Future decision-makers and managers must be equipped with skills that enable them, on the one hand, to decipher and understand the stakes and processes of the transformations at work in their environment, whatever they may be, including crises such as the one we have just experienced, and (more or less) control them, and, on the other hand, to design and steer reforms and manage crises. The ability of future leaders to make sense of complexity, accept and manage uncertainty, base reforms and action on an evidence-based diagnosis, as well as to lead these processes of change depends on possessing what we call strategic (analytical and action) capacities: be it a question of merging two administrations, adopting a new managerial model and an innovative organizational chart, carrying out a restructuring project in a public administration, or ensuring coordination between organizations in times of crisis. The latter are often more decisive than those derived from technical knowledge and engineering sciences (intellectual and analytical skills based on social sciences and relational and behavioural skills).
The course is intended to help future leaders:
- grasp and analyze the institutional and organizational complexity of their context of action ;
- understand the logics and identities of the actors, their rationale and their trajectories;
- elaborate scenarios of change and of crisis management based on such organizational diagnosis, and not to overestimate the importance of technical difficulties alone;
- mobilize others and encourage the cooperation of the dynamic forces of the organizational fabric around the change project;
- negotiate change projects, to steer these negotiations and to manage conflicts in crisis situations;
- and accompany the possible modification of change projects, while controlling, however, the fate and overall economy of the reforms so that they are not emptied of their substance.
Henri BERGERON
Cours magistral seul
English
No
Spring 2022-2023
The validation of this course includes a mid-semester Multiple Choice Questionnaire (30% of the overall grade) and an analysis of a complex social situation, due at the end of the semester (70% of the overall grade). This exercise consists in analyzing a situation that you have personally experienced or a historical or fictional situation/event (novels, series, movies.), using and testing the reasoning modes and concepts proposed in the course. A pedagogical note will be circulated specifying the timetable and giving methodological advice.