Emeritus - Leading High Performance Teams

Leadership and management course for high-impact teams. Innovative project designed to repurpose content used in other course curriculum as a foundational source for new course design. 

 

Design and Development Strategy

This course design and development successfully repurposed materials from three distinct short cert programs and created a learning product that meets the specific needs of the targeted audience. With the help of the SME and the careful editing of our vendor, our vision for learners was realized.

 

What was at first disparate material that did not necessarily solve the pain-points for our particular learner, using a user-centered approach to design we identified the gaps and deficiencies, along with tailored the messaging to meet the goals for the program.

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Initial learner analysis provided by the product and marketing teams supported the identified scope for the project presented by our learning partner. During planning, with the support of our industry SME, a gap and an additional learner analysis were conducted to focus on a target learner based on professional and industry pain points. 

What went right? / What worked well?

• Collaboration between the project team (IID, USID, PM, SME, Vendor, etc.)

• Having an experienced and dedicated SME

• Closer partnering between the USID and IID to appreciate the content deficiencies and brainstorming best approach to overcoming those deficiencies

• An PM experienced with both a traditional approach to managing projects and how to tailor that approach based on the unique circumstances when “stitching” a course together by repurposing content 

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Details on the Design

The course content was chunked into distinct areas of leadership: management of teams and leadership as a soft skill, focusing on individual leadership philosophy, narrative, and influence.

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The course design includes an original case scenario which learners will interact with throughout the each week's content. This case scenario is about an organization undergoing a major organizational transformation that will create a great deal of change in its processes and procedures. This will impact workers significantly but provide an enormous opportunity for the organization to become more competitive in the market. The organization's executive suite is tasked with creating a leadership strategy plan to usher the organization through this transformation. 

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The strategic plan is focused on executive and downstream leaders and how they will lead their individual teams. The strategic plan must account for the following: (1) how to lead teams and work collaboratively; (2) how to build global teams effectively; (3) how to develop processes and team structure; (4) how team managers can demonstrate personal leadership; (5) how managers can create connections and build rapport as leaders; and (6) what it means to aspire to be a complete leader. 

 

Throughout the program, learners will add inputs to a business strategy plan to lead their team through this major organizational change. At the end of the course, learners will present a leadership strategy plan for an audience that includes the fictional organization’s board of directors. 

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The following provides a summary of the program goals and for objectives in each module, including topics and subjects learners explore.

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​Program Introduction

As a leader, your ability to inspire and motivate your team is critical to achieving success. This program will provide the insights and techniques needed to lead with confidence and clarity. Whether you are an experienced leader looking to take your skills to the next level or a new manager seeking to establish yourself as an effective leader, this program is the perfect opportunity to develop your abilities.

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Specifically, this program will help you to:

• Determine how to lead highly effective teams.

• Examine the ability to lead collaborative teams on a global scale.

• Determine methods to persuade and motivate through your personal narrative, presence, and poise.[1] 

• Use leadership frameworks and methods to harness the leadership role

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Week 1: Leading and Working Collaboratively

• Examine personal experiences when working in teams.

• Rate current team statuses on effectiveness criteria and enabling conditions.

• Evaluate weak outcomes and enablers for team improvement.

• Determine criteria to establish a high-producing and collaborative team effort.

 

Key Assignments, processes, frameworks, concepts, and methods examined: 

• Utilizing the Team Effectiveness Pyramid

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Week 2: Building Global Teams

• Describe the impact of organizational culture on work environments.

• Analyze the barriers to a shared mindset within teams.

• Assess the dimensions of distance as they relate to personal and professional experiences within an organization.

• Determine criteria to establish a shared mindset within a team.

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Key Assignments, processes, frameworks, concepts, and methods examined: 

• Assessing the Five Distance Dimensions: Recognizing Fault Lines, Overcoming Distance Barriers, and Developing a Team Mindset

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Week 3: Developing Processes and Structure

• Assess ways that jobs and systems of work have evolved to motivate employees and improve employee performance and productivity.

