Testimonials

"Big Bang marketing ideas disrupt because they are 'discontinuously innovative.' They alter the landscape forever by introducing a way of thinking about a product or service that did not exist previously and that changes our entire pattern of behavior and attitudes about it."

"As T. Irene Sanders notes, 'consumer behavior is a complex system, and this kind of nonlinear thinking is the only way to create opportunities, create marketing approaches that tap into changing patterns or emotions that really capture people’s attention'."

- from Bang! Getting Your Message Heard in a Noisy World
 by Linda Kaplan Thaler and Robin Koval
The Kaplan Thaler Group, creators of the AFLAC duck commercials



"The first time I really understood chaos theory applied to real world business issues was when I read Strategic Thinking and the New Science by Irene Sanders. Sanders makes a clear, compelling argument for surveying the broader landscape to find emerging issues, and then she provides a practical outline for identifying and analyzing that information."

- Marghertia Altobelli, Editorial Manager
Inc. Magazine



"Irene is a gifted and thought-provoking speaker. The content of her lectures always elicits insightful audience questions and discussion that continues after the program has ended. It is a privilege to have an ongoing relationship with Irene and we look forward to future presentations."

-Melody J. Curtis, Senior Program Coordinator
The Smithsonian Associates



"Irene’s work has had a profound influence on my ability to inspire organizational change. Her theories, tools and techniques enabled me to break patterns that keep people from relating to the possibilities that surround them. Whether working with groups of 6 or 60, nothing I’ve learned or used has been as effective as FutureScape® at engaging stakeholders in the visioning and strategic thinking process."

- Matt Di’Iorio, Staff Vice President of Operations
Associated Equipment Distributors



"The nonlinear thinking supported by FutureScape® is very important; it gets you out of straight-line ruts. FutureScape® is a very strategic tool; it creates lingering thoughts, and makes you more agile so that you can turn quickly and move in a new direction."

- Lawrence J. Halloran, J.D.
former Deputy Staff Director Committee on Government Reform (R-staff)
U.S. House of Representatives



"While serving as the City Manager for Waco, TX, we asked Irene Sanders to train a number of community leaders to use her FutureScape® process to facilitate future thinking. The results were dramatic and sustainable. For the last five years, the city has obtained water rights for the next 100 years worth of growth, worked with the Department of Defense to clean up perchlorate, worked with EPA on CAFP pollution. We have built 13 new subdivisions with over 250 homes, started a program to give away lots to citizens who would build and occupy houses in the inner city, started a magnet school program for Computers and Technology and changed the health department from client based to population based. Irene’s complex systems thinking has moved Waco and its neighborhoods light years ahead."

- Kathy S. Rice, former City Manager, Waco, TX



"An Op-Ed piece in last Sunday's Washington Post was headlined, 'To Fight Terror, We Can't Think Straight.' I commend both the article and the author to you. I have known Irene Sanders for many years. She has always had a dynamic, creative approach to strategic planning, both for a small congressional office like mine and for global corporate enterprises.

To meet the challenge of terrorism, she advocates the use of non-linear thinking and complexity theory to help illuminate a future we can no longer see through Cold War eyes and a major power mindset. In a world of infinitely complex, adaptive and mobile systems and relationships, the study of old causes no longer yields a clear picture of future effects."

- Former Congressman Christopher Shays while Chairman, Subcommittee on National Security, House Committee on Government Reform. Excerpt from speech, Homeland Security: Thinking Anew.