Based on our highly-rated Visual Management for Competitive Advantage: MIT’s Approach to Efficient and Agile Work program, this six-week online course broadens access to the knowledge of industry thought leaders such as Nelson Repenning and Donald Kieffer, who integrated decades of industry practice and academic investigation to create Dynamic Work Design. The online program offers those who would previously be limited in accessing the on-campus course the opportunity to engage with a portion of the content in a flexible way, through a highly collaborative and supportive online environment. You’ll learn to implement improvement strategies naturally in your everyday work, not from a prescribed list, but from a deep personal understanding of the principles.

Unplanned events happen in all businesses — from communication breakdowns and the rise and fall of costs, to tighter turnaround times and employee disengagement. Use these pain points to lead improvement strategies and innovation in your organization with this online program, which will expose you to the principles and development of Dynamic Work Design from the very creators of this sustainable operations improvement methodology. This program aims to teach you how to implement continuous improvement strategies into your organization’s work design, as well as change the way you think about your own work and role as a leader within a particular area of improvement.

As a participant in this course, you can expect a rigorous curriculum that covers:

• How to go about justifying the need for a dynamic approach to business process design
• How to incorporate discovery into visualizing, doing, and managing the work
• How to improve output by regulating the work stream with the “airplane door” and “funnel” strategies
• The five principles of Dynamic Work Design
• The three key structures of visualizing work and how, along with a discovery and solutions-driven mindset, it supports effective problem solving

We do not recommend this program to past participants of Visual Management for Competitive Advantage: MIT’s Approach to Efficient and Agile Work (or Implementing Improvement Strategies) unless you are looking for a refresher.

Upon successful completion of your course, you will earn a certificate of completion from the MIT Sloan School of Management. This course may also count toward MIT Sloan Executive Certificate requirements.

Participants in this program will be equipped to implement the principles of Dynamic Work Design in order to solve organizational issues and design effective improvement strategies they can implement in their unique contexts.

The program will enable them to

• Understand the principles and approaches that drive improvement and apply them in all areas of an organization
• Develop inquiry and evidence-based problem-solving skills for themselves and their organizations
• Ensure business targets and improvement activities are tightly linked at every level
• Experience the benefit of increased employee engagement as a result of well-designed work
• Inspire the move from “controlling” to “enabling” in their management styles

If you ever wondered what Dynamic Work Design would look like in one picture...

The recommended weekly time commitment for core content is 4-5 hours, taking into account the busy lifestyles of working professionals, with an additional 2-3 hours recommended for non-compulsory weekly extension activities, should you have the time. Each module is released weekly, allowing a flexible but structured approach to learning. You’ll be supported as you engage in individual activities and group discussions, ensuring you feel confident to submit your best work at each weekly deadline.

Learn more about the self-paced online experience.

Learn more about GetSmarter technical requirements.

This course is designed to empower executives and managers with the skills they need to refine business processes through an integrated improvement methodology.

Whether you’re in healthcare, logistics, urban planning, engineering, financial services, education, NGOs, government — or any other industry that is people-focused — you’ll benefit from what this program has to offer. Considering this course instills a mindset focused on “making things better”, it would be valuable to anyone in a management position. If you’re looking to adopt and lead the principles of improvement for the benefit of your organization, no matter what position you hold, this course is relevant to you.

This program is for you if:

• You want insights from industry leaders you can use to discover opportunities for improvement across all areas of your organization
• You want to become an enabler by leveraging the relationship between smart work design and the employee engagement that follows
• You’re driven to earn a certificate of completion from a top-tier university as recognition of your skills and knowledge in the field

We do not recommend this program to past participants of Visual Management for Competitive Advantage: MIT’s Approach to Efficient and Agile Work (or Implementing Improvement Strategies) unless you are looking for a refresher.

GetSmarter™, a brand of 2U, Inc., partners with the world's leading universities to select, design and deliver premium online short courses with a data-driven focus on learning gain.

Technology meets academic rigor in our people-mediated model which enables lifelong learners across the globe to obtain industry-relevant skills that are certified by the world’s most reputable academic institutions.