FUTURE IMAGINARIES IN ORGANIZATIONS
a research through design approach
Approach
Applied Research
Design Thinking
Future Thinking
Output
Method Develop
Intervention
Workshop
Team
Time
3 Month
Context
The 2020s have been marked by various crises that challenge to engage with one's own future expectations. Above all, they determine our current way of thinking, acting and behaving. – For this reason, they are so relevant for modern management to address present and adequately future uncertainties, developments and perspectives of the organization members. Significance increases when future-shaping innovation labs are involved.
The master thesis delivers a method to identify future imaginaries through applied design research. – The result is to enable organizations to act in uncertain times and for a better understanding of the culture clash in organizations. This can be found, in e.g. different subdivisions of a company, between the exploitation or exploration culture.
How might we
use future studies to facilitate an understanding of different working cultures?
Future Imaginary
"Future images, visions and scenarios are ideas about the future conceived and propagated by individuals or groups. When these images of the future are so present in society that they are no longer questioned and guide actions without reflection, they have become future imaginaries."
Challenge
The task was to find an approach to examining an assumed culture clash objectively. Different work cultures have different ways of working, habits and structures, which is fine so far, but this can lead to a lack of understanding between cultures. Often the superficial problems get stuck because the issue arises at a subconscious level of the organization members.
The clash between innovation labs (explore) and organizations (exploit) is rooted in a deeper layer.
How might we
identify future imaginaries to improve organization members' understanding?
The research through design approach allows to design futures and draw insights for the present.
Approach
The first step was to research the culture clash in companies. After interviewing both cultures, it became clear that traditional methods could not solve this problem.
So after the brief was redefined, a method arose from a combination of research through design and future studies. The approach is based on a cultural probe, composed of different chapters in order to identify individual future expectations. The experiment was set up in different four companies with innovation labs. The individual responses allowed an interpretation of the raw data and interpreted to individual future expectations of the organization members. The evaluation showed the collective presumed future imaginaries of the two working cultures. The expectations were contrasted and returned for a discoursive workshop back to the organization for a final reflection and verification.
Prototyping the research tool, which combines traditional field research with future studies.
Result
The "Experiment Future Expectations" was an indirect way of communication, about future imaginaries and resulted in returns from participants of 4 organizations. The expectations were brought to the surface in different layers by five chapters of the experiment. According to research through design, methodical interpretation shaped a report, scenario and artifact and made the presumed future imaginaries tangible. – The results were fed back for review in a discourse to provide impulses for the present against arosen uncertainties and to uncover the members' unconscious expectations.
The developed method is useful for examining future imaginaries, addressing unreflective expectations and promoting a cross-departmental understanding. – The method is ideal for modern management, to create a better assessment and control of uncertainties for the coming years for members, groups and the whole organization.
5 Chapters
5 Days
5 Minutes
Profile
The opening question was about self-efficacy in relation to the future. By displaying the axes of personal influence on the y- and assessment of optimism or pessimism on the x-axis.
Photo Diary
The question was to reflect on the environment in the near and distant future with 10 self-photographed motifs.
Association
The question was to rate the probability and optimistic/pessimistic evaluation of certain megatrends according to the various categories.
Journey
The question was about reflection in the context of ones own working through a fictional map with stickers for one's career path 10 years ago, today and 10 years from now.
Message
The question job was to reflect on the final thoughts of the last chapters, with a letter to oneself present from written in 2042.
The Process of Experiment Future Expectations
Evaluation
For an exemplary analysis, a company was examined in more detail. It was found that the members' presumed future imaginaries did not differ significantly. Rather unexpected commonalities were uncovered.
Discourse
The goal of the following discourse was to verify the presumed future imaginaries. The talk about resistances and similarities made the experiment meaningless as desired and only the message remained as a fundament for a shared connecting basic understanding.
The Four Design Research Principles
Learnings
The project promotes a future-oriented mindset for companies. We left the academic track and placed the project straight into the field. Lately, the work gets selected for exhibition at the Munich PUSH UX Conference 2022.
The developed method could also find appliance to other contexts, so we wrote research papers, which gets published at the end of 2023. In addition, we designed a workshop that will get used at the Futures Conference 2023 in Turku and the MediaLab Bayern.
Working as a team of two was challenging. We faced difficult decisions and changing conditions. Thanks to good communication and collaboration, we managed them effectively. – In my role, I proved a sense of purpose and communicative effectiveness within the team and in interactions with organizational contacts and managers. In doing so, transparent coordination was essential to achieving our goals despite some illnesses.
