In­vi­ta­tion to @bout time se­mi­nar with Jen­ni­fer Whyte

Making futures that matter: Insights from design and project-based organizing

With Jennifer Whyte, Professor, School of Project Management, University of Sydney, and Professor of Systems Integration, Imperial College London  

Abstract

How can organizations make better futures? Research has a renewed interest in the problematic temporal category of the future, as organizations’ impacts on nature as well as on social and material futures become clear. Yet, extant research is limited in explaining how organizations can improve their future-making practices.

Future-making is the work of making sense of possible and probable futures, and evaluating, negotiating and giving form to preferred ones. As I will outline in the seminar, it contrasts to approaches such as foreseeing, projection, future-perfect and imagining. Scholars of future-making are concerned with the practices through which futures are re-presented and worked on in the present to both imagine and realize futures.

This seminar draws on empirical studies of future-making in design and project-based organizing to consider how organizations can make better futures. It proposes an approach to theorizing future-making as inquiry. It examines how organisations and communities navigate the uncertainty of the not-yet, how values inform their imagined futures, and why some futures become realised while others do not. In so doing it seeks to open a dialogue between future-making and other approaches to time and temporality in organizations.

Biography 

Jennifer Whyte is a Professor of Project Management at the University of Sydney, and a Professor of Systems Integration at Imperial College London. She is visiting CBS until January 2027.

Her current research is on future-making. Her research includes a trajectory of work on visual practices, future-making and inquiry, and another on the challenges of large-scale organizing through leadership in megaprojects, systems integration, digital innovation, and the dynamics of innovation and change across organizations. Her empirical focus is on infrastructure and construction, where she has studied interactions in a range of design, project, and new venture settings.

Jennifer is a Senior Editor at Organization Studies. Her work has been published in leading journals including Journal of Management Studies, Long Range Planning, Organization Theory, Organization Studies, Project Management Journal, Research Policy and Strategic Organization. 

This is a hybrid event, so you can attend either at CBS or via the Teams link above.

Questions regarding the seminar can be sent to Joana Geraldi, jge.ioa@cbs.dk