Understanding Organizational Strategy and Capabilities is a 4-week online course that delves into the strategic perspective of leading change, focusing on formal strategic thinking, dynamic work design, and visual work management.
This course is designed to introduce participants to MIT's concept of "Dynamic Work Design," which enables teams to drive an organization's mission forward while prioritizing value creation for end-users. Participants will learn to develop new processes by applying the Four Principles of Dynamic Work Design to break down product systems into individual tasks, relationships, and entities, facilitating more effective organization and conceptualization of work.
The course is suitable for ambitious technical professionals and entrepreneurs in various sectors, including business, industry, government, and other organizations, at all levels. It aims to enhance participants' soft skills, add value to their teams and organizations, enable effective change leadership, and facilitate peak performance.
The coursework includes video lectures, real-world case studies, and interactive projects, with a focus on peer review to apply the skills learned. Assessments consist of practice activities with immediate feedback, learning scenarios, self-reflection, and peer and TA discussions.
The course explores the importance and relevance of organizational strategy and capability and their impact on change implementation. Participants will practice aligning teams, products, and efforts with organizational strategy.
In the first week, participants will be introduced to formal strategic thinking, identify key elements of strategy, and examine implementation examples from the Broad Institute and other case studies. They will also explore their own organization's strategy and the interplay between their work and organizational strategy.
The second week focuses on understanding and analyzing products as systems, identifying value creation, and analyzing potential system failures. Participants will break down a product into its component systems to analyze its parts and subsystems.
In the third week, participants will explore the concept of capability as an analytical framework for evaluating organizational strategy. They will examine challenges organizations face in implementing change, adopting new tools, processes, and strategies, and leverage the Dual Process model of cognition to understand and implement successful work design strategies. Additionally, participants will begin to learn the fundamental principles of the Dynamic Work Design framework.
The fourth week is dedicated to a comprehensive understanding of the theory and practice of Dynamic Work Design. Participants will explore the four principles through real-world case studies, which provide examples of challenges and solutions relevant to each principle. They will also learn how the framework facilitates effective visual management.
By the end of the course, participants will have gained an understanding of the significance of a strategic perspective on leadership and change. They will have acquired the skills necessary to analyze the structure of their organizations, navigate the interplay of strategy, planning, and work design, and effectively lead teams.