Biography

Sandra Janoff, PhD, psychologist and consultant, co-developed the principle-based methodology called Future Search, a process used world-wide to get the “whole system” focusing on the future, creating values-based action strategies and securing commitment to implementation. She works with communities and organizations in Africa, Asia, Europe, India, North & South America, Australia and New Zealand. Her focus is on creating conditions for people to tackle the complex social, technical and economic issues they face. She has taught leadership, facilitation and Future Search principles to over 5,000 people.

Organizations with whom she has worked include: IKEA, Haworth Furniture, 3M Plant Engineering, FAIRWAY Filamentos, Quaker Foods Topeka Pet Foods Division, British Airways, Whole Foods Market, Federal Aviation Administration, World Bank, Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Johns Hopkins University, The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and Tearfund Foundation.

Sandra’s work on humanitarian issues includes: UNICEF’s Finding a Future for the Children of South Sudan during the North/South Sudanese civil war. This resulted in the demobilization of over 13,000 child soldiers. Another initiative was Preventing Violence Against Children in Schools in Uganda where she worked with stakeholders on all levels to address the issues of corporal punishment, rape and other violent acts against children and to create a nation-owned mandate for zero tolerance. In Derry-Londonderry, Northern Ireland, she supported a city-wide effort for a unified economic development plan after decades of sectarian violence. Two notable outcomes were winning the UK City of Culture and the Peace Bridge that connected the Protestant and Catholic sides of the Foyle River. Her work on Home Birth in the U.S. brought the maternal care system together to create a shared vision for improving equitable access to safe maternal care despite contentious differences among the medical and midwifery communities. This work, begun in 2011, continues with ongoing gatherings to promote equitable, safe, respectful care that ends racism and discrimination in all childbearing settings.

Sandra is Director of Future Search Network (FSN), a collaboration of members worldwide dedicated to providing Future Search meetings in communities for whatever they can afford. She won the Global Work Award and the Sharing the Wealth Award. Sandra is co-author of Future Search: Getting the Whole System in the Room for Vision, Commitment and Action(Berrett-Koehler, 3rd ed, 2010), Don’t Just Do Something, Stand There! Ten Principles for Leading Meetings that Matter (Berrett-Koehler, 2007) and Lead More, Control Less: 8 Advanced Leadership Skills that Overturn Convention (Berrett-Koehler, 2015). Sandra was a staff member of the Tavistock Conference in the UK. Other publications are “Woman and the Legal Projession” (Janoff, 1994); “System Theory and Small Groups” (Agazarian & Janoff, 1993) and “The Influence of Legal Education on Moral Reasoning” (Janoff, 1991).

Sandra was honored with the Organizational Development Network’s Lifetime Achievement Award. Contact: sjanoff@futuresearch.net,   www.futuresearch.net