Organizational Design

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$300.00
$300.00
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In this 36 week course, the student will create an organization designed to perform a certain function or functions. They will then optimize the different flows that happen in an organization (personnel, information, work, resources, etc.) in order to make it a better fit for its organizational environment. They will then create and publish various videos explaining the organization to its different internal and external stakeholders. They will also create and publish various policy documents targeting different categories of internal and external stakeholders. Upon completion, the student should have a working knowledge of how to set up and optimize the organizations of which [s]he is a part. Please scroll down for more information.
"...From Whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love." -- Ephesians: 4:16

additional resource requirements:

  • None

so, what's the story?

Having had to reinvent almost every organization that I have ever led, I am well acquainted with organizational design.

Having spent 25 years navigating through the Living Organizational Graveyard that is the U.S. Government, I have seen the results of poor organizational design.

This course came from the reality that, in order to get anything done that really matters, our students will need organizational forms and fits that are not readily available.

In order to achieve a competitive advantage in business, our students will have to do more than just find better things to do. They will have to find better and more efficient ways of doing things that everyone must do.

For this, they will need skills in effective organizational design.

The source of many of our daily frustrations is organizational inefficiency or ineffectiveness. Has anyone been to the DMV lately? Enough said!

If our students are really going to inspire tomorrow’s generation, they will have to be able to organize the efforts of others in ways that elicit people’s best. Most of the tasks that mean anything will require cooperation with other people, and that requires the ability to do the various organizational flows (work, resources, information, and talent) on purpose!

There are exciting frontiers in organizational design.

Two books have inspired me in this area.

The first is The Boundary-less Organization. The second is The Starfish and the Spider.

These two push the boundaries of efficiency and durability. Another idea that pushes the boundaries of adaptability is the idea of a “learning organization.”

These frontiers provide exciting territory for exploration in developing the organizations to inspire the future.

Welcome to Organizational Design!
 

adult accomplishments

  1. Organization designed and optimized to accomplish its designated purpose in its designated organizational environment
  2. Professional organizational handbooks targeted to different groups of stakeholders of the organization (internal and external)
  3. Published professional instructional/promotional videos, targeting different groups of stakeholders of the organization (internal and external)

Transferable skills

  1. Ability to analyze the efficiency of any organization that you encounter
  2. Ability to design an organization to accomplish a particular task
  3. Ability to correctly identify all of the stakeholders of an organization, in order to be able to understand its decision making process, and create win-win solutions to organizational problems
  4. Ability to optimize an organization in order to remove inefficiency and waste

Which careers will this course give me a leg up on?

  1. Consultant - Average Salary: $86,222 (https://www.payscale.com)
  2. Business Operations Manager - Average Salary: $99,310 (https://www.careeronestop.org)
  3. Military Officer - Average Salary: $94,761 (https://www.glassdoor.com)
  4. Clergy - Average Salary: $45,740 (https://www.careeronestop.org)

General syllabus (Subject to change as needed)

  • Course Start: 27 August 2018
  • Week 1:
    • Organizational function and tasks
  • Week 2:
    • Organizational sub-tasks
  • Week 3:
    • List the stakeholders in the organization
    • Refine task list
    • Refine sub-task list
  • Week 4:
    • Prioritization of tasks, sub-tasks, and stakeholders
  • Week 5:
    • Work flow diagram
  • Week 6:
    • Resource flow diagram
  • Week 7:
    • Information flow diagram
  • Week 8:
    • Stakeholder interface(s) with the organization
  • Week 9:
    • Organizational form (primarily from Mintzberg's model)
  • Week 10:
    • Revised prioritized task/sub-task list
    • Revised form selection
  • Week 11:
    • Process and control improvement
  • Week 12:
    • Organizational boundary analysis
  • Week 13: Thanksgiving Week
    • Talent/Personnel Flow Diagram
  • Week 14:
    • Revised prioritized task/sub-task list with associated stakeholders
  • Week 15:
    • Revised flow diagrams and organizational boundaries with respect to functional necessity
  • Week 16:
    • Determine the type of talent necessary to accomplish the tasks
  • Christmas Break: 17 December 2018 - 6 January 2019
  • Week 17:
    • Optimize flow diagrams for talent cost and availability
  • Week 18:
    •  Using prioritization to weight optimize flow diagrams for cost
  • Week 19:
    • Requirements to attract and retain necessary talent
  • Week 20:
    • Revise for talent recruitment and retention
  • Week 21:
    • Revise cost estimate
  • Week 22:
    • Revise stakeholder interface
  • Week 23:
    • Revised complexity-uncertainty graph
    • Revised organizational form
    • Revised process control improvement
  • Week 24:
    • Promotion video for outside functions (outsourced or contracted)
  • Week 25:
    • Critique classmates' videos
  • Week 26:
    • Promotion video to generate organizational supporters (fundraising, etc.)
  • Week 27:
    • Critique classmates' videos
  • Week 28:
    • Recruitment video for members and/or employees
  • Week 29:
    • Critique classmates' videos
  • Week 30:
    • Written policy manual for regulators (internal and/or external)
  • Spring Break: 13 - 21 April 2019
  • Week 31:
    • Written policy manual for organizational supporters
    • Critique classmate's regulator policy manual
  • Week 32:
    • Written policy manual for members/employees
    • Critique classmate's organizational supporters policy manual
  • Week 33:
    • Written policy manual for external functions (outsourced and/or contracted)
    • Critique classmate's member/employee policy manual
  • Week 34:
    • Written policy manual for managers
    • Critique classmate's external functions policy manual
  • Week 35:
    • Limits Bounding Analysis (LBA) Final
    • Critique classmate's manager policy manual
    • Revise all videos and manuals based on feedback
  • Week 36:
    • Turn in all policy manuals
    • Turn in all videos
    • Socialize your videos and engage with commenters
    • Journey of Learning Narrative (JOLN)
  • Course End: 31 May 2019

Expected workload

  • Typically one or more tasks that you must perform to move your project iteratively "down the road"
  • One or more discussion questions from the teacher to answer
  • Responding to classmates' answers to the discussion questions
  • Ensuring that you go through any of the learning activities for skills where you are not yet proficient to help you in future weeks' tasks

***All of this is designed to take you about 5 focused hours per week, which is less than you would have if you were attending class in a traditional school.

How can I write this course up on a high school transcript?

  1. As an Organizational Leadership credit, given the depth of analysis that the students will go into on organizational flows and processes
  2. As a Business elective, given the focus of the organizational design on making a business efficient and effective