Back to school: University of Economics & Business

The cops say that the criminals tend to return to the crime scene. I cannot judge how they feel there — but I can tell how I feel when returning to University of Economics and Business, Prague — after so many years from my graduation — to give a lecture on change management.

Damn yes, I was nervous!

It’s not like speaking to business people. The students are on the starting line. They are yet to launch their careers, to experience their first change management challenges.

I guess that’s why I felt like that — some sort of obligation. An obligation to give them the best change management basics I could. To make them better prepared. To help them succeed in the future. Because change management still remains an understated skillset in business praxis.

I am therefore both humbled and happy, that the Faculty of International Relations made this seminar possible.

The international group of students was a great audience. And we covered a lot of further topics during the Q&A session — which even took longer than originally planned.

Here are just some of their questions:

“How to deal with a person, who is resisting the change?”

“How to find out that a project becomes obsolete over time? Should it be stopped?”

“Some companies promote the culture of instant innovation and change. Is it a good strategy?”

“How long should a change project take to complete?”

How would you answer these questions?

Because I am quite certain, that one day we will hear them from the young businessmen and businesswomen!