It's time to tell why the participants of the flagship program of the Academy DTEK "Energy of Innovation" manage to implement such extremely complex and complicated project tasks. There can be many assumptions, but at the same time we are sure that their results would not be so brilliant if each of the participants worked independently. It's a different matter if you go to the goal together! At the very beginning of the program, the participants were united in teams to work on innovative projects and already now they show excellent results of teamwork. But there is no limit to perfection, and even cohesive teams can work better if you dig deeper into team and interpersonal interactions.
From September 22nd to 25th, all teams met again on the 7th module of the program with the main topic "Team and interpersonal interactions" in the auditorium of the old library of the partner university Lviv Polytechnic. Thus, the module was introduced, and the participants were inspired to study by the director of the Institute of Administration of Lviv Polytechnic Lubomyr Pylypenko and the head of the department of administrative management, professor and doctor of economic sciences, Nazar Podolchak.
Junona Lototska, PhD, expert on transformation of large organizations and team management consultant, continued the topic of team management. Program participants identified types of A and B players in the team, analyzed the maturity of the organization according to Adizes, reflected a lot and talked about values, why it is critical for the implementation of any task.
But how do you make a business where people are at the heart of all processes and the company's greatest asset? In practice, participants were visiting and exploring the largest companies of Lviv.
FESTrepublic is a city within a city in Lviv, a modern space and center of creative life, where people and their emotions are the main focus and, as the owners themselves call it - "Holding of emotions". The space is maximally focused on the emotions of guests. Moreover,Taras Kitsmey, co-founder of SoftServe, one of the largest IT companies in Ukraine, told how to create an atmosphere where all employees will feel comfortable, how to keep talents and help them grow within the company. The company has unique values and provides conditions aimed at human-centeredness, which encourages young people to stay in Ukraine and develop themselves here.
Returning to Lviv Polytechnic, the participants tried to feel the teamwork in other realities - to conquer Everest! "Conquest of Everest" is a business simulation developed by business coaches and climbers who really conquered Everest! The teams tried to compete for the ascent to the highest point in the world, and their main task is to conquer the top on time with detailed planning and accurate execution of tasks in conditions of constant uncertainty, as well as to adapt to it as quickly as possible!
By planning their own resources and facing the most unpredictable weather conditions, participants must reach the top of Everest, trying to stay there as long as possible and return to base intact, using a variety of leadership skills. During the simulation, participants face various challenges that are very similar to challenges in the workplace: lack of resources, aggressive deadlines, opportunities and obstacles, the need to make quick decisions, lack of time, anxiety, risky decisions and more. But the most important thing is teamwork, the ability to hear and listen to each other, to have a common goal to achieve!
However, teamwork is impossible without negotiations. Therefore, on the last day, the participants plunged headlong into the negotiation process together with Natalia Baikalova, a business psychologist, and a leading expert in the field of negotiations, strategy and management consulting of top managers and politicians. Thanks to practical cases and business games, Natalia focused on the peculiarities of internal negotiations, their motivational conflicts, levers of influence, mediation, stopping manipulative influence and techniques of reaching an agreement.
The emotional points of the module were the drum circle and the rope course:
- Drum Circle - a game where people, drums, rhythms, and music come together in a single stream of creativity, but this can be achieved only with coordinated teamwork.
- The rope course aims to reveal those qualities of teamwork of leaders which could not be shown in usual circumstances. Therefore, the participants were able to see themselves as a team player and leader from the outside and reflect this time with the team and personally in particular.
Academy DTEK is an open educational platform for business and society, a leader in corporate learning in Ukraine. In 2019, the Academy was recognized as the best corporate university in the world in the category "Corporate Responsibility" according to the Global CCU (Global Association of Corporate Universities). Every year 140 thousand people study at the Academy - from training in the development of competencies, distance learning courses to corporate MBA programs. There are 289 internal coaches, 8 certified assessors and coaches.
The Energy of Innovation: Executive MBA program is designed for top managers and senior executives who have more than 5 years of management experience and seek to scale, develop and change the environment in which they work, as well as successors to key company positions within talent development system D.Talent.
