Visiting Professor
Facoltà di Economia | Università di Trieste | Organizational Behavior and Design 2013 | with Professor Francesco Venier | Download Syllabus
Series Description
The definition of organization success continues to evolve, and the “bar” is continuously being raised. Leaders of modern organizations are faced with many pressures both external and internal. The key to addressing these pressures does not lie in the allocation or reallocation of scarce resources, although that is important. Achieving and sustaining high performance requires leaders to learn to design or redesign their organizations so that they create value for the workforce, customers, investors, suppliers and partners as well as the community and the environment. In other words, “successful leaders in the future will have to become architects of enduring organizations by designing systems that create sustainable results for multiple stakeholders” (Latham, 2012).
The five sessions in this series at the University of Trieste, Italy are based on the most recent research, executive education curricula, and application experience from the Monfort Institute at the University of Northern Colorado. The Monfort Institute is an integral part of the Monfort College of Business, a 2004 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award Recipient. These sessions are specifically designed for an undergraduate audience and emphasize the practical application of “leading-edge” practices as well as contemporary theories and concepts. Participants explore the impact of leadership, culture, and systems on organizational performance. While some of the most recent research was based on the CEO perspective, the concepts have proven applicable to all levels of leadership. World-class examples from award-winning organizations as well as exercises and case studies are used throughout the sessions to help clarify and apply key concepts related to how the right kind of leadership combined with systems and design thinking can create sustainable high performance.
Seminars
1. Leadership + Design = Sustainable Excellence – An Overview
Most change initiatives fail! Yet, change is exactly what’s needed to compete in a constantly changing, highly competitive environment. In this session, participants will learn how high-performing leaders in business, healthcare, and education defied the odds and transformed their organizations to achieve sustainable excellence | Read more
2. Designing Organizational Systems – A Design Framework
This session explores a flexible framework for the design of organization and management systems that create sustainable value for multiple stakeholders. This positive approach to design builds on a foundation of performance excellence concepts and principles and integrates aspects of systems theory, design thinking, appreciative inquiry and sustainability (economic, environmental, and social stakeholders) | Read more
3. The Leadership “System” – Systematic Approaches
This session focuses on the design of systematic approaches and activities for leading organizational transformation. Nine inter-related activities are explored and world-class examples are used to help illustrate the key concepts. While the design of the individual activities is sometimes different for each level of leadership, the leadership systems concepts are applicable at all levels of leadership | Read more
4. The Leadership “Style” – Behaviors
This session focuses on the nine leader behaviors for leading the transformation to sustainable excellence. The relationships among the nine behaviors, as well as, the relationships to the nine leadership activities (system) are explored in detail and applied to the process of transforming an organization for high-performance | Read more
5. The “Habit” of Excellence + A Look “Below the Surface” – An Exploration of Culture and the Individual Leader
This session explores the process and role of culture change in creating and sustaining excellence. As Aristotle noted, “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act, but a habit.” High-performance organizational culture is defined and key concepts are explored, along with the transformation of culture to ensure the changes to achieve excellence become embedded habits in the organization | Read more
Special Session: Global Excellence Models: Overview of Leadership Aspects – Rivalto Residenza Universitaria
Global mindset: be a citizen of the world – As the world becomes increasingly interconnected, every day it becomes more necessary to expand our knowledge and attitudes in order to successfully participate in the emerging global community. In this context, it’s impossible to remain physically or conceptually inside the boundary of our city or of our nation, without considering the world as the ordinary arena where we live and act as workers and citizens. Note – this session not part of the Organizational Behavior and Design 2013 course | Read more
