We humans have a strong tendency to want to see a clear end to what we do. It’s understandable. When something is “done” it gives a sense of progress, control and a completed effort. It’s also why so much of our everyday lives are organized as projects, with a beginning, a middle and an end. But what happens when the things we’re working on isn’t really something that will be finished?
What happens when we treat changing, living systems as if they were temporary, bounded tasks?
When does your project actually end?
Imagine you’re going to develop a new website for your organization. Usually we approach the task as a project. We set a deadline, define a delivery date and put all our energy into making it look very nice and to work that very day. But in reality, a website is never finished. It’s a living interface between the business and the outside world. It has to adapt to new needs, new users and changing technical conditions. If we instead see the website from the beginning as something we’ll manage, change and develop over many years, our priorities change. Then it becomes more important to choose a platform that can be further developed. It becomes crucial to build relationships with a supplier we trust and to create internal structures to collect and act on feedback. Suddenly it is less about having a nice image on the front page and more about being able to develop the site together with the needs of users over perhaps 20 years.
A world full of time-bound projects?
This applies to far more areas than websites. Developing a product, starting a business, designing a residential area or driving change in a municipality, all of these are examples of initiatives that we like to treat as if they have a clear end. But they do not. Products need service, updating and further development. Cities are constantly changing, in relation to people’s lives, climate change and new mobility patterns. An idea that something is “finished” can lead to rigidity, lack of responsiveness and substandard decisions over time.
Infinite mindset
Instead, adopting a so-called “infinite mindset”, i.e. an approach where we see what we create as ongoing, changes everything. It shifts our focus from delivery to learning, from one-off solutions to capacity. It makes us prioritize systems that last, people who can act in change, and structures that allow us to be flexible rather than fixed.
When we adopt this perspective, several important shifts occur. We begin to see platforms and tools as long-term investments rather than quick fixes. We look for relationships that last over time, rather than suppliers who only perform on one occasion. We care more about how we organize ourselves to be able to be in constant change than how nice something is on launch day.
A different approach to what we take on
It also changes how we lead creative processes. If we believe that innovation should only happen at the beginning of a project, with a few workshops or an idea phase, we risk missing out on its true potential. Creativity needs space over time. It needs nourishment, reflection, feedback, and the courage to let go of what you just thought was the right path. When we realize that creativity is not a one-time effort but a constant state, we also understand that innovation requires systems that allow this state to exist. It is about how we lead, how we value curiosity and how we encourage exploration even when we are in the middle of everyday operational tasks.
An example is product development. If the goal is to produce something finished, we risk creating something that is difficult to repair, update or adapt. But if we assume that the product will need to live and change in line with the needs of the users, we prioritize other values. We build for sustainability, we design for circularity and we plan for service. Then a launch does not become the end point, but just a step in a longer relationship.
This applies to urban development too. If we treat a new district as a project that ends with moving in, we miss the whole organic life that will then take place. But if we instead see the city as an ecosystem in constant motion, it becomes clear that the most important thing is how we create structures for co-creation, management, the ability to change and collective learning. Then innovation will not be a temporary feature but a cornerstone of everyday life.
Continuous processes
Thinking in continuous processes requires us to ask new questions. How do we build systems that can cope with continuous change? How do we support people to be able to and want to be in what is never completely finished? How do we create cultures that invite reflection, experimentation and long-term commitment?
When we start to see what we do not as projects with clear ends, but as relationships over time, then we also understand that the most important thing is not to get something finished, but to create something that can live, change and continue to make a difference. In a fast-moving world, it is not those who finish who win, but those who learn to continue.
