Calendar

This course beigns with a three-day workshop. Following the workshop, it meets once per week for eight weeks.

LEC # Day Topics Assignments Due
1 Friday - Sunday

Workshop Day 1: Enacted Systems-Dynamics

Overview of Workshop.
Introduction to Enacted Systems View of Organizations.
Simulation: Enacting a Production-distribution System.
Simulation Debriefing and Analysis: Personal and Interpersonal.
Grounds for Reflectiveness: Developing a Personal Vision.

Workshop Day 2: Enacted Systems-Sensemaking

Formation of Learning Circles.
Simulation Debriefing and Analysis: Systemic.
Increasing Awareness: Multiple Points of View.
Cultivating Leadership Capability: Making Choices.

Workshop Day 3: Enacted Systems-Change

Learning Circles.
Conditions for Healthy Change: Dialogue.
Course Format, Content, Exercises, and Expectations.
Building Shared Vision.

Pre-Workshop Reading

Senge, P. "The Leaders' New Work: Building Learning Organizations." Sloan Management Review 32, 1 (1990): pp. 7-23.
2 Friday

Change Models

Role of Technology in Change.
Role of "Leaders" in Change.

Readings:

Argyris, C. "Teaching Smart People How to Learn." Harvard Business Review 5, 1991 (reprint 91301).

Orlikowski, W. J. "Learning from Notes." Information Society, 9, 1993, pp.237-250.

Reflections Paper 1 (all)
3 Friday

Social Nature of Knowing

Embodiment Exercise.
Evolution of "Knowledge Management."
Embodiment Exercises Lead by Groups A & B.

Readings:

Brown, J. S., and Duguid, P. "Balancing Act: How to Capture Knowledge Without Killing It." Harvard Business Review 5, 2000 (reprint R00309).

Group Assignment (groups A & B)
4 Friday

Sensemaking and Artifacts

Embodiment Exercise.
Ways of Seeing: Mental Maps.
Embodiment Exercises Lead by Groups C & D.

Readings:

Senge, P. M. "Mental Models." In The Fifth Discipline. New York: Doubleday, 1990, pp. 174-204.

Starbuck, W. H. "Why Organizations Run into Crises... and Sometimes Survive Them." In Information Technology and Management Strategy. Edited by K. C. Laudon and Jon Turner. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1989, pp. 11-33.

Weick, K. E. "Cosmos and Chaos: Sense and Nonsense in Electronic Contexts." Organizational Dynamics. Autumn 1985, pp. 51-64.

Group Assignment (groups C & D)

Personal Report (groups A & B)
5 Friday

Interpersonal Dimensions of Change

Embodiment Exercise.
Collective Leadership in Action.
Guest speaker: Roger Saillant, President & CEO, Plug Power.
Embodiment Exercise Lead by Groups E & F.

Readings:

Isaacs. W. Dialogue: The Art of Thinking Together. New York: Doubleday, 1999: pp. 17-48; 321-335.

Weick, K. E. "Prepare Your Organization to Fight Fires." Harvard Business Review (May-Jun 1996): pp. 143-148 (reprint 96311).

Group Assignment (groups E & F)

Personal Report (groups C & D)
6 Friday  

Reflections Paper 2 (all)

Personal Report (groups E & F)
7 Friday

Creating Space for Change

Embodiment Exercise.
Developing Capacity to Change.
Guest speaker: Molly Baldwin, Executive Director, Roca, Inc.
Embodiment Exercise Lead by Groups G & H.

Readings:

Hotchkiss, M., C. Kelley, R. Ott, and J. F. Elter. "The Lakes Story." Reflections 1, 4 (2000): pp. 24-31.

Scharmer, O., et al. Human Purpose, Institutional Transformation, and the Field of the Future [forthcoming]. Chapter TBA.

Group Assignment (groups G & H)
8 Friday

Course Themes and Reflections

Review of Course Themes, Concepts, Lessons and Implications.

Readings:

Kofman, F., and P. Senge. "Communities of Commitment." Organization Dynamics. Autumn 1993: pp. 5-23.

Senge, P. M. "Leadership in Living Organizations." In Leading Beyond the Walls. Edited by F. Hasselbein, M. Goldsmith, and I. Somerville. The Drucker Foundation, San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 1999.

Senge, P. M., and G. Carstedt. "Innovating our Way to the Next Industrial Revolution." Sloan Management Review (Jan-Feb 2001).

Personal Report (groups G & H)
9 Friday  

Final Reflections Paper (all)