Making sense of innovation: A future perfect approach

2011 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 448-458 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lars Fuglsang ◽  
Jan Mattsson
Keyword(s):  
Project Management ◽  
Software Development ◽  
Recent Case ◽  
The Past ◽  
Making Sense ◽  
The Future ◽  
Future Challenges

AbstractThe idea of this paper is to develop a sensemaking tool that can help managers to generate a more asserted approach to innovation. A tool can be defined as something which is needed to perform an action – like innovation. We see innovation as ‘an improvisational dynamics of “moving to” the future’ (Pye, 2005) and use the concept of future perfect thinking (Weick, 1979, 1995), which has been lately debated in studies of project management (Pitsis, Clegg, Marosszeky, & Rura-Polley, 2003; Winch & Kreiner, 2009), to develop a tool that can reduce the perceived uncertainty of innovation. The key in future perfect thinking is to treat the future as something that has already happened in the past and thereby reducing the perceived open-endedness of the future. We suggest, more particularly, that verbal reflections on future challenges by relevant employees can help state the future as something that has a deeper, more stable and more practical meaning. The sensemaking tool is illustrated in a recent case of software development.

Making sense of innovation: A future perfect approach

2011 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 448-458 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lars Fuglsang ◽  
Jan Mattsson
Keyword(s):  
Project Management ◽  
Software Development ◽  
Recent Case ◽  
The Past ◽  
Making Sense ◽  
The Future ◽  
Future Challenges

AbstractThe idea of this paper is to develop a sensemaking tool that can help managers to generate a more asserted approach to innovation. A tool can be defined as something which is needed to perform an action – like innovation. We see innovation as ‘an improvisational dynamics of “moving to” the future’ (Pye, 2005) and use the concept of future perfect thinking (Weick, 1979, 1995), which has been lately debated in studies of project management (Pitsis, Clegg, Marosszeky, & Rura-Polley, 2003; Winch & Kreiner, 2009), to develop a tool that can reduce the perceived uncertainty of innovation. The key in future perfect thinking is to treat the future as something that has already happened in the past and thereby reducing the perceived open-endedness of the future. We suggest, more particularly, that verbal reflections on future challenges by relevant employees can help state the future as something that has a deeper, more stable and more practical meaning. The sensemaking tool is illustrated in a recent case of software development.

Information Systems Outsourcing in Large Companies

2012 ◽  
pp. 1554-1568
Author(s):  
Mark Leeney ◽  
João Varajão ◽  
António Trigo Ribeiro ◽  
Ricardo Colomo-Palacios
Keyword(s):  
Project Management ◽  
Information Systems ◽  
Software Development ◽  
Focus Attention ◽  
Communications Networks ◽  
Republic Of Ireland ◽  
The Past ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Republic ◽  
Indispensable Tool

Information systems outsourcing is an indispensable tool in the management of information systems. The set of services contracted to outside suppliers, originally more limited to services of an operational nature, has expanded over the past two decades, and today there is a wide range of services subject to outsourcing. Among them are: the hiring of software development; maintenance of applications; services and communications networks; security of information systems; and many others. Depending on the nature of the services contracted and on the range that the contracting of services has on departments of information systems, the issues involved in project management vary considerably. This article presents the results of a survey conducted among large companies in the Republic of Ireland to characterize, among other things, the range of services that are most often outsourced. The results are relevant in the sense that not only do they enable a better understanding of the reality of information systems departments of large Irish companies, but also enable the management to focus attention on specific services.

Copiers do not collaborate

2014 ◽  
pp. 64-66
Author(s):  
Maurice Alford
Keyword(s):  
Secondary Schools ◽  
Theoretical Foundation ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Future ◽  
Future Challenges ◽  
The Status ◽  
Part Time

I’ve been teaching since 1973, some in area schools, some in intermediates, but mostly in secondary schools. Throughout my career I have enjoyed studying part-time, and in 2004 I was privileged to spend the year as an e-Fellow. I’m still studying, still reflecting on education in general and teaching in particular, and still very interested in what it means to be working in this space, what it means to be a teacher. In this piece I am therefore writing primarily with my colleagues in mind—I am writing for the classroom practitioners of today who are the teachers of the future. The ideas of connectedness and collaboration that I discuss here are based on what I have learned from my own practice. Built on a firm theoretical foundation, they represent my synthesis of education wisdom and philosophy. They are intended to challenge the status quo and to provoke change, just as the future challenges us to learn from the past but move from the present.

MAKING SENSE OF THE WAYS WE MAKE SENSE OF THE PAST: THE PERIODO PROJECT

2016 ◽  
Vol 59 (2) ◽  
pp. 42-55 ◽  
Author(s):  
ADAM RABINOWITZ ◽  
RYAN SHAW ◽  
SARAH BUCHANAN ◽  
PATRICK GOLDEN ◽  
ERIC KANSA
Keyword(s):  
Data Visualization ◽  
Data Model ◽  
Linked Data ◽  
Digital Data ◽  
The Past ◽  
Making Sense ◽  
The Future ◽  
History Of ◽  
Future Direction

Abstract The PeriodO project seeks to fill a gap in the landscape of digital antiquity through the creation of a Linked Data gazetteer of period definitions that transparently record the spatial and temporal boundaries assigned to a given period by an authoritative source. Our presentation of the PeriodO gazetteer is prefaced by a history of the role of periodization in the study of the past, and an analysis of the difficulties created by the use of periods for both digital data visualization and integration. This is followed by an overview of the PeriodO data model, a description of the platform's architecture, and a discussion of the future direction of the project.

Information Systems Outsourcing in Large Companies

2011 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 44-58 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Leeney ◽  
João Varajão ◽  
António Trigo Ribeiro ◽  
Ricardo Colomo-Palacios
Keyword(s):  
Project Management ◽  
Information Systems ◽  
Software Development ◽  
Focus Attention ◽  
Communications Networks ◽  
Republic Of Ireland ◽  
The Past ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Republic ◽  
Indispensable Tool

Information systems outsourcing is an indispensable tool in the management of information systems. The set of services contracted to outside suppliers, originally more limited to services of an operational nature, has expanded over the past two decades, and today there is a wide range of services subject to outsourcing. Among them are: the hiring of software development; maintenance of applications; services and communications networks; security of information systems; and many others. Depending on the nature of the services contracted and on the range that the contracting of services has on departments of information systems, the issues involved in project management vary considerably. This article presents the results of a survey conducted among large companies in the Republic of Ireland to characterize, among other things, the range of services that are most often outsourced. The results are relevant in the sense that not only do they enable a better understanding of the reality of information systems departments of large Irish companies, but also enable the management to focus attention on specific services.

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