Visual Management for Competitive Advantage: MIT’s Approach to Efficient and Agile Work

MIT Sloan School of Management

Operations

About Programme

Why attend Visual Management for Competitive Advantage?

This leadership course helps executives and managers understand how continuous improvement strategies, sustained over a long period of time, affect core business metrics and business development strategy, and contribute to the success of the organization. As a participant in this course, you’ll gain a fundamental understanding of how visual management—specifically Dynamic Work Design—can help you find and fix issues in workflow, make improvements in real time, and create competitive advantage.

Dynamic Work Design was co-created by Nelson Repenning and Don Keiffer after a combined 20+ years of integrated industry practice and academic investigation, and further refined with insights and expertise provided by Sheila Dodge. This method leverages and builds on familiar process improvement techniques with which you may be familiar, including Lean Six Sigma, Agile, PDCA cycles, Kanban, and others, adapting and applying them to knowledge work and smart work design. You will:

Learn how to implement this technique in your own organization directly from two of its creators

Discover how the process of visual management can help you identify the value-added elements of your own work and that of your organization

Identify opportunities for improving and get started based on a framework of principles and methods

Bring a current “headache” you’re facing in your organization to workshop and receive personalized feedback on an action plan you can implement immediately. You will leave this senior leadership course with practical real-world examples and an action plan that focuses on one simple (yet impactful) problem to solve over twelve months. Ultimately this will set the foundation for making additional incremental (and feasible) operational improvements and savings within your organization.

We do not recommend this program to past participants of Business Process Design for Strategic Management unless you are looking for a refresher.

Course Topics

Programme Content

Day 1

8:00 AM – 8:30 AM

Registration and Continental Breakfast

8:30 AM – 9:15 AM

Program Objectives and Key Concepts

9:15 AM – 11:00 AM

Why Do We Need to Think About Business Dynamics? (with break)

11:00 AM – 12:15 PM

Introduction to Dynamic Work Design and its Principles

12:15 PM – 1:00 PM

Lunch

1:00 PM – 2:30 PM

Solve the Right Problem (and Solve the Problem Right)

2:30 PM – 3:15 PM

Dynamic Work Design in Practice

3:15 PM – 4:45 PM

Structure for Discovery (with break)

Day 2

8:30 AM – 10:15 AM

Recap Discussion and Practitioner's Perspective

10:15 AM – 11:30 AM

Mapping Exercise

11:30 AM – 12:15 PM

Case Study: Improving Supply Chain Performance

12:15 PM – 1:00 PM

Lunch

1:00 PM – 2:00 PM

Introduction to Visual Management

2:00 PM – 2:30 PM

Executive Certificate Ceremony

2:30 PM – 3:45 PM

Transformation at Broad Institute

3:45 PM– 4:15 PM

Wrap Up and Next Steps

Day 1

10:00 AM – 11:00 AM

Introduction and Program Objectives

11:00 AM – 11:15 AM

Break

11:15 AM – 12:15 PM

Practitioner's Perspective

12:15 PM – 1:00 PM

Break

1:00 PM– 2:30 PM

Why Do We Need to Think About Dynamics?

2:30 PM– 2:45 PM

Break

2:45 PM – 4:00 PM

Introduction to Dynamic Work Design and its Principles

4:00 PM – 4:45 PM

Questions and Coaching (optional)

Day 2

10:00 AM – 11:15 AM

Solve the Right Problem (and Solve the Problem Right)

11:15 AM – 11:30 AM

Break

11:30 AM – 12:30 PM

Structure for Discovery

12:30 PM – 1:15 PM

Break

1:15 PM – 2:15 PM

Connect the Human Chain

2:15 PM – 2:30 PM

Break

2:30 PM – 3:30 PM

Human Chain Mapping Exercise

3:30 PM – 4:15 PM

Case Study: Improving Supply Chain Performance

Day 3

10:00 AM – 11:15 AM

Regulate the Flow

11:15 AM – 11:30 AM

Break

11:30 AM – 12:15 PM

Introduction to Visual Management

12:15 PM – 12:25 PM

Certificate Ceremony

12:25 PM – 1:15 PM

Break

1:15 PM – 2:15 PM

Transformation at Broad Institute

2:15 PM – 3:00 PM

Questions and Coaching (optional)

Programme Objective

The main purpose of this program is two-fold:

To help you understand how continuous improvement strategies, sustained over a long period of time, affect core business metrics and contribute to the success of the organization, from bottom-up and top-down perspectives

To change how you see work and your own role as a leader in the culture of improvement

This program will enable you to:

Understand the principles and approaches that drive improvement; and apply them in all areas in the context of a particular company, thus creating a tangible culture of continuous improvement

