Videos
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Webinar: Finding Direction in a Crisis -
How to Work With Dynamic Work Design During Crises // Don Kieffer, MIT Sloan School of Business -
Unlock Your Organization’s Full Potential with Dynamic Work Design
Learn More About Donald Kieffer
Donald Kieffer is a seasoned operations expert, consultant and educator best known for co-creating Dynamic Work Design. His experience, from hands-on manufacturing to executive leadership at Harley-Davidson, brings unmatched practical insight to his work.
Kieffer is recognized for his ability to quickly diagnose complex operational problems and provide low-cost practical solutions particularly in intellectual and knowledge work. His methods engage management and front-line teams alike. Clients range from global organizations to start-ups across sectors including energy, healthcare and biotech. His guidance was instrumental in transforming the administrative, production, and technical development areas of the Broad Institute, a Cambridge based genomic sequencing organization and now an industry leader.
Kieffer’s work stands out for combining strategic vision with practical, on-the-ground impact making him a go-to expert for leaders seeking sustainable operational excellence. He is a senior lecturer at MIT’s Sloan School of Management and founder of ShiftGear Work Design, LLC. He also teaches at AVT Business School in Copenhagen.
Kieffer’s book (co-authored with Nelson Repenning) “There Has Got to Be a Better Way,” describing Dynamic Work Design, will be published by Public Affairs in August 2025.
Donald Kieffer is available to advise your organization via virtual and in-person consulting meetings, interactive workshops and customized keynotes through the exclusive representation of Stern Speakers & Advisors, a division of Stern Strategy Group®.
Advance Praise for "There's Got to Be a Better Way"
“'There’s Got to be a Better Way' indeed offers one. Blending expertise in system dynamics and behavioral science, along with decades of real-world practical experience, authors Nelson Repenning and Don Kieffer teamed up to write this groundbreaking new book. In it, they describe a compellingly actionable learning process for solving the most perplexing and persistent problems that plague every large organization. A must-read for leaders in any industry facing complexity, uncertainty, and pressure for results.”
“There is a better way! I’ve seen it, and I promise you it’s possible. Overloaded, over regulated organizations are not only wildly inefficient—there are absolutely no fun to work in. In this eminently practical and deeply grounded book, Nelson Repenning and Don Kieffer draw on their decades of experience to show us all how we can build the kind of creative, extraordinarily productive workplaces most people only dream about.”
“A road map to eliminating inefficiencies and busting bureaucracies. Drawing on rigorous research and rich experience inside a wide range of workplaces, Nelson Repenning and Donald Kieffer reveal how to redesign work to do more in less time.”
“Repenning and Kieffer are absolutely right: there's got to be a better way to work than what we’re doing now! Fortunately, their theory of dynamic work design offers exactly the type of compelling alternative we’ve been so desperately searching for.”
“If you want to solve the business problem you thought was unsolvable, look no further than this incisive new book, which presents a smart new way to unlock fast fixes to your once intractable challenges. It’s a mindset makeover!”
“The most useful book on creating enduring organizational change I have ever read. This masterpiece shows why, when leaders try to change organizations for the better, they so often make things worse by focusing on fighting fires rather than fixing root causes. 'There’s Got to Be a Better Way' shows how savvy leaders can, instead, solve the right problems and build organizations that are consistently innovative, resilient, and reliable.”
“'There’s Got to Be a Better Way' emphasizes the power of dynamic leadership in the fast-paced world we live in. This is a great roadmap for learning how to identify core challenges, embrace flexibility, and experiment with new ideas to refine processes that have been holding your team back. Understanding how to swiftly identify the issue will allow leaders to pivot quickly—or boldly move in a different direction—without the fear of failure. Problem-solving in this way will ultimately drive long-term success and collaboration.”
“In 'There’s Got to Be a Better Way,' Nelson Repenning and Donald Kieffer deliver a compelling roadmap for overcoming organizational inertia. With a wealth of real-world case studies and a proven framework, the authors introduce Dynamic Work Design—a practical, principle-driven approach that helps leaders unlock efficiency, drive sustainable change, and foster innovation. This book is essential reading for executives seeking to turn workplace frustration into high-impact results.”
“Using five fundamental principles, Nelson Repenning and Don Kieffer show how any organization can use their insightful methods to get stuff done faster, better, and with less effort. Repenning and Kieffer bring an engineer’s perspective to business problems, giving organizations methods to diagnose and solve their own challenges in ways that uniquely work for them. At Fannie Mae, we applied these methods and improved our company immeasurably. Their teachings worked for us, and they can work for you.”
“This book is a must-read for all leaders of organizations—big and small, private and non-profit, newly founded and well-established. It should be required of all students of organizational behavior. Building on decades of research and consulting, Repenning and Kieffer show how their dynamic work design approach can address long-standing organizational issues while also stimulating a reinforcing cycle of learning and innovation. Drawing on examples from an array of different organizations—industrial conglomerates, research laboratories, hospitals, and even shelters for at-risk women—'There’s Got To Be a Better Way' illustrates how their disciplined approach actually works in practice and drives results. This is the very best management book I have read in years.”
“A masterful book that avoids the buzzwords common to the genre, providing actionable methods for removing frustration points and bottlenecks in order to make organizations more productive and more rewarding to work in. Repenning and Kieffer’s methods can help reveal incorrect assumptions and blind spots that stop us from identifying and solving the right problems.”
“Starting with the Human Genome Project, the Broad Institute has always embraced bold challenges to accelerate biomedicine. Ever since we learned from Nelson Repenning and Don Kieffer about Dynamic Work Design over thirteen years ago, it’s been our foundation for continuous transformation of our Genomics Platform. When we applied it at the start of the COVID pandemic, it helped us deliver over 37 million tests, with turnaround under 24 hours and a cost far below commercial operations. It’s been essential to so much of what we’ve done.”
