Future Search is a unique planning method used world-wide by hundreds of corporations and communities
Who we are
Sandra Janoff has over thirty years experience planning, designing, and facilitating whole-systems interventions in the public and private sector. She co-developed the principle-based methodology called Future Search, a process used world-wide to get the whole system in the room, focusing on the future and creating values-based action strategies. Sandra consults to organizations and communities in Africa, Asia, Europe, India, North and South America, Australia and New Zealand. She has worked on a vast array of complex social, technical and economic issues with leaders around the world. She has taught leadership, facilitation and Future Search principles to over 6000 people.
Organizations with whom she has worked include: IKEA, Haworth Furniture, 3M Plant Engineering, FAIRWAY Filamentos, Brazilian Institute of Quality and Productivity, Quaker Foods Topeka Pet Foods Division, British Airways, Whole Foods Market, Federal Aviation Administration, World Bank, Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Ashridge Business School, Johns Hopkins University, The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and Tearfund Foundation.
Sandra has also worked with communities around the world. With UNICEF’s Operation Life Line Sudan, she supported an initiative titled Finding a Future for the Children of South Sudan during the North/South Sudanese civil war. This resulted in a Future Search in South Sudan to demobilize child soldiers and over 13,000 children were released and sent back to their homes. In Uganda, she worked on a national initiative to end violence against children in schools. This addressed issues of corporal punishment, rape and other violent acts. In Northern Ireland, she supported a city-wide effort for a unified regeneration plan for Derry-Londonderry after decades of sectarian violence. Also in Northern Ireland, she worked with the cities of Strabane, Coleraine and the county of Fermanagh to engage all stakeholders in formulating their own integrated economic plans. Currently she is supporting the community surrounding Lough Neagh to develop shared ownership and usage of Lough in the face of centuries of contention. In 2004, she consulted to a public/private sector initiative in Southwest Michigan, U.S. that undertook regional economic and social Sandra Janoff, PhD Biography
She was a staff member at The Tavistock Institute of Human Relations in Oxford, England. She has run training workshops in Systems-Oriented group dynamics. She is co-author with Yvonne Agazarian of “Systems Thinking and Small Groups” for the Comprehensive Textbook of Group Psychotherapy. Her dissertation research on the relationship between structure and behavior, specifically, moral reasoning and legal education was lead article in the University of Minnesota Law Review.
Sandra directs the international Future Search Network and is co-author of Future Search: Getting the Whole System in the Room for Vision, Commitment, and Action (3rd edition, 2010), Don’t Just Do Something, Stand There! Ten Principles for Leading Meetings that Matter (2007) and Lead More, Control less: Eight Advanced Leadership Skills that Overturn Convention (2015).
Michael Donnelly, Co-Director of Future Search Network has been involved in Future Search processes for over 25 years. His introduction to Future Search began at the time of the Good Friday Peace Agreement when it became an instrumental part of rebuilding civil society and functioning government infrastructure that had been decimated in the 30 year conflict.
Michael’s background is in Sustainable Development, having completed a Masters in Environment and Development at the University of KwaZuluNatal in South Africa where his studies and experience led him to recognise the relationship between people and nature as being critical to achieving enduring peace, viability and prosperity. This was perhaps the first genuinely cross cutting agenda to have emerged from global bodies like the UN and that had direct implications for communities, organizations and nations everywhere. That sensibility led Michael to see Future Search as being an approach that not just recognises the complexity and diversity of the issues in today’s society, but that actively embraces that diversity as a fundamental part of how we are.
In his Future Search journey Michael has traveled far and wide both as a facilitator and as a trainer, helping others to access the principles and to deploy them where they are. Michael co-designed the Future Search in Virtual Space process – the online version of Future Search. That process has been used by the United Nations and by
At home he has worked on issues like addressing the legacy of violence, doing dialogues with Victims and Survivor Groups. He has also facilitated whole system processes with non-profits, Local Government, Central Government, and International Organisations on issues of social change like Suicide Prevention, Mental Health, and Peace Building. Together with Sandra and Allan, he co-designed Future Search in Virtual Space, the process that brings the entire Future Search process online.
In recent years he has been proud of his Citizen Engagement work alongside Involve, the UK based public participation specialist where he has supported work on Citizen’s Assemblies like the UK People’s Plan for Nature, The Climate Assembly UK, for UK Parliament, the management of river and lake resources for the UK Environment Agency, The Future of Democracy in the UK for UCL, and on Scotland’s Future for the Scottish Government.
Internationally, he is Co Director of the non-profit Future Search Network, a partner at Future Search Associates, and Senior Associate at Involve.
Allan Kobernick has been involved with Future Search Associates since its founding in 1991. Over the years he has been connected to all of the developments and refinements of the meeting process. He participated in Future Searches with Haworth Furniture, Whole Foods Market, Advanta Corporation, Topeka Pet Foods, InterAmerican Development Bank, Robert Wood Johnson, U.S. Food & Drug Administration and UNICEF initiatives in Sudan, Uganda and Maldives. Allan brings an extensive background in the media arts to his consulting practice. He has documented numerous Future Searches. Two award winning Future Search documentaries, Children of Southern Sudan and Discovering Community can be viewed on www.futuresearch.net. Allan holds a Bachelor of Philosophy Degree from Monteith College, a Master’s Degree from Temple University and postgraduate studies at the London School of Film and The New Experimental College in Denmark.
Danielle is the person who keeps us honest. She manages all our money and members and is the best support a Network could ask for. We love Danielle’s energy and all the experience she brings from her work as an entrepreneur in the lifestyle and retail space. Nothing fazes Danielle, she has over the years worked as a leader of large organizations and she is equally comfortable running small boutiques! When you come knocking on our door you’ll meet Danielle and she’ll have a great welcome for you!
