Faculty
Nelson P. Repenning is the Faculty Director of the MIT Leadership Center, and the School of Management Distinguished Professor of System Dynamics and Organization Studies at the MIT Sloan School of Management.
His early work focused on understanding the inability of organizations to leverage well-established tools and practices. He has worked extensively with organizations trying to develop new capabilities in both manufacturing and new product development. Nelson has also studied the failure to use the safety practices that often lead to industrial accidents and has helped investigate several major incidents. This line of research has been recognized with several awards, including best paper recognition from both the California Management Review and the Journal of Product Innovation Management.
Building on his earlier work, Nelson now focuses on developing the theory and practice of Dynamic Work Design—a new approach to designing work that is both effective and engaging—and Dynamic Management Systems, a method for ensuring that day-to-day work is tightly linked to the strategic objectives of the firm. His book (co-authored with Don Kieffer) There Has Got to Be a Better Way describing Dynamic Work Design will be published by Public Affairs in 2025. He is also a partner at ShiftGear Work Design and serves as its chief social scientist.
In 2003, Nelson received the International System Dynamics Society’s Jay Wright Forrester Award, which recognizes the best work in the field in the previous five years. In 2011 he received the Jamieson Prize for Excellence in Teaching. He was recently recognized by Poets and Quants as one of the country's top instructors in executive education.
Nelson is also an avid bike racer and regularly competes in Masters cycling events.
He holds a BA in economics from Colorado College and a PhD in operations management and system dynamics from MIT.
Somlo, Diane R.M., Nelson P. Repenning, and Abeel A. Mangi. The Annals of Thoracic Surgery Vol. 106, No. 4 (2018): 1143-1149.
Dodge, Sheila, Don Kieffer, and Nelson P. Repenning. MIT Sloan Management Review, September 2018.
Dodge, Sheila, Timothy De Smet, James Meldrim, Niall Lennon, Danielle Perrin, Steve Ferriera, Zachary Leber, Dennis Friedrich, Stacey Gabriel, Eric S. Lander, Don Kieffer, and Nelson Repenning, MIT Sloan Working Paper 5380-18. Cambridge, MA: MIT Sloan School of Management, April 2018.
Rahmandad, Hazhir, Nelson Repenning, and Rebecca Henderson. Management Science Vol. 64, No. 3 (2018): 1328-1347. Online Appendix. Download Paper.
Repenning, Nelson P., Don Kieffer, and James Repenning. MIT Sloan Management Review, December 11, 2017.
Repenning, James, Don Keifer, and Nelson Repenning, MIT Sloan Working Paper 5198-17. Cambridge, MA: MIT Sloan School of Management, June 2017.
During the iLead Speaker Series in November, Ruby Chandy, SB ’82, SM’ 89, discussed her professional journey, her experiences on corporate boards, and her continued engagement with MIT Sloan.
During September's iLead Speaker Series event, Analysis Group’s Martha Samuelson, SF ’86, and Rebecca Kirk Fair, MBA ’02, discussed their professional journeys, as well as the culture and leadership of their firm.
Nelson Repenning is listed as one of the professors making the biggest impact on Executive MBAs.
"Anne is ... a gifted mentor, as evidenced by the success of her mentees."
This senior leadership course helps executives and managers understand how continuous improvement strategies, sustained over a long period of time, affect core business metrics and business development strategy and contribute to the success of the organization. As a participant in this course, you’ll gain a fundamental understanding of how visual management—specifically Dynamic Work Design—can help you find and fix issues in workflow, make improvements in real time, and create competitive advantage. Bring a current “headache” you’re facing in your organization to workshop and receive personalized feedback on an action plan you can implement immediately.
Learn to optimize business processes through Dynamic Work Design, a set of principles and methods for achieving sustainable improvement efforts of any scale, in any industry, and in any function.
