Course Descriptions
Required Core
MSLOC Foundations
As the first required course for all incoming students, this course will introduce students to foundational concepts and frameworks that can be used to anchor and integrate your learning throughout the MSLOC program. The course will cover methods and tools applied in multiple organizational settings to solve problems and increase individual, group and organizational effectiveness. Through class meetings and an action learning project that extends through three quarters, students will begin to apply organizational theory to the practice of organizational transformation.
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Accelerating Learning & Performance
This course addresses human performance at the organizational, team and individual levels and offers learning as a key lever for enhancing performance. In L&P1 the focus is on defining the performance levers (leadership, organizational mission and strategy, culture, organizational processes and systems, team dynamics, skills, competencies, motivation), identifying models that can be used to diagnose performance gaps/enhancement opportunities and change readiness, and designing metrics to evaluate the effectiveness of performance.
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Advancing Learning & Performance Solutions
This course will introduce students to methods and tools used in multiple business functions that are designed to increase individual, group and organizational performance. Using their knowledge of learning and performance, students will learn how to design effective solutions, evaluate those solutions, adapt and redesign them to improve their effectiveness. Learning will be defined not only as a specific role or function commonly associated with training but also as an implicit process within the structure and culture of competitive global organizations. This course will help students select and use tools to make that process more deliberate, systematic and applicable in a wide range of situations.
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Designing Strategies for Knowledge Work
This course will introduce frameworks, concepts and business cases that enable students to understand knowledge management. Students will learn how to apply knowledge management process and managerial models, and develop an understanding of some of its trends. Students will also develop a "knowledge management strategy" as a takeaway from the course. Guest speakers will offer executive, legal and design perspectives of the challenges and opportunities in managing knowledge well in organizations.
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Making Knowledge Work
Students will take strategic knowledge management plans and create implementation plans that incorporate many of the concerns and models addressed in the LOC program as well as standard models used in the discipline. Students will be able to critically evaluate knowledge management strategies and implementation plans as they relate to their organizations. Additionally, students will learn to assess new and existing technologies that can support knowledge management initiatives.
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Executing Strategic Change
In this course you will explore the nature of strategic business change and will discuss what enables strategic change to be successful or fail. We will delve into issues of leadership, sponsorship, organizational culture, change agent roles and key success factors for implementing sustained change. Emphasis will be placed on strategic change from a practitioner’s frame of reference. Several models will be also introduced to frame the discussions.
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Designing Sustainable Strategic Change
This course will focus on how strategic change gets designed and implemented. It will incorporate methods, tools and practitioners' "lessons learned" from the perspective of gaining commitment from the people of an organization. Our premise will be that organizations are living systems. If we are to be effective at initiating, facilitating, supporting or engaging in organizational change, we will benefit from the following:
Applied
Capstone (Research Methods, Capstone II & III)
The LOC Capstone Project is designed for three consecutive quarters near the end of each degree student's program. Although the capstone project is more application-oriented than a traditional master's thesis, MSLOC students should regard this as their culminating take-away from the LOC program. The capstone provides an opportunity for each student, individually, to complete a research project or design and implement an intervention that involves multiple stages and enables one to show results before completion.
Each student selects a Capstone Project in conjunction with his or her advisor and a faculty mentor. The project may concentrate on one of the three focus areas: learning and performance, knowledge management or strategic change. It should reflect the interdependence of the three areas with each other and with the strategy and context of the organization(s) of focus. During the first term, students participate in a Research Methods class, which builds skills in assessment, data-gathering, design and critical thinking. During the two subsequent terms, students meet with their capstone advisor and in small seminar groups. In addition to the final product (e.g., research paper, organizational intervention, designed tool or system), students present their work to their advisors, faculty members and fellow students during a community learning event. These presentations demonstrate how students' learning in the program was integrated into their final product.
