Discover how Dynamic Work Design from factory floors is revolutionizing cancer research, untangling gridlock in groundbreaking labs, and helping scientists get closer to a cure faster than ever before.
At the world-renowned Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, a leading genomics research center, scientists were overwhelmed. Their mission was profound: to understand the genetic roots of diseases like cancer and schizophrenia by analyzing tens of thousands of DNA samples 4 . The data they produced was critical for developing new, life-saving therapies.
"There was immense pressure to keep the lab afloat while wondering how to improve the workflow and 'still have a life'."
The research was too important to be stalled by operational gridlock.
Faced with this crisis, the Broad Institute turned to MIT Sloan experts Donald Kieffer and Nelson Repenning, who proposed an unconventional solution: Dynamic Work Design 4 .
At its core, Dynamic Work Design is a framework for making work—especially intellectual, "invisible" work—more effective. It moves away from static, top-down hierarchies and instead creates a system that can learn and adapt in real-time, much like a modern traffic app that reroutes you around a jam instead of rigidly following a pre-set map 5 .
The design creates a rhythm between two fundamental types of work that cycle back and forth in any organization 3 :
Isolate the core issue from any preconceived diagnoses.
Use visual tools to track the status and location of every piece of work.
Ensure the right information flows seamlessly from one person to the next.
Use a scientific method to investigate why work isn't delivering results.
The genomic sequencing operation at the Broad became a living laboratory for Dynamic Work Design. The transformation wasn't about buying new equipment or hiring more scientists; it was about radically redesigning how the existing work flowed.
The first step was to pull the work out of cluttered email inboxes and private to-do lists. The team implemented a visual management system—using simple tools like whiteboards and sticky notes—to create a physical representation of every sample in the lab 3 5 . This allowed everyone to see the status of all work at a glance: what was on track, what was stuck, and where the bottlenecks were forming.
Instead of focusing on departmental silos, the team mapped the entire "human chain"—the specific individuals responsible for each step of the sequencing process, from start to finish 3 7 . This clarified hand-offs and ensured that the right person always had the right information at the right time.
When a task was late or a problem appeared on the board, it was no longer ignored or worked around. The team adopted a structured, scientific approach to ask, "Why didn't this activity deliver the intended result?" 3 This shifted the culture from firefighting to root-cause analysis.
Perhaps the most counterintuitive step was to stop pushing work into the system as soon as it arrived. Instead, the lab instituted a "pull" system, where new samples were only started when there was actual capacity downstream 5 . This prevented the accumulation of half-finished work and guaranteed that tasks, once started, would flow smoothly to completion.
Just as a lab relies on specific chemicals, implementing Dynamic Work Design requires a set of essential tools.
Regulates workflow. Prevents system overload by only releasing new work when there is available capacity, ensuring steady flow and shorter cycle times 5 .
Facilitates quick coordination. Short, focused meetings in front of the visual board to assess progress, identify blockers, and reallocate resources as a team 8 .
The impact of applying Dynamic Work Design at the Broad Institute was nothing short of dramatic. The improvements were measured in hard data, which revealed a staggering transformation.
The story at the Broad Institute is more than a single success case; it's a powerful blueprint for the future of scientific discovery. It demonstrates that the pace of medical breakthroughs is not limited solely by scientific genius, but also by the operational efficiency of the research process itself. By applying Dynamic Work Design, the institute dramatically sped up its own ability to generate the genetic insights that are the foundation of modern medicine 1 .
Faster, more reliable genomic data enables researchers focused on cancer and other complex diseases to run more experiments and get results sooner, significantly accelerating the journey from a basic lab finding to a new therapy in the clinic 1 .
As the creators of Dynamic Work Design often note, these principles "work in organizations that have people in them" 4 . From factory floors to the front lines of cancer research, when we design work to leverage our full human potential, we don't just make work better—we unlock the capacity to solve some of humanity's most pressing challenges.