Best Free MOOCs In Business In February

Creating a Team Culture of Continuous Learning

School: University of Pennsylvania

Platform:  Coursera

Registration Link: REGISTER HERE

Start Date: February 5, 2018  (4 Weeks Long)

Workload: 2-4 Hours Per Week

Instructors: Alan Barstow and Dana Kaminstein

Credentials: Barstow is the director and senior scholar of the organizational dynamics program, a master’s degree program designed for mid-career professionals. A Fulbright Scholar who holds a Ph.D. in anthropology from Columbia University, Barstow’s research focuses on organizational design and change. Kaminstein has been an affiliated faculty member with Penn for over 20 years. He also maintains a private practice that specializes in leadership development, team effectiveness and conflict resolution.

Graded: To earn a passing mark, students must complete all graded assignments.

Description: Why do companies fail? The list is endless: complacency, ego, assumptions, strategy, oversight, culture, risk-taking, and the biggest sin of all — a failure of imagination. According to Barstow and Kaminstein, there is another factor that dooms organization: “lack of understanding and emphasis on training.” No surprise there as training is often viewed as time consuming, expensive and difficult to gauge a return. As a result, employee development falls by the wayside — and companies aren’t exposed to best practices that can give them an edge in the marketplace. Rather than tout the benefits of learning, Barstow and Kaminstein have developed a course on how to modify the culture to better accommodate it. Using cases, scenarios and role plays, the course will cover four core areas: “1) understanding teams in their larger organizational context, 2) diagnosing the learning strengths and barriers to learning on teams, 3) the deeper seeds of team and group ineffectiveness with an eye to improving team and group effectiveness, and 4) ways to develop a team and group that continually learns and impacts the larger organization positively.”

Review: “A lot of great insights on the way a team functions and generates ideas and projects. The format of this MOOC is quite original (discussion between a few speakers) and stimulating. For additional reviews, click here.

Additional Notes: This is the fourth course in a five part “Culture-Driven Team Building” Specialization from Penn. To learn more about this specialization and register for it, click here.