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Practicum
The LOC Practicum is designed for individuals or teams of degree and certificate students to complete a project for an organization that contributes to the organization’s business strategy and can be put into immediate development and use. The project may involve assessment, analysis, design, re-design, implementation and/or evaluation. LOC students may work with individuals or with teams internal to their practicum organizations. They may also engage in practicum projects following an external consultant model in conjunction with business partners within the Center for Learning & Organizational Change. LOC master's students may choose to do a second practicum, which counts as an elective.
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Electives
MSLOC Elective: Cognitive Design
This course will introduce students to the methods and tools needed to design organizational improvements and generate new product ideas that support and enhance the cognition of employees and customers. Cognitive design is devoted to understanding how people perceive, think, remember, feel and relate in real-world situations and using that understanding to drive innovations in products, processes, HR programs, change initiatives and other organizational improvements. Students will learn how to design organizational artifacts (e.g., new products, improved workflows, behavior change programs) that fit how the human mind works along both the intellectual and emotional dimension. This is a project-based course where students work in teams to model cognition, identify unmet needs and apply leading ideas of applied cognitive science to pressing design challenges in business.
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MSLOC Elective: Transformational Consulting
This course will introduce students to advanced methods and tools used in a collaborative consulting process. Using their knowledge of themselves and their subject matter expertise, students will learn and practice the fundamentals of collaborative consulting including how to build rapport; how to leverage active listening to help the client determine the root cause of the problem (or opportunity); how to move a client through phases of the project, especially when the client is reluctant to act; how to co-project manage an assignment; and how to maintain long-term relationships. The class also will touch consulting sales activities and presentation skills necessary at the different steps in the relationship.
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Additional Elective Choices
Students can choose electives that are available from programs offered through other graduate programs at Northwestern. Especially relevant schools/departments around the University include:
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Last updated: 2008-02-20 19:56:22
Required Core
MSLOC Foundations
As the first required course for all incoming students, this course will introduce students to foundational concepts and frameworks that can be used to anchor and integrate your learning throughout the MSLOC program. The course will cover methods and tools applied in multiple organizational settings to solve problems and increase individual, group and organizational effectiveness. Through class meetings and an action learning project that extends through three quarters, students will begin to apply organizational theory to the practice of organizational transformation.
Back to top
Accelerating Learning & Performance
This course addresses human performance at the organizational, team and individual levels and offers learning as a key lever for enhancing performance. In L&P1 the focus is on defining the performance levers (leadership, organizational mission and strategy, culture, organizational processes and systems, team dynamics, skills, competencies, motivation), identifying models that can be used to diagnose performance gaps/enhancement opportunities and change readiness, and designing metrics to evaluate the effectiveness of performance.
Back to top
Advancing Learning & Performance Solutions
This course will introduce students to methods and tools used in multiple business functions that are designed to increase individual, group and organizational performance. Using their knowledge of learning and performance, students will learn how to design effective solutions, evaluate those solutions, adapt and redesign them to improve their effectiveness. Learning will be defined not only as a specific role or function commonly associated with training but also as an implicit process within the structure and culture of competitive global organizations. This course will help students select and use tools to make that process more deliberate, systematic and applicable in a wide range of situations.
Back to top
Designing Strategies for Knowledge Work
This course will introduce frameworks, concepts and business cases that enable students to understand knowledge management. Students will learn how to apply knowledge management process and managerial models, and develop an understanding of some of its trends. Students will also develop a "knowledge management strategy" as a takeaway from the course. Guest speakers will offer executive, legal and design perspectives of the challenges and opportunities in managing knowledge well in organizations.
Back to top
Making Knowledge Work
Students will take strategic knowledge management plans and create implementation plans that incorporate many of the concerns and models addressed in the LOC program as well as standard models used in the discipline. Students will be able to critically evaluate knowledge management strategies and implementation plans as they relate to their organizations. Additionally, students will learn to assess new and existing technologies that can support knowledge management initiatives.
