The JANUS Initiative

Archaeological perspectives on understanding and managing change and innovation in organizations, businesses, communities, teams.

A research focus in next-generation Design Thinking.

Looking back that we might be better prepared for uncertain futures

A transdisciplinary research network focusing on human innovation and design experience in the past, present and future, the Janus Initiative is formally located in Stanford University’s Center for Design Research in the School of Engineering as well as in Stanford Archaeology Center. The initiative combines currents in design thinking, strategic foresight, scenario planning, design-based research, planning and implementation, organizational studies, archaeology, historiography, ethnography and anthropology.

The dynamics of building the future

Janus was the Roman divinity associated with transition, passages from pasts through to futures, windows, doorways and thresholds.

Simultaneously looking back and forward, Janus connects pasts and futures, gaining perspective with hindsight and foresight, finding orientation now, not by telling the story of the past, not by predicting what is to come, but by seeking relationships, passages, flows from the past, ways the past lingers to haunt, hinder, and inspire the building of the future.


keywords/tags: capacity building, business archaeology, creative confidence, design thinking, strategic foresight, innovation, historiography, archaeology, transdisciplinary collaboration, change management, social and cultural memory, organizational culture