Surabhi Lal

Only open to students in the Executive MPA Program.

Strategic Leadership is an intensive leadership course designed to equip mid-career students with the tools, perspectives, and frameworks for executing high-impact strategy within mission-driven organizations. Course topics are organized around four themes: 1) cultivating purposeful leadership, 2) analyzing conditions to build a theory of change, 3) mobilizing commitment to change, and 4) achieving change.  Within this four-part model we will explore conceptual frameworks for understanding high impact organizations and the role of strategic leadership, analytical tools for developing and assessing strategy, approaches to working with stakeholders to mobilize commitment, and methods for leading change.

Open only to students in the MSPP program. This course provides MS in Public Policy students with an overview of contemporary public management. We review important management and leadership concepts that are required to approach public management. The course will focus on specific problems that leaders may face and tools that you can use. A major objective of the course is to develop skills in critical analysis necessary for practice.

Management and Leadership is designed to empower you with the skills you will need to make meaningful change in the world—whether you care about bike lanes, criminal justice, prenatal care, community development, urban planning, social investment, or something else. Whatever your passion, you can have an impact by leading and managing. In this course, you will enhance the technical, interpersonal, conceptual, and political skills needed to run effective and efficient organizations embedded in diverse communities, policy arenas, sectors, and industries. In class, we will engage in a collective analysis of specific problems that leaders and managers face—first, diagnosing them and then, identifying solutions—to explore how organizations can meet and exceed their performance objectives. As part of that process, you will encounter a variety of practical and essential topics and tools, including mission, strategy, goals, structure, teams, diversity and inclusion, motivation, and negotiation.

Open only to students in the MSPP program. The title of this course is meant to evoke a double meaning. First, the “practice” of work refers to the idea that it is important to practice something, to rehearse, to try things out. Being an intern* in an organization is a required element of this course. And while interns can accomplish a great deal and deliver a lot of value to their organization, they are also understood to be learning, to be practicing. But a “practice” can also mean a craft or a skill, something one works hard at in order to become expert and polished. We are using the word practice in that way as well, in becoming skillful at individual, interpersonal and organizational effectiveness. 

In this course, you will be doing a lot of practicing or experimenting. You will be conducting a “personal experiment” that allows you to explore and sharpen your skills interacting with others. You will also be gaining experience with managing a project appropriate for your current level of work experience. And you will conduct an analysis of the organization in which you are interning. So you will be practicing at three different levels. The class will also ask you to think about how those levels interact and influence each other.

*Minimum of 15 hours per week

Open only to students in the MSPP program. The title of this course is meant to evoke a double meaning. First, the “practice” of work refers to the idea that it is important to practice something, to rehearse, to try things out. Being an intern* in an organization is a required element of this course. And while interns can accomplish a great deal and deliver a lot of value to their organization, they are also understood to be learning, to be practicing. But a “practice” can also mean a craft or a skill, something one works hard at in order to become expert and polished. We are using the word practice in that way as well, in becoming skillful at individual, interpersonal and organizational effectiveness. 

In this course, you will be doing a lot of practicing or experimenting. You will be conducting a “personal experiment” that allows you to explore and sharpen your skills interacting with others. You will also be gaining experience with managing a project appropriate for your current level of work experience. And you will conduct an analysis of the organization in which you are interning. So you will be practicing at three different levels. The class will also ask you to think about how those levels interact and influence each other.

*Minimum of 15 hours per week