The role of organizational tenure diversity on innovation in the workplace

Overview In today’s complex environment, companies employ interdependent teams to address business opportunities (Ancona & Caldwell, 1992; Chi et al., 2009; Park et al., 2018). Interdependent team diversity allows different points of view to create robust solutions (Wiersema & Bantel 1992). Organizational tenure is the amount of time an individual has been within the current …

Organizational blind spots and our unknown cognitive biases

As with most of my Northwestern University MS Learning and Organizational Change coursework, I have uncovered a new awareness about the role of organizational behavior in how we work.  This assignment was to choose our top 5 quotes that resonated with us during the quarter. I want to reflect upon these over and over again, …

The Risk of System 1 Driven Thinking in Drug Development

How the Mind Works From the recent readings for MSLOC 452 Cognitive Design, I'm fairly certain that intuition guides my decisions. The realization of a dual process is new to me (Kahneman 2011). As I reflect upon my career, I understand how this process has guided me, for better or worse. I’m typically driven by …

My Guiding Principles for Leading Others Through Change

To truly learn, I must be vulnerable.  Take risks. Defining my Guiding Principles was an assignment for my "Leading Strategic Change" course.  It felt really hard to define 10 guiding principles for myself.  I'm still learning. It still feels uncomfortable.   But, I decided to post these so they don't end up buried on my One …

Could College Football Help Us Understand Organizational Culture?

Culture.   We hear about it in all aspects of our lives. As I reflect upon my Executing Strategic Change class readings this week, I wonder, how can I make this topic more digestible for my colleagues and members of our Culture Initiative.   Culture is difficult to put your hands around.  It’s intangible. It’s …

My Approach: Creating Solutions that incorporate the unique context of the organization

While designing solutions, it’s important to understand each organization is unique.  For my case, my interview and discovery phase included multiple stakeholders throughout the organization.  Initially, this was my way of learning about my new organization, but as this DOEC program began, I quickly realized the value of this discovery phase. Discovery - Stakeholder Interviews …

My Approach: Surfacing Assumptions

Similar to understanding the user experience, one of the biggest “aha” moments for me during this 12-month DOEC experience has been surfacing assumptions. It seems reasonable, but I realized I came  into this “opportunity” with my fairly strong biases. The experience map exercise has allowed me to see more points of view and motivations and pain points. All of these are critical …

My Approach: Mapping My Way to Clarity

As a visual thinking, I often draw to create sense making. It helps me surface blind spots. It helps me synthesize. Over the last year, my tool-kit to assess opportunities has been enriched.  It was the reason I am seeking my master’s degree in Organizational Change and Learning.  I needed to create a playbook that …

My Approach: Using Theory as Inpiration

  Before I started the DOEC cohort, I had the ability to see opportunities for efficiency.  Part of this comes from having 20+ years within the pharmaceutical industry.  But what I lacked was how to articulate it well to others, and an ability to define the steps needed to move toward a more efficient solution. …

My Approach: Developing Empathy for Others

My organization focuses on the creation of innovative medicines for patients.  Patients serve as our beacon.  But from an organizational efficiency lens,  organizations rarely consider the experience of our patients and doctors when we design study protocols and reflect on our internal organizational processes.  Our focus is the best science. If we view our study …