What is dynamic work design?

dynamic work design (noun)

A method of managing work that enables employees to regulate and visualize workflows, find and fix problems, and make improvements in real time.

Startups often adopt a dynamic approach to work, which makes sense, given the unpredictable nature of creating a new business. But with growth and success come structure and internal controls — which can shift a company’s early flexibility to a rigidity that hamstrings its ability to address problems as they emerge or to quickly adapt to change.

“Dynamic work design provides a way to avoid that rigidity by simultaneously adding necessary structure to the work and retaining the dynamism that engaged people in the first place,” write MIT Sloan’s Nelson Repenning and Donald Kieffer in their new book, “There’s Got to Be a Better Way: How to Deliver Results and Get Rid of the Stuff That Gets in the Way of Real Work.”

The five principles that underlie the dynamic work design framework center on:

1. Engaging in structured problem-solving
2. Establishing productive learning processes
3. Capitalizing on face-to-face communication
4. Regulating the flow of work
5. Making the work that people do visible to everyone

Once leaders have a deeper understanding of the core work of their organization, they are better prepared to “embrace the inevitable gaps between plans and outcomes and put dynamism to work on a regular basis,” Repenning and Kieffer write.

Introducing a better way of working