What exactly is “dynamic work design,” and how can it help businesses drive positive change?
The answer goes back to the 1990s, when Donald Kieffer (Senior Lecturer, System Dynamics), who was a Harley-Davidson executive at the time, was trying to improve processes at the engine plant he was managing. He was surprised when a fellow automotive executive recommended that he change only one small piece of the process rather than doing a big overhaul.
When Kieffer asked why, the executive replied, “What is the problem you are trying to solve?”
While the question seemed oversimplified, its implication was that the best way to fix workflow issues is by making small, identifiable changes for employees. The idea behind this solution is that small changes go a long way, rather than derailing the flow of a company by giving its processes a complete makeover.
A better way
Nelson Repenning, PhD ’96, (School of Management Distinguished Professor of System Dynamics and Organization Studies; Faculty Director, MIT Leadership Center) has spent the last 20 years researching why organizations struggle to implement effective tools and practices, which has led to the development of dynamic work design. Repenning did his PhD dissertation at Ford, so he also has experience with the automotive industry.
Kieffer and Repenning met in 1996, just after Repenning began working as a professor at MIT Sloan. In 2008, Kieffer began working as a lecturer at MIT Sloan, and in the years since, the two have spent a lot of time collaborating and teaching together. Last August, they co-authored the 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 thrust of the book really boils down to the core idea that much of what we do in management is implicitly premised on the idea that we can predict the future with some degree of accuracy, and we can predict our impact on that future with some degree of accuracy,” says Repenning.
This concept manifests in lots of very familiar processes, according to Repenning. If businesses accept that the world is not perfectly predictable, they will probably design many of their processes differently. The book’s goal is to give some guidance about how to do that.
How to create efficiency
Oftentimes, managers and management systems default to assigning blame for imperfections to employees, when the problem is usually faulty systems. Many large companies are in the habit of relying on the systems that have been successful in the past rather than looking forward and evolving. This is called “static structure.”
This is where dynamic work design enters the picture. Dynamic work design is a framework for improving productivity and management. Instead of waiting for a natural disaster or a big screwup, the idea is for companies to embrace the inevitable bumps in the road and put dynamism to work on a regular basis.
Dynamic work design provides a way to avoid static structure by simultaneously adding necessary structure to the work and retaining the dynamism that engages people in the first place.
Increasing an organization’s dynamism often leads to significant gains in performance. It can also be incredibly motivating for employees to work in a dynamic organization, and managers often discover a newfound sense of influence in the way their business runs.
“Another way to interpret what’s in the book and dynamic work design is how to keep a small, steady burn of little crises so that we keep that energy and keep moving forward, rather than having to wait for something to go horribly wrong in the outside world,” says Repenning.
Dynamic organizations continually draw data from the work environment so that managers can respond to change in real time.
Kieffer and Repenning have narrowed their work down to five core principles:
- Solve the right problem: Use empiricism to develop a blame-free statement of issues to address.
- Structure for discovery: Allow workers to see how their work fits into the bigger picture, and to help improve things.
- Connect the human chain: Make sure the right information moves from one person to the next.
- Regulate for flow: New tasks should only enter a system when there is capacity for them to be handled.
- Visualize the work: Create a visual method—think of a whiteboard with sticky notes—for mapping work operations.
Implementing dynamic work design the right way
It is important to remember that dynamic work design is not itself a solution, but instead a way of trying to find unique solutions to unique problems. Repenning and Kieffer want managers to continue studying their firm’s workflow so they can keep up with its ever-changing needs. What they don’t want is for companies to commit to dynamic work design by evaluating everyone every week on how dynamic they are, as that would devolve into a static structure.
It is worth noting that many businesses have probably experienced brief moments where they’ve successfully exercised good work design, but the goal is to make those moments last.
“Start small,” advises Repenning. “Pick one problem you can work on in a couple of weeks and solve that. Most cases, with open eyes, there’s low-hanging fruit. You find the places you can win, and change incrementally, rather than all at once.”
“It’s going to feel uncomfortable at the beginning,” he adds, “but this is a much more sustainable path to progress.”
