| SES # | TOPICS | KEY QUESTIONS | KEY DATES |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Introduction and overview | What challenges can I expect in my first job? | |
| 2 | Work and careers: Past, present, and future | What do I want/expect from my work/career? How is this similar or different from what my parents and grandparents wanted and expected? | |
| 3 | Leading and facilitating teams: An engineering team exercise | How can I make my team work well? | |
| 4 | Organizations: Past, present, future | How did the modern organization evolve and where is it going? | |
| 5 | Organizational analysis: Strategic design lens | How do I analyze and make sense of the organizational structure in which I am working? | |
| 6 | Organizational analysis: Political lens | Who will share my interests and who won't? Who has power, and how will it affect what I do? | |
| 7 | Putting the political lens to work: Influencing upward in organizations | How do I sell my great idea to higher authorities? | Organization selection for individual paper due |
| 8 | Organizational analysis: Cultural lens | What traditions matter in an organization, and how do they affect what goes on? | |
| 9 | The cultural lens in action: The Lincoln Electric case | Why has Lincoln Electric's incentive compensation system worked for decades while most others' have failed? | |
| 10 | Applying the three lenses: BP and lessons from the Gulf Coast disaster | ||
| 11 | Teams in organizations | ||
| 12 | Team processes: Strategies for building a high performance team | ||
| 13 | Midterm exam | ||
| 14 | Introduction to negotiations | How do I negotiate when it looks like I have no power? | Topic selection for group paper due |
| 15 | Recruitment and job offer negotiation | What should I ask for? What should I offer? | Individual paper draft due |
| 16 | Interest-based bargaining in action: Riggs Engineering case study | Can I put the internet-based tools of Fisher and Ury to work in a real life negotiation? How do I sell this agreement to my "constituents" or superiors? | |
| 17 | Leadership and change: Introductions | ||
| 18 | Leadership and change (cont.) | ||
| 19 | Leadership continued: The Big Dig, Part 1 | ||
| 20 | Leadership continued: The Big Dig, Part 2 | ||
| 21 | Organizational change: MassDOT case | What structural, political, and cultural challenges have to be addressed to integrate multiple agencies into a single efficient transportation organization and system? | |
| 22 | Managing the innovation process | How do ideas move from the laboratory through the organization to the marketplace? | |
| 23 | Corporate responsibility in global supply chain | What purpose(s) should corporations serve? Should Nike and other global corporations be held responsible for the practices of their suppliers? If so, how? | |
| 24 | Team reports on change project | Individual paper due | |
| 25 | Inventing the future: Wrap-up | Team paper due |