Sloanies Talking with Sloanies “There's Got to Be a Better Way” with Professor Nelson Repenning
Nov 4, 2025
Nelson Repenning, a distinguished professor at MIT Sloan and director of the MIT Leadership Center, discusses his insights from his new book on why organizations struggle to implement effective practices. He explains the clash between static strategies and rapid change, leading to reactive, short-term fixes. Repenning champions dynamic work design for middle managers, emphasizing quick experiments to tackle pain points. He also highlights the importance of face-to-face communication for mentorship and the societal challenges posed by short-termism in leadership.
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Static Plans Clash With A Dynamic World
- Management often assumes the future is predictable when it is not.
- Static plans create firefighting and obstruct long-term productivity.
Prevention Produces Invisible Wins
- Prevention work (like safety) yields invisible wins because nothing bad happens.
- Invisible wins make such work easy to cut and hard to get credit for.
Solve Small Problems Fast
- Pick a small, important problem you can improve in 30–60 days.
- Deliver fast results to learn and create momentum for broader change.
