Dr. Tyson R. Browning

Enterprise Integration & Strategic Implementation

An interactive course with industry examples, exercises, and discussion...

for Executives and Managers

To improve responsiveness to customers, many firms strategically organize their operations around business processes. However, transitioning to this structure from a traditional, functionally-based organization is challenging. It requires a new way of thinking about work, and it illuminates problems with getting the right information to the right place at the right time. This course shows executives and upper-level managers how to understand and define a company’s “nervous system”—the paths of important, strategic communication through which the vital signals must flow in a responsive company—by unlocking the information flow structure of their organization. Tools are presented for uncovering, analyzing, and improving strategic communications and results throughout the organization while avoiding information overload. These leading-edge techniques enable tighter integration and synchronization of enterprise processes through the establishment of commitment networks and laser-sharp accountabilities. An executive using these techniques will be able to enact policies and directives that drive agreement, commitment, and accountability—and that empower distributed workers to self-organize and make better local decisions. The course includes a role-playing game, where participants enact the roles of enterprise process owners in a large organization and hammer out agreements to boost the throughput of value.

Main Topics

  • Unlocking the information flow structure of your organization

  • Information flow patterns—how to see them and what they can tell you

  • Integrating dependencies across departments, functions, processes, and sites

  • Process synchronization—how its absence undermines success, and how to drive it in the organization

  • Networks of commitments—their power and potential, keys to accountability

  • Metrics and leading indicators of enterprise performance and risk

  • Enterprise process integration—role playing game

Who should attend?

  • Executives, upper-level managers, and professionals who have experienced the challenges of miscommunications, lack of accountability, and “fumbled handoffs” in their organization

  • Those with responsibilities for determining, planning, and/or managing work, including planning, scheduling, budgeting, monitoring, and controlling

  • Individuals from all departments in a firm, including, but not limited to: Strategy, Operations, Finance, Human Resources, Research and Development, Information Technology, Engineering, Marketing, Sales, and Supply Chain Management

What will you gain?

  • A way to see the “big picture” of information flow in your organization, and its implications

  • An ability to analyze the information flow structure in your organization and leverage key patterns

  • Insights on ways to structure an organization for improved communication and workflow

  • A menu of integrative mechanisms—tools for facilitating organizational integration—such as co-location, liaisons, information technologies, appropriate meetings, and shared vocabularies

  • The ability to spot and correct information flow problems—before they cause unwanted surprises

  • Exposure to leading-edge techniques and best practices

  • Become a thought leader on moving strategies forward in your organization

  • An opportunity to network with industry colleagues