Courses

Complete any 4 of the courses to earn the certificate in Leading Networked Organizations and Virtual Teams.

• 21st Century Leadership for the Networked Organization
• Making Virtual Work “Work”
• Launching and Sustaining Virtual Teams
• Collaboration Maturity: Designing Partnerships for Trust and Synergy
• Working with Teams for Innovation
• Evaluating Emerging Technologies
• Managing Across the Generations

21st Century Leadership for the Networked Organization

Overview and objectives

Today’s global and evolving economy requires that we re-think traditional models of self-contained, bureaucratic  organizations. Partnerships, collaborative projects, and coalitions of independent workers are the ways that important work will be accomplished, but it requires a very different set of leadership assumptions and skills.

You’ll learn

1. The four principles of the networked organization: transparency, accountability, participation and collaboration
2. How to combine the best of hierarchy, bureaucracy, networks, and teams depending on what you’re doing
3. How “teams of leaders” are the guiding forces in the networked organization

Module 1: What is the virtual, networked organization and how do we design “leaderful” organizations?

Module 2: New leadership styles for the 21st century

Making Virtual Work “Work”

Overview and objectives

Teams working virtually can be remarkably productive, even outperforming groups whose members work side by side. However, you need to learn new rules about how to manage them and you may need to change some assumptions about policy and practice around human resource management and information technologies.

You’ll learn

1. How to make the business case for working virtually, while recognizing the challenges
2. How to manage your own virtual work
3. Why and how to build the necessary coalitions to put policy and technology into place

 Module 1: Why “far-flung” teams are more productive than their face-to-face counterparts, applying the virtual team model of people, purpose, links, and time 

Module 2: Avoiding policy and technology challenges when virtual teams change the nature of work

Launching and Sustaining Virtual Teams

Overview and objectives

New teams and old are suddenly required to work more or less virtually. Going through a launch process touches on all the critical aspects of being a team, and puts them in the context of what’s new about working virtually. Sustaining teams requires using the right technologies and leadership techniques for project management, motivation, and trust.

You’ll learn

1. How to do both planned as “hasty” launches
2. How to manage basic communications such as conference calls, as well as newer collaborative technologies
3. How to build and sustain trust and motivation

Module 1: The five-step model for launching virtual teams – and how to do a quick version

Module 2: Sustaining virtual teams through technology and technique

Collaboration Maturity: Designing Partnerships for Trust and Synergy

Overview and objectives

There are different levels of collaboration – a scale of increased merging of efforts. Driving to the highest level of collaboration is not the best going-in strategy.  Rather, you need to understand the current nature of interactions; and how to reach and work at the optimal level of shared interactions based on the goals of the organizations involved and the situational dynamics. Turn your collaborative strategies into a competitive advantage – or risk being left behind.

You’ll learn

1. Why collaboration involves trust and risk management, and how the two lead to synergy
2. How to set the ground rules on what to share – starting from the overarching perspective of “Why shouldn’t I share this?”
3. How to determine the present collaboration level at which you’re operating
4. How to put together a collaborative enterprise

Module 1: Collaboration: trust, risks, and synergy

Module 2: Collaboration maturity: forensic collaboration analysis

Working with Teams for Innovation

Overview and objectives

Innovation is a team sport. The responsibility for a team’s success lies with everyone from the designated team leader to the person on the lowest rung of the hierarchy. Learn how to work with a group of people to foster an environment that promotes creative and productive thinking that then yields innovative solutions.

You’ll learn

1. Models for improving creative thinking, innovation and innovation teams
2. Necessary dimensions to create a culture and climate for innovation
3. Human dynamics that block innovation and strategies to overcome them
4. Methods for generating and evaluating ideas

Module 1: Fundamentals of Creativity and Innovation

Module 2: Innovation Teams and Member Responsibilities

Evaluating Emerging Technologies

Overview and objectives

Learn what’s hot and what’s not even on the radar screen, and how to assess if and how you should adopt a new technology. 

You’ll be able to

1. Identify new and emerging technologies that can be applied to organizational learning and communication
2. Use evaluation criteria and research to decide whether or how to use these technologies to achieve organizational performance goals
3. Predict and avoid risks and potential legal / ethical / usage issues
4. Select an emerging technology for an actual organizational goal, specifying general design and management criteria to maximize its effectiveness

Module 1: Emerging technologies and assessment criteria

Module 2: If we build it, will they come?

Managing Across the Generations

Overview and objectives

How do you manage across these generations who have vastly different life experiences, work values, and communication preferences? You’ll learn how leading organizations attract, train, communicate with, and motivate youngsters, accommodate the needs of experienced elders, and capture the knowledge of the quickly-retiring Baby Boomers.

You’ll learn:

1. Factors that have shaped the characteristics, behaviors, and values of the various generations at work
2. New technologies that can be leveraged to attract and engage the most promising Nexter employees and harvest the knowledge of those who are retiring
3. How to effectively accommodate and attract the increasingly large pool of talented persons with learning and other disabilities

Module 1: The Generations at Work: What’s made them what they are and what it means for managers

Module 2: Technologies and techniques to leverage the best of all the generations