Back to top
Executing Strategic Change
In this course you will explore the nature of strategic business change and will discuss what enables strategic change to be successful or fail. We will delve into issues of leadership, sponsorship, organizational culture, change agent roles and key success factors for implementing sustained change. Emphasis will be placed on strategic change from a practitioner’s frame of reference. Several models will be also introduced to frame the discussions.
Back to top
Designing Sustainable Strategic Change
This course will focus on how strategic change gets designed and implemented. It will incorporate methods, tools and practitioners' "lessons learned" from the perspective of gaining commitment from the people of an organization. Our premise will be that organizations are living systems. If we are to be effective at initiating, facilitating, supporting or engaging in organizational change, we will benefit from the following:
- Learning about, and applying, methods utilized by an organization to change its strategy in relation to changes in its environment
- Reviewing methods available for an organization to effectively align itself internally to implement a new strategy
- Recognizing the dynamics of transition and discovering ways to enhance people's resilience as they experience the intensity of change.
Applied
Capstone (Research Methods, Capstone II & III)
The LOC Capstone Project is designed for three consecutive quarters near the end of each degree student's program. Although the capstone project is more application-oriented than a traditional master's thesis, MSLOC students should regard this as their culminating take-away from the LOC program. The capstone provides an opportunity for each student, individually, to complete a research project or design and implement an intervention that involves multiple stages and enables one to show results before completion.
Each student selects a Capstone Project in conjunction with his or her advisor and a faculty mentor. The project may concentrate on one of the three focus areas: learning and performance, knowledge management or strategic change. It should reflect the interdependence of the three areas with each other and with the strategy and context of the organization(s) of focus. During the first term, students participate in a Research Methods class, which builds skills in assessment, data-gathering, design and critical thinking. During the two subsequent terms, students meet with their capstone advisor and in small seminar groups. In addition to the final product (e.g., research paper, organizational intervention, designed tool or system), students present their work to their advisors, faculty members and fellow students during a community learning event. These presentations demonstrate how students' learning in the program was integrated into their final product.
Back to top
Practicum
The LOC Practicum is designed for individuals or teams of degree and certificate students to complete a project for an organization that contributes to the organization’s business strategy and can be put into immediate development and use. The project may involve assessment, analysis, design, re-design, implementation and/or evaluation. LOC students may work with individuals or with teams internal to their practicum organizations. They may also engage in practicum projects following an external consultant model in conjunction with business partners within the Center for Learning & Organizational Change. LOC master's students may choose to do a second practicum, which counts as an elective.
Back to top
Electives
MSLOC Elective: Cognitive Design
This course will introduce students to the methods and tools needed to design organizational improvements and generate new product ideas that support and enhance the cognition of employees and customers. Cognitive design is devoted to understanding how people perceive, think, remember, feel and relate in real-world situations and using that understanding to drive innovations in products, processes, HR programs, change initiatives and other organizational improvements. Students will learn how to design organizational artifacts (e.g., new products, improved workflows, behavior change programs) that fit how the human mind works along both the intellectual and emotional dimension. This is a project-based course where students work in teams to model cognition, identify unmet needs and apply leading ideas of applied cognitive science to pressing design challenges in business.
Back to top
MSLOC Elective: Transformational Consulting
This course will introduce students to advanced methods and tools used in a collaborative consulting process. Using their knowledge of themselves and their subject matter expertise, students will learn and practice the fundamentals of collaborative consulting including how to build rapport; how to leverage active listening to help the client determine the root cause of the problem (or opportunity); how to move a client through phases of the project, especially when the client is reluctant to act; how to co-project manage an assignment; and how to maintain long-term relationships. The class also will touch consulting sales activities and presentation skills necessary at the different steps in the relationship.
Back to top
Additional Elective Choices
Students can choose electives that are available from programs offered through other graduate programs at Northwestern. Especially relevant schools/departments around the University include:
- School of Education & Social Policy, Learning Sciences
- Kellogg School of Management
- Medill School of Journalism, Integrated Marketing Communications
- McCormick School of Engineering, Masters of Engineering Management
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Last updated: 2008-02-20 19:56:22