• Examine how core job dimensions impact employee motivation and engagement.

• Compare the effects of an engineering approach and a psychological approach on employee motivation.

• Discuss how making employee-oriented adjustments can impact levels of engagement at work.

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Key Assignments, processes, frameworks, concepts, and methods examined: 

• The Scientific versus a Psychological Approach to Management: How to Balance Employee Needs with Business Objectives

• Apply Lessons Learned from the Manufacturing Industry

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Week 4: Personal Leadership

• Analyze your own power and influence.

• Identify key components of power.

• Evaluate the different challenges and opportunities that modern-day leaders face when exerting power.

• Determine your personal influence and power.

• Apply the principles of flexibility, intentionality, and relationships to a leadership challenge.

 

Key Assignments, processes, frameworks, concepts, and methods examined: 

• Foundations of Social Power — French and Raven

• Case analysis on power and influence focusing on the following topics and individuals:

  • The Just-World Fallacy

  • Analyzing the leadership of humanitarian Sergio de Mello and New York Politician Robert Moses

• ​Your Leadership Philosophy and Impact in the Workplace

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Week 5: Creating Connections and Building Rapport as a Leader

• Define ways to build leadership in others.

• Discover ways to communicate persuasively.

• Identify elements for building a persuasive persona via social media and social networks.

• Determine the level of impact needed from leadership to influence enterprise performance.

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Key Assignments, processes, frameworks, concepts, and methods examined: 

• Building Network Ties — Cultivating Strong and Weak Networks and Exploiting Structural Holes

• Leading Up

• Persuasive Communication with Your Boss — Crafting Your Message

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Week 6: The Complete Leader

• Discover actions to craft your leadership presence.

• Evaluate vital leadership principles executives should embody.

• Determine the fundamentals of your own leadership narrative.

 

Key Assignments, processes, frameworks, concepts, and methods examined: 

• Leaning In to Build Networks and Connections

• Developing a Leadership Checklist 

• Case analysis about developing your leadership narrative and backstory focusing on the following individuals:

  • ​Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel

  • IBM’s Ginni Rometty

• ​Program Case Scenario Activity: Present Your Leadership Strategy Plan

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Additional details about the course:

• Employed the power of generative AI to assess sourced content and identify significance to program requirements and learner needs. ​

• Utilized sourced content and generative AI to create authentic activities, such as course specific case study which was the core for learning interaction and skill application. 

• Developed adaptive learning paths, created personalized assessments, formulated individualized feedback, generated immersive scenarios and simulations to provide impactful learning solutions.

• Engaging in these techniques avoided project conflicts and reduced the planning schedule by 17%. Also reduced SME workload by minimized planning time and overall content creation, focusing on quality and accuracy; decreased SME project expenses by 20%.

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Key Problem Areas & Suggested Mitigation Plan

Repurposing content that was not created with that intent challenged us on many fronts: how to efficiently fill in content gaps, best approach to lessen content load (i.e., decrease overall video duration in each module; balance learning activities to meet current standards), improve learning engagement based on design/quality best practices and for a target learner

 

Things we'd do differently?

Having a time frame to pre-plan and identify the gaps as well as what does not constitute current design best practices would be ideal. It would allow us to create an action plan to present to our university partners to 1) get agreement and buy-in on the approach without slowing down the project schedule and 2) determine strategies to overcome problem areas outside of the pre- and post-filming phases of the project.

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Understanding systematically how repurposing material impacts all phases of course design, development, and review. There were some things we did not account for as potential problem areas before the project began:

• Repurposed video was not initially “owned” by us so editing was challenging

• Because of constraints for how some of the repurposed videos could be edited we could not always mix repurposed content across modules

• Not having dedicated faculty (or plan because we didn’t) prevented us for implementing elements to meet QM standards

• The content that was suggested had various redundancies and overlaps that was not realized until BWD planning which placed pressure on mitigation efforts in a limited time)