About the Book
The greatest challenge of this century isn’t imagining a better future. It’s building the systems capable of bringing it to life.
In Possibility Sciences, Terry Young introduces a new discipline that explains why some bold ideas reshape the world while others stall—and how to create the conditions in which breakthroughs endure and compound.
Humanity has never possessed greater imaginative or technological capacity. Yet the institutions responsible for turning possibility into progress remain optimized for another era—rewarding short-term performance, incremental improvement, and operational efficiency over long-horizon transformation.
We are entering an era defined by the Possibility Gap: the widening distance between what humanity can imagine and what our systems are capable of realizing. Rather than asking what the future will be, Possibility Sciences asks a different question: How do breakthroughs actually emerge, spread, and redefine what’s possible?
Drawing on concepts such as Return on Future, Stickability, Stackability, Zero-Waste Innovation, Possibility Commons, Community-as-Laboratory, and Horizontal Combinatorial Innovation, Young presents an integrated architecture for enabling breakthrough ideas to move from possibility to lasting societal impact.
Written for leaders, innovators, entrepreneurs, policymakers, strategists, institution builders, and anyone committed to shaping a better future, Possibility Sciences is more than a book about innovation. It is the foundational introduction to a new discipline designed to move beyond prediction and incrementalism toward intentionally building the futures we want to create.
About the Author :
Terry Young is a founder, author, and field-builder who created Possibility Sciences, a new discipline for understanding why bold ideas reshape the world while others stall—and the conditions in which breakthrough ideas take root and compound. Drawing on systems thinking, social science, artificial intelligence, design thinking, network theory, exponential technologies, and public-interest technology, the discipline examines how societies expand our collective capacity to realize what once seemed impossible.
Young is the founder and former CEO of sparks & honey, the cultural intelligence consultancy that pioneered the cultural strategy industry and helped organizations anticipate emerging cultural shifts long before they became mainstream. Over twelve years of daily culture briefings, he developed new approaches for sensing weak signals, connecting ideas across disciplines, and translating cultural change into strategy, innovation, and long-term growth.
His career spans entrepreneurship, McKinsey & Company, and advising Fortune 500 companies, governments, nonprofits, and public institutions navigating disruption, reinvention, and long-horizon transformation. Across those settings, his work has remained focused on a single question: How do people and institutions become better at turning bold possibilities into reality?
A former Peace Corps volunteer in Uralsk, Kazakhstan, Young’s perspective has been shaped as much by lived experience as executive leadership. Those experiences working alongside local entrepreneurs, families, and community leaders continue to shape his thinking about how societies turn possibility into progress.
He is also the founder of the nonprofit Possibility Institute, established to advance Possibility Sciences through research, education, technology, and collaborative practice. Young lives in New York with his partner and two children.
Review :
"Possibility Sciences is an optimistic, energetic, innovative book. Buy it for anyone who wants to change the world and everyone who wants to understand why the world is so hard to change.” ––ANNE-MARIE SLAUGHTER, Bert G. Kerstetter ’66 University Professor Emerita of Politics and International Affairs, Princeton University
"The world faces large problems, and solving them requires breakthrough ideas — ideas that are made to happen. The tools available to us are remarkable and evolving fast. Yet the barriers to making bold ideas real have never been higher. In Possibility Sciences, Terry Young shows why our most ambitious visions keep shrinking to fit the systems around them — and gives us the discipline to change that. Not a book about ideation, but an architecture for endurance: how ideas stick, stack, and compound into reality. Read it if you’re serious about building the future, not just imagining it.” ––LAXMAN NARASIMHAN, Former CEO of Starbucks & Reckitt and Former Senior Partner of McKinsey & Co
"Possibility Sciences may read as romantic — even detached from the hard realities of business. inDrive's story tells me the opposite. Born in the coldest city on earth, cut off for years from capital and outside resources, built on nothing but a mission to fight unfairness, we grew into a global leader in affordable mobility. We never followed this framework — it didn't exist, and we moved by instinct and necessity. Yet reading Terry Young, I recognized our own path on many pages: mission held longer than any quarter, possibility built from scarcity rather than abundance, capability compounding until it outlived its founders. Terry named it — and made it teachable for the founders who come next. That is rare, and it is proof these ideas hold precisely where reality is hardest." ––ARSEN TOMSKY, Founder and CEO of inDrive
"A must-read for any business leader who wants to leave an admirable legacy that stretches beyond a few glorious quarters. By creating and subsequently housing diverse innovation initiatives inside his Possibility Commons, Terry Young builds a structure for invention that cross- pollinates and expands exponentially for all those who choose to become Possibilians." ––LYNNE GREENE, Former Global President of Estee Lauder Companies
"I've seen firsthand Terry Young's remarkable ability to help people see opportunities where others see obstacles. Possibility Sciences captures the wisdom, optimism, and curiosity that define his work, challenging readers to rethink what is possible and giving them the courage to act. It's a must-read for anyone who is brave enough to unleash their full creative potential." ––CARRIE MORGRIDGE, CEO and Co-Founder of Morgridge Family Foundation and Author of Every Gift Matters, The Spirit of the Trail, and Courage Money
