15.990 Fall 07

15.990 Prepare, Act, Reflect: A management lab for getting things done

Full-semester Fall 2007 course, meets MW 2:30-4:00; worth 9 units. Stellar site for the course. Flyer. Overview. Project criteria

Here's what we're telling students about the class:

After a year at MIT Sloan and a summer internship, you've learned - and put into practice - skills and tools for analyzing problems, generating solutions, and making recommendations. Yet the most effective managers go further: they know how to actually execute and to learn from experience. 15.990 is an innovative class that equips you to turn your great ideas into even better action.

Learning from action in a project you care about. 15.990 aims to help you to learn from every experience. Of course, taking action is a key part of this, so you will work on a project of your choosing throughout the semester. Your project serves as our learning lab and provides the domain in which to test, explore, and practice the skills and tools you are targeting.

As you work on your project, we'll work through the prepare-act-reflect cycle, a learning model grounded in research. By iterating through the learning loop, you benefit from testing your ideas quickly, exposing problems and opportunities earlier rather than later, refining and reworking your presentation of the key ideas behind your project, and building collaborations.

Feedback, shared commitment, results. Making the most of relevant research and theory, we'll focus on three sets of skills essential to getting things done effectively.
Giving and getting feedback: Eliciting feedback and acting on it; offering others your feedback (and making that part of a continuing relationship).
Building shared commitment: Pitching your ideas persuasively; pairing inquiry with advocacy; and motivating others to action and commitment.
Getting results at every step: Designing your own practice of following up to serve your project; making every meeting or other interpersonal interaction effective; and testing your ideas early and often.

This is a course in which you choose the project and the specific skills you want to address. And we practice what we preach: taking into account the lessons of our own experience, this year's 15.990 promises a uniquely focused and carefully tailored opportunity to learn as you get things done.

How we presented last year's pilot version of this class

The Chronicle of Higher Education writes about our innovationin the April 27, 2007 issue

Archive of last year's course pages and information