In this episode, we talk with Sandra Janoff, who has developed (and practiced for decades) the method ”Future Search” together with Marvin Weisbord. We met Sandra in a facilitation training in Berlin in 2024, and were deeply inspired by her way of working systemically with complex issues. Here you can listen to Sandra describing how we can understand systemic change, how we can connect with people’s hearts and the situation as it is, creating action that makes a difference for the system as a whole.

We are talking about

- Sandra’s experiences and background developing Future Search

- What Future Search is - a strategic action planning meeting

- The ”whole system” - what that actually means (parts being interconnected, having a boundary and a purpose)

- The power of "getting the whole system into the room", where people are learning together before they act, focusing both on the past, the current situation and the future, finding common ground and identifying future actions

- ”Systems experiencing”, making sense of the whole together: Experiencing complexity and what a chaotic world we live in, "mapping the world as it is"

- The "theory of change" behind the Future Search method (organic, biologic)

”D-I” Theory, (Differentiation - Integration) : Systems develop through an ongoing process of differentiating and integrating

- Why taking a risk in a group - and how we respond to it - makes such a big difference

- How to attract and establish a creative planning group

- and much more!