Center for Innovation and Change - Los Angeles

Professionals in every occupation complain that they never learned practical skills in school. The Marshall Goldsmith School of Management (MGSM) at Alliant International University sponsors the Center for Innovation and Change (CIC) so  that MGSM students graduate with practical experience that puts them head and shoulders above graduates of other programs. The CIC puts students into consulting engagements that work with all levels of non-profit organizations. Students take on consulting and leadership roles. Some client organizations appreciate what CIC teams do so much that they have engaged CIC for many years. CIC experience also gives recent MGSM graduates a head start in competing for jobs. Students report that their CIC experience prepares them well for both internal and external consulting positions. Students with experience in several CIC projects are more likely to land excellent internships and jobs if they didn't already arrive at Alliant with significant experience. Even mid-career professionals working toward a graduate degree find that practical projects where they can apply what they are learning in class helps make their educational experience that much more relevant and powerful.

For over a decade, the CIC has worked with non-profit organizations and public agencies on organization development projects. Through the CIC, teams of students in the Masters and Ph.D. programs in Industrial-Organizational Psychology and Organizational Psychology at the Marshall Goldsmith School of Management work on short-term projects, usually lasting one to six months. Usually, students partner with an experienced practitioner at the client institution to develop and/or deliver initiatives. This person could be an internal HR/OD specialist or an outside consultant working with the organization.

Services offered by CIC include:

• Organizational diagnosis and assessment
• Employee survey analysis—both qualitative and quantitative
• Strategic planning and action planning facilitation
• Change management planning and facilitation
• Strategic change communication
• Diversity assessment and initiative development
• Training needs analysis
• Training program development and delivery
• Team building
• Conflict resolution
• 360 Degree Feedback
• Leadership assessment
• Individual development planning
• Management coaching

Clients have included Goodwill of Southern California (pdf 195kb), City of Hope National Medical Center, The Los Angeles Free Clinic, and the City of Pasadena. Clients build long-term relationships with CIC, creating a well-developed infrastructure to support student consulting. Click here (pdf 30kb) to read clients' thank-you letters describing their respect for student consultants' contributions to City of Hope National Medical Center (pdf 30kb). After working on CIC projects, students are more likely to be interviewed for positions in management consulting, change management, training and development,  and human resources management. For instance, IBM holds recruiting lunches with our students and has interviewed advanced students whose consulting experience included CIC projects and CIC project leadership.

Students are eligible to work on CIC projects after completing their first semester of classes toward these degrees at the Los Angeles campus: Masters in Industrial-Organizational Psychology, Masters in Organizational Behavior, Ph.D. in Industrial-Organizational Psychology.