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The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science
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Unfreezing the Future

Exploring the Dynamic of Time in Organizational Change

Ronald E. Purser

San Francisco State University

Jack Petranker

Center for Creative Inquiry

Episodic attempts at organizational change have proven to be unable to keep pace with continuous change. The challenge of emergent and continuous change calls for newways of understanding time, particularly with regards to knowing the future. This article begins by reviewing classic organizational change theory in terms of its underlying temporal assumptions along with its epistemological stance toward effecting change in time. Drawing on the ideas of Henri Bergson, an alternative view of time as a dynamic flow— or duration—is presented, suggesting that linear, detached, and episodic methods lack knowledge of the future as a temporal dynamic and that popular visioning approaches that rely on future perfect assumptions fail to engage that dynamic directly. The authors propose that the future is unconditioned, what they refer to as the future infinitive. Knowing the future directly through deep improvisation bypasses sense making in favor of cultivating presence and acting in real time.

Key Words: organizational change • time • future orientation • vision • sense making • action inquiry

The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, Vol. 41, No. 2, 182-203 (2005)
DOI: 10.1177/0021886304268157
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J. Petranker
The When of Knowing
Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, June 1, 2005; 41(2): 241 - 259.
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