity and unify through fear and power. Individual engages in any type of activity that threatened to undermine the Church's authority, including thoses exploring new scientific ideas, were subject to tortures.
22. Great leaders anticipate where change is going and make sure their organization gets there first.
23. There exists a type of self-organizing pattern, shape, or structure that becomes obvious when the behavior of the system is seen as a whole. There is order hidden beneath the disorder. the pattern arises because the variables in the system are attracted to and interact with each other in a unique way.
24. While it may not be possible to solve or predict the future of a nonlinear system, it is possible to provide a qualitative description of of its characteristics and behavior as a whole.
25. Chaos theory is a type of mathematics used to explain complex behavior of nonlinear systems. Nonlinear dynamic systems are systems that, like weather, move, grow, or change. It's difficult to predict the outcome of future state of a nonlinear system, because the variables are interacting and changing constantly in response to each other. Most of the world is made up of nonlinear systems.
26. A predictable attractor is the end state into which a system settles. For example a handful of marbles thrown into a bowl settle at the bottom, the attractor.
27. A chaotic system that never settles into a predictable or steady state are said to be strange attractors. A tornado is an example of an energy system held together by a strange attractor. No external container or funnel gives a tornado its unique form.
28. The strange attractor coalesces the energy and creates the system boundaries, while at the same time allowing dynamic activity within its boundaries. Strange attractors have an unique shape and form.
29. A nonlinear system responds to changes in itself through a type of feedback loop, set in motion by the butterfly effect. Through this process, small changes can produce complex results.
30. Complex adaptive systems are characterized as non knowing the initial conditions at any point in time and their existence depends on the steady flow of information and are constantly processing/changing and incorporating new information. Complex adaptive system sit on the boundaries of chaos and order.
Didn't do it for me  2005-08-20
I can honestly say that this was one of the poorest strategic planning books that I have ever read. The substance of it could have been boiled down to 10 or 20 pages. There is substantial interesting historical information at the front end, which was enlightening, but utterly unrelated to the book's topic. Save your money...
Blog Page Needed for Authors 2005-02-24
Amazon needs to add a Blog spot for authors to respond to reviewers and engage with readers. Because I still do a lot of writing in this subject area, I typically either email and/or call reviewers who write a less-than-favorable review of my book. What I want to know is how my book could have responded more fully to their questions or concerns, and what, from their perspective, would have made my book more useful. Their comments and suggestions are almost always interesting and helpful. Other times, it's clear to me that the reviewer just took an opportunity to take a broadside swing at me and my work, or to get their name on amazon.com. and often in the list of "amazon's top 1000 reviewers," whatever that means. In other words, reviewers often use the amazon site for my book to promote their own name or work. So, my suggestion to Amazon and to all other authors is that we encourage amazon.com to set up a Blog site for authors to respond to reviewers comments and to engage with readers. The reviews have an impact on the sale and credibility of the author's work. So, it only seems fair to ask that "we" the authors have an opportunity to respond publically to critical reviews. It would also be very interesting to engage with readers who have ideas, insights or questions, but choose not to submit a review. Also, because it's an unfortunate fact that publishers use amazon.com sales and rankings as a "key indicator" in terms of future contracts, it only seems reasonable and current with 21st century technolgoy that amazon.com find a way to increase the interactivity between authors, reviewers and other readers.
Great on warm up, but didn't delivery on the promise  2005-02-23
It seems that there were two authors, or at least two different books welded together. The first book was an excellent background on complexity theory and how it applies to business. This part was excellent. But the book promised "insight" and "foresight" - the abilities to understand and then the ability to predict.
But the book doesn't deliver on the ability to derive insight or predict. First, the how-to part of the book starts near the end of the book and is presented quickly and without much detail. Second, other than one page of questions to ask yourself when preparing the author's format of a mind map, there was no magic, few detailed procedures, and little methodology to speak of.
I waited for this great epihany of understanding after the big build up on the history of thinking and complexity theory. I followed the author through Plato, Socrates, Aristotle and up through recent thinkers and on to New Mexico's complexity wizards. Then the book shifted down into a simplistic reading style with buzzwords on every page.
I felt that the author may indeed be able to lead groups through her tiny methodology and derive some benefit. But as a text on how to derive insight or create a forecast the book falls short. Buy this book for the interesting background on thinking, philosophy, knowledge, and complexity. Then you'll be happy if the insight/foresight system doesn't delight.
John Dunbar
Sugar Land, TX
Linking understanding to complexity theory over the ages. 2004-04-21
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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