Go ov ve er rn nm me en nt ta al li it ty y M Ma at tt te er rs s: : D De es si ig gn ni in ng g a an n A Al ll li ia an nc ce e C Cu ul lt tu ur re e o of f I In nt te er r-O Or rg ga an ni iz za at ti io on na al l C Co ol ll la ab bo or ra at ti io on n f fo or r M Ma an na ag gi in ng g P Pr ro oj je ec ct ts s

In this paper we investigate a uniquely complex organizational context-that of the fast-tracked large-scale project management of a significant piece of Sydney 2000 Olympic infrastructure, which we researched in terms of its management through the "future perfect." In a grounded analysis we resolved to track how the future perfect developed in the life of one large, complex project whose uniqueness meant that it was unable to be strategically planned in advance. We tracked the use of what we term "future perfect strategy" through analysis of data collected both in leadership meetings of the directing agency, "PALT"-Project Alliance Leadership Team-as well as in individual interviews that we conducted in and around the project, and through analysis of media coverage. Overall, the project was a success, but some problems arose along the way to completion. Largely, these were focused on issues of social rather than technical construction-something even the most strategic of plans cannot account for. As well as identifying some of the specific mechanisms for encouraging future perfect strategy that were used in the project, including encouraging "strange conversations," "playing end games," "workshopping," and "projecting feelings, concerns and issues," we also suggest some ways that the social construction issues might be handled in the future. (Interorganizational Collaboration; Project Management; Strategic Management; Future Perfect) The Future Perfect How do we deal with it now to avoid it later?This question was put by one of the Project Alliance Leadership Team members during the project that frames our reflections in this paper. In many respects, it is a quintessential management question-how to make the uncertainty attached to the future something that can be dealt with in advance of it occurring? There are many, equally quintessential, strategic management answersbut none of them frame this paper. Instead, we introduce the reader to a new conception, that of managing through the future perfect, an approach to strategic management that occurred in a context where planning was practically impossible. Out of this adversity-in which to plan was a luxury that could not be affordedemerged a new approach to strategic management.The concept of the future perfect is one that, for us, is rooted in the philosophy of Alfred Schütz (1967, p. 61), who defined the future perfect as the cognitive process by which an " actor projects his actions as if it were already over and done with and lying in the past Strangely enough, therefore, because it is pictured as completed, the planned act bears the temporal character of pastnessThe fact that it is thus pictured as if it were simultaneously past and future can be taken care of by saying that it is thought of in the future perfect tense." While many researchers and authors have adopted Schutz's notion of the future perfect (see

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The paper benefited greatly from comments from members of the Collaboration Research Group at UTS. The comments of two anonymous reviewers were also helpful in the writing of this paper. An earlier version of this paper is in the proceedings of the 2000 ASAC/IFSAM conference, Montreal, July. The paper benefited greatly from the keen editorial eye of Margaret Wilkins.

This paper investigates the theoretical challenges involved in developing an administrative innovation: managing collaborative quality. The emergence of new collaborative organizational forms has left managers in a quandary: how can they manage quality where several organizations come together to produce a product or deliver a service? In the past most quality definitions and techniques focused exclusively on intra-organizational quality. In strategic alliances, networks, project organizations and other collaborative arrangements, such an intra-organizational focus leads to severe limitations. This paper shows how the current status of collaboration and quality research poses serious challenges for companies that want to develop innovative approaches to managing collaborative quality.