Strategic Thinking and the New Science: Planning in the Midst of Chaos Complexity and Chan

For what? For her book, "Strategic Thinking and the New Science," for infecting me the logic of her thinking. Irene Sanders with iron logic (and very convincingly) describes the key science pathways leading to understanding and to set strategic directions in times of permanent change.So here we find the story of the variable context of science by which we perceive the world, nature and dynamic of change, complexity, chaos theory. The author is a fervent supporter of visual thinking and despite the fact that the book does not contain too many drawings, this after reading "Strategic Thinking and the New Science," you realize how important it is the presentation and understanding of complex, dynamic systems. Especially in terms of whole picture. Personally, I think that the limitation to only a visualization element does not explain all the nuances of the analyzed system and it will not always be fully understood, however visual thinking is brilliant starting point for further analysis.I especially recommend paying attention to the section of The New Planning Paradigm as Defined by the New Science. Revelation.The book begins innocently, but with each new page draws more and more, and finally you've decided that you are a adherent of strategic thinking and the new science.Thanks to Irene Sanders book, I understood more, deeper, and I saw special significance of chaos theory for strategic foresight.Thank you Irene.

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.

Great book introducing chaos theory to decision making processes. It helps explain how and why systems react the way they do to change. There are predictable patterns which govern the way systems behave - including how and why resistance happens. Knowing this and a little bit of chaos theory, one can begin implementing decisions in a way that has the greatest probability for systemic organizational transforming change.Great book.

This book contains a good, although stretched-out, introduction to complexity and chaos. However, the business planning process in the last section is almost completely without merit. You get a couple of people together, scribble on a pad of paper (and I mean scribble!) and you've got a FutureScape.I am a big believer in the impact of complexity thinking on business. I was terribly disappointed that this book did not address it, in my view.

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 DunbarSugar Land, TX