Lateral Leadership through Organizational Understanding
You've built the technical case. You've explained it clearly. And still, nothing moves - because the argument for change and the actual mechanics of an organization are two different things, and the market's leadership playbooks only ever teach you the first one. This course follows Andrea, a senior engineer at a company that traded its formal hierarchy for self-organizing pods, as she learns to read what's called an organization's three sides: the formal structure, the informal networks that actually get things done, and the front stage projected to the outside world. You'll build the same diagnostic instinct - mapping uncertainty zones, spotting useful rule-bending before it curdles into dysfunction, and telling a functional facade from real change. And you'll leave with something the rest of the leadership market won't teach you: knowing when your influence is worth spending, and when it structurally can't land at all.
SarahComing soon
The context matters, too. Boehm was analyzing waterfall projects from the 1970s, built on hardware that required complete software systems before anything could be executed. A requirements defect that made it into production on an IBM mainframe deployment meant months of work and substantial infrastructure to correct. That's the environment behind the steep curve. For a team shipping to a cloud service with blue-green deployments and automated rollback, the production defect cost profile is structurally different.
Understanding, not just knowledge
You Learn to Decide, Not Just to Recite
Each module works toward a deeper understanding, not a definition - knowing when a technique applies, and when it doesn't, not just being able to name it.
Synthesis, not summary
A Complete Picture
Every module connects grounded ideas across fields. The primary sources are always one click away, for further reading.
Built to do, not just to read
Exercises That Make It Stick
Grounded, interactive exercises reinforce every concept - not quizzes, but structured practice you check against a reference solution.
Solo
Perfect for individual learners.
Save $240 with annual - 5 months free
- Start learning with
- Access to all current courses
- Hands-on exercises with real-time feedback
- Free updates and access to new courses
- Progress tracking per lesson
Team
For teams learning together.
Save $744 vs. 5 solo annual licenses
- Everything in Solo +
- Up to 5 team members
- Shared team experience
- Progress overview for all members