Implement improvement naturally in your everyday work, not from a prescribed list, but from a deep personal understanding of the principles

Recognize successful improvement initiatives already in place and build on them

Identify the true value-added aspects of work performed by individual workers and the entire organization

Ensure that business targets and improvement strategies are tightly linked at every level

Develop inquiry and evidence-based problem-solving skills for individuals and organizations

Transform from “controller” to “enabler” by leveraging the relationship between designing the work well and the engagement of employees that follows

Generate “pull” from within the organization for new methods of work

Implement “Visual Management”—a technique that makes problems visible so that they can be addressed constructively

Not just remove defects, but to design work correctly from the beginning

Programme Audience

The course is intended for executives, senior managers, and leaders from every sector. Managers at any level of responsibility will benefit from this program, but it's the senior leadership that should be able to embrace and champion the principles of improvement for the benefit of the entire organization. Here are some indicators that this program will be of value:

An organization's need for improvement is greater than its ability to deliver it

Company executives are drowning in data, emails, and meetings, and suffering under the weight of a large number of activities and initiatives, many of which are not focused on the important issues

Management behavior doesn’t change much or is actively resistant to improvement

Improvement strategies are not integrated into the company's work beyond that of the improvement department

There is lack of clear understanding how improvement methodologies and value-add apply to executives, knowledge workers, and technical and administrative staff in non-factory settings

We do not recommend this program to past participants of Business Process Design for Strategic Management unless you are looking for a refresher.

"The tools and knowledge learned in this class will definitely be brought back to my work and hopefully help our processes get refined and updated to better fit today's world. Could not recommend it more! I wish everyone at the company i work for would take this course."

"Highly effective methods, easy implementation for all executives. Visualization is an effective way to grab those tasks in your calendar that bring the most value for you and your organization. In this course, we had the chance to learn the concepts from real-world case studies and zoom into the tactical details as well."

Programme Benefits

Toolkit

Provides practical tools and methods for sustainable improvement efforts of any scale, in any industry, and in any function

Best Practices

Imparts a fundamental understanding of how visual management can help you find and fix issues in workflow, make improvements in real time, and create competitive advantage

1:1 Feedback

Offers personalized feedback on a current "headache" you're facing in your organization and an action plan you can implement immediately

Certificate

Earn a certificate of course completion from the MIT Sloan School of Management

Testimonials

"Valuable just for a proper explanation of Agile, its intention with workflow design and the goal of continuous improvement."

Matthew C

"Hello! I had a great time learning new techniques from the facilitators! Thank you! Jermaine J. Jones"

Jermaine J

"Loved everything about this course. The 2 teachers that we had in class (Nelson and Sheila) did a great job of reviewing multiple real-life scenarios and what tools were put in place to obtain the result they got. Also appreciated the involvement of the students and their opinions or thoughts or questions. The tools and knowledge learned in this class will definitely be brought back to my work and hopefully help our processes get refined and updated to better fit today's world. Could not recommend it more! I wish everyone at the company i work for would take this course. THANKYOU!"

Alexandra M

"Learning about my own personal innovation DNA and how successful leaders and organisations drive impactful innovation was incredibly insightful and inspiring... and I have applied these learnings with vigor! Kudos to Drs' Phil Budden and Hal Gregersen who were brilliant and crystalizing key concepts and are true masters of their craft."

John I

"Highly effective methods, easy implementation for all executives. Visualization is an effective way to grab those tasks in your calendar that bring the most value for you and your organization. In this course, we had the chance to learn the concepts from real-world case studies and zoom into the tactical details as well."

Adam H

"A little more energy from presenter"

Isaiah G

"Easily the best on-site education I have ever experienced. Amazingly knowledgable team at MIT and great friendly customer service throughout the process. 1010"

Adam T

"The Visual Management Course was intriguing at first, and all-consuming throughout. I found myself feverishly noting how I could apply the principles towards my immediate challenges, while noting how I could further optimize thereafter. As my tenth course towards my ACE, this was easily my favorite and most immediately applicable."

Bill A

"This was among the most usefulhelpful courses that I have taken as a part of my certificate. Highly recommended!"

Jon S

"it was a wery inspirating course now we try acting with this rules."

Krzysztof R

Testimonial Source

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Contact us for the further details

Speak with an Advisor

Pedagogy (case method, experiential learning, coaching, simulations)
Contact Person Details

Prashansa Uttam

Programme Advisor

+91 9403890085[email protected]Mon – Fri, 9am – 5pm IST

MIT Sloan School of Management

Executive Education Office

https://mitsloan.mit.edu

Cambridge, USA

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