“Possibility Sciences isn’t simply a new way to innovate; it’s a blueprint for expanding who gets to shape the future. Terry Young argues that the future shouldn’t be built by a privileged few. In Possibility Sciences, he offers the architecture for creating the institutions, capabilities, and culture that enable every community to shape and lead the future.” ––PAUL E. BUTLER, Interim CEO and President & Chief Transformation Officer of New America
"I have long admired Terry Young’s rare ability to see both the innovations our future requires and the hidden systems that keep them out of reach. At the heart of his work is a deeply human conviction: possibility should expand who gets to imagine, build, and benefit from the future. In Possibility Sciences, Terry gives us language and architecture for turning bold ideas into durable, shared progress—grounded in culture, lived reality, and the communities they are intended to serve. He is building a vital new discipline for shaping a future in which human ingenuity can benefit us all.” ––JENNIFER BROWN, Wall Street Journal Bestselling Author, Keynote Speaker, and Author of The Shape of Change
"I have spent much of my life asking under what conditions imagination can take hold, travel, and compound. Terry Young has taken up that question with unusual seriousness, and Possibility Sciences is a real contribution. He treats imagination not as a spark to wait for, but as something we can cultivate and structure. What he offers is not a set of answers, but a way of asking sharper questions—and turning them into a practice.” ––JOHN SEELY BROWN, Chief of Confusion, Former Co-Chairman of Deloitte’s Center for the Edge, and Former Chief Scientist of Xerox Corporation
"We are attempting to navigate a century of compounding complexity using institutional systems designed for a simpler, slower era. The resulting 'Possibility Gap' is not a failure of human imagination but of antiquated infrastructure. In this book, Terry Young outlines a disciplined framework that treats imagination not purely as an unpredictable spark, but as a structured, reusable, and measurable asset. By integrating system dynamics, collective intelligence, and open governance, Possibility Sciences provides a blueprint for building collaborative platforms like the Possibility Commons and implementing long-horizon, positive-sum “Return on Future” metrics. This grounded, systematic approach ensures our most ambitious ideas survive contact with reality and accumulate across generations." ––DR. VIVIENNE MING, Author of Robot-Proof, CEO of SOCOS, and Chief Scientist of Possibility Sciences
"Terry Young brilliantly reframes the central challenge of our age: not generating new ideas, but building the conditions for those ideas to flourish. Possibility Sciences is a compelling blueprint for entrepreneurs, investors, and leaders determined to turn bold possibilities into reality." ––DAVID BEATTY, Angel Investor and Co-Founder of Gaingels
"I have been fortunate along my journey in human performance to work across numerous advanced innovation labs, elite sports programs, organizational and military performance systems — and both participate in and study moonshot moments along the way. As such, I've come to recognise the organizational and systemic patterns that explain why a moonshot may succeed, but more likely, why they usually fail. Possibility Sciences names exactly what we see play out again and again: the gap between what a team or system is truly capable of and what its incentives will actually let it pursue. Terry Young has achieved something quite exquisite: he explains why bold ambitions so often get ground down by the systems around them, and then provides an actual architecture to overcome these obstacles — Return on Future, Zero-Waste Innovation, & the Possibility Commons are pragmatic doctrines to help understand and solve for some of society's greatest challenges. Quite simply, he has delivered an operating model for keeping a moonshot alive long enough to become real. At a moment when short-termism is arguably the single biggest constraint on progress, this is the framework the field has been missing." ––ANDY WALSHE, Human Performance Leader, Founding Partner & Co-Founder of Liminal Collective, and Former Red Bull High Performance Director
"In Possibility Sciences, Terry Young offers a powerful new discipline for navigating an era of unprecedented change. His insights on innovation, human-AI partnership, and institutional design provide a roadmap for leaders seeking to create lasting value in an increasingly complex world. A thought-provoking and timely contribution to the future of leadership and innovation." ––SANJAY PUROHIT, CEO and Chief Curator of the Centre For Exponential Change
"Possibility Sciences argues that true value lies in expanding our capacity to create over time with deeply integrated systems, rather than simply maximizing today's returns. Through the lens of zero-waste innovation, Terry Young explains how shelved initiatives, setbacks, and abandoned ideas can still become building blocks for long-term progress. From corporate leaders to policymakers to teachers, this is an essential read for anyone seeking practical tools to transform possibility into lasting impact." ––GERALDINE MORIBA, Founder & Former Executive at CNN, NBC News, & theGrio
"Terry Young has a name for what I see every day at Family Equality — and what I've lived myself: the 'Possibility Gap,' the space between what's possible for a family and what our systems are willing to recognize. His chapter on IVF resonates deeply because I've lived it, not just watched it unfold for the families we serve. I've seen families built through science, the courts, and sheer persistence, often years before society was ready to fully recognize them. Possibility Sciences doesn't just diagnose that gap with rare precision — it offers a practical framework for closing it. Anyone trying to build something the world isn't ready for yet should read this book." ––DARRA GORDON, CEO of Family Equality
