Moving from Bureaucracies to Nimble Leadership

Instructors:

Deborah Ancona
617-253-0568
ancona@mit.edu

Kate Isaacs
857-523-8234
kisaacs@mit.edu

Course Description:

Organizations have to innovate and adapt quickly to survive and thrive in an exponentially

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changing world. Command-and-control bureaucracies are too rigid and slow to keep pace with

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rapid change. But until now, an alternative model has not emerged. Leaders know that agility
requires pushing power, decision making, and resource allocation lower in the organization—but
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how do they do it without losing control and falling into chaos?
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This course is about how to architect and lead a nimble organization by freeing people to
innovate and maintaining strategic alignment and accountability, without imposing bureaucracy.
Nimble is a system of leadership in which an organization’s purpose and strategy, its structure,
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culture, and leadership practices enable leaders up and down the organization to dream up new
ideas and bring them to life. The goal is to build and run a team-based, networked organization
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that is customer-centric, which can quickly sense and seize new opportunities that will win in the
marketplace.
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Specific Course Objectives:

• Understand the three interlocking components of a nimble organization (culture,
structure, and leadership practices) that free people to create, while keeping them aligned
and accountable
• Learn how to diagnose where your organization is on the journey to nimble, where you
want to go, and obstacles that stand in the way
• Create a strategic change plan that will move your organization towards the priority areas
you identify
• Learn specific tools of leadership and system design that will aid you in your change
effort

Course Format
This course is designed to create an understanding of nimble leadership using theory, cases,
exercises, and self-reflection.

Texts
The class will use a digital course packet that will be available on…

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Course Evaluation
A 5-page written plan for leading your organization towards nimble is due one week after the
course ends. It should include:

1. A brief description of your organization, and your organization and its strategy (you can
use the subunit, team, or function of which you are a part).
2. What problems do you want to solve and/or opportunities do you want to capture if your
organization adopted a nimble approach?
3. What is your evaluation of where your organization is on the journey to nimble in terms
of culture, structure, and leadership practices?
4. What are the priority areas you see for change, and how will you tackle those areas?
5. What are the major barriers that stand in the way and how will you handle them?
6. How do you as a leader personally want to develop in order to lead your organization in a
new direction?

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Sessions

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The course is organized into four three-hour sessions that take place over two days.
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1. An Exponentially Changing World: How will you Respond?

In this session we will discuss the landscape of an exponentially changing world. We will discuss
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the case of how Microsoft has changed in response. Participants will identify and select 3
priorities for change in their organizations.
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2. xTEAMS: The Engine of Nimble Innovation

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Teams are the core building block of nimble organizations. Participants will go through a
leadership simulation that will help you develop change leadership, influencing and
innovation skills in a team-based environment.

3. Architecting the Nimble Organization

Participants will be introduced to the three key elements of a nimble organization: culture,
structure, and leadership practices, and go through a diagnostic exercise of evaluating where
your organization is on the nimble journey, and identifying priorities for change.

4. Making it Happen: Overcoming Barriers to Create Real Change

Much of the hard work of leadership is removing organizational and cultural barriers to change.
Participants will diagnose the risks and barriers to change in their organizations, and engage in
personal self-reflection to understand how their own leadership style needs to evolve to match
the needs of a nimble organization.