Welcome to 15.S61 Organizational Processes Summer 2023 – Sloan Fellows Professor Erin L. Kelly (elkelly@mit.edu) TAs: Victoria Zhang vzhang3@mit.edu Mikaela Springsteen msprings@mit.edu Course support: Ieva Paulauskaite (ieva@mit.edu) 1 Agenda: Introductions & Course Framework 1. Quick intro of teaching team 2. Course goals & approach 3. Firefighting & overcommitment discussion 2 3 5 Helping Behavior 6 Over & Carpenter 2009 6 7 8 Our Premise Leadership is about making change happen -Identify a smart strategy -Then implement the internal changes to make that happen -How to do that as smoothly as possible? 9 Our Premise -Insiders know their organization, industry best -Offer framework for full analysis -Understand why people do what they do à understand resistance to change à anticipate, move past that in the changes you lead 10 How does OP fit with your other classes? • In other classes, you learn to make plans to achieve business goals • But the best laid plans succeed or fail because of people • OP: how to lead people in organizations Diagnose problems Create action plans • MBAs as refugees? • Understand and leverage… with reality of people processes 11 What is OP? • OP : Social Science :: Engineering : Physics • Language of the Social Sciences - Probabilistic – “More Likely” vs. formulaic - About placing “better bets” - Complex and conditional stories - Part of reason to talk with peers 12 “The hard stuff is easy; it’s the soft stuff that is hard.” Ray Stata, founder Analog Devices 13 How we use cases in OP • • • • Not for newest, coolest setting or issue or protagonist Not because exemplars to copy Not because reveal a single right answer Provide a common grounding in a situation or dilemma to drive thinking and discussion - Dig into essential concepts or set up research findings - Pre-class questions prime our conversations • Again: Organizational actions are complex & overdetermined à always an error term, even with the best analysis 14 How we are using the OP (final) project • “Reflective case” as a learning platform - How have I managed change in the past? - What might I do differently in the future? • Past experience with a significant organizational change or on-going change initiative as your focal point for engaging, applying course materials • More on this tomorrow… 15 Grading • • This class is being graded on a pass/D/fail basis. Certain assignments must be completed satisfactorily to pass. • Attendance and active engagement is required. - Read case or other readings in advance. See questions in Canvas. - Participation is key for learning, but reward various modes in large class. - Minimum attendance of 10 of 15 sessions. 16 Readings and questions in Canvas Slides posted the evening after class. 17 Grading • • This class is being graded on a pass/D/fail basis. Certain assignments must be completed satisfactorily to pass. • Attendance and active engagement is required. - Read case or other readings in advance. See questions in Canvas. - Participation is key for learning, but reward various modes in large class. - Minimum attendance of 10 of 15 sessions. • • Complete the two memos (due July 29 and August 12). Goal of memos is to help develop final project paper and deepen your thinking. Complete the final project paper (due Aug 23, but earlier is fine). This paper should be complete, polished, and incorporate the feedback provided by the teaching team on the first and second memos. 18 Class time • Attendance and active engagement is critical for learning goals. - Highly interactive sessions - Connect with peers. Syllabus says: Another goal is to further develop your sense of community as Sloan Fellows and get to know your peers well enough that you can turn to each other for advice, support, and wisdom through the rest of this year and for decades to come. • No laptop or phone usage (without prior discussion with teaching team). • • On time, in seats, ready to engage for the full class period. Focused & respectful, which involves asking questions, different perspectives. 19 Repenning, Goncalves, & Black on Firefighting • Face a challenge in a project – seems external • Devote resources to that project (and pull them away from future projects) • “Pathology” that reduces quality, drives a “downward spiral” 22 Repenning, Goncalves, & Black Firefighting On existing projects (Over) Commitment To new projects given resources pulled 23 Repenning, Goncalves, & Black – even simpler Firefighting On existing projects (Over) Commitment To new projects given resources pulled 24 Why does this situation persist? • What is Repenning et al.’s answer? • Managers don’t know enough system dynamics… - Short term benefits = troubled projects get better - “Better before worse” dynamic not recognized - Blame the individuals or the specific challenge vs. see the reinforcing mechanisms of the system 27 Repenning, Goncalves, & Black Guidance 1. Don’t add anything new (technology improvement, process change) while resource constrained 2. Aggregate the planning and allocation of resources – and build in slack 3. Cancel projects, and do that early 4. Change the timeline for all relevant projects if significant resources pulled to address a downstream project 5. Don’t reward people for being good firefighters 28 Chronic Over-commitment at “PreQuip” (Roberto Fernandez example) Active Projects (formal development projects by number) Resources Required for Completion (months) Months to Completion (desired) Implied Development Resource Allocation (months) This year Next year Year after that 1 2 3 4 5 . . . 26 27 28 29 30 54 123 86 286 24 8 24 12 20 4 40 38 50 92 24 14 62 36 172 0 0 23 0 22 0 352 75 215 153 29 36 9 30 18 3 48 62 40 60 29 150 13 80 93 0 120 0 95 0 0 All Other Support Activity (customer support, troubleshooting) –– –– 430 430 430 Total Development Requirements –– –– 2783 2956 2178 Available Resources (months) –– –– 960 960 960 –– –– 289.9 Rate of Utilization (percent) 307.9 226.9 29 Why is it so hard to kill (the metaphorical) Project #26? What are the organizational roots of these problems? Active Projects (formal development projects by number) Resources Required for Completion (months) Months to Completion (desired) Implied Development Resource Allocation (months) This year Next year Year after that 1 2 3 4 5 . . . 26 27 28 29 30 54 123 86 286 24 8 24 12 20 4 40 38 50 92 24 14 62 36 172 0 0 23 0 22 0 352 75 215 153 29 36 9 30 18 3 48 62 40 60 29 150 13 80 93 0 120 0 95 0 0 All Other Support Activity (customer support, troubleshooting) –– –– 430 430 430 Total Development Requirements –– –– 2783 2956 2178 Available Resources (months) –– –– 960 960 960 –– –– 289.9 Rate of Utilization (percent) 307.9 226.9 30 Key Points • Leadership is about making change happen - People issues are chronically given short shrift in managing change - You know your setting best… - But we can all hone our skills for seeing what drives people’s behavior & where/how resistance to change may show up there • Next up: 3 Lenses framework & course flow 32
