On January 30, we had the pleasure of welcoming Jan Köster as a guest speaker at our institute for the first time. Jan (he explained to us that using first names is part of his organizational culture) was a guest in our “Intercultural Management and Communication” lecture as an expert on organizational transformation.
As Vice President of Transformation at Gruner+Jahr he is leading the strategic and cultural realignment to prepare G+J for the future and develop it into a learning organization as part of RTL.
Jan took our students through his daily tasks, processes, and challenges and introduced them to the model of the learning organization using practical exercises and examples. The students were encouraged to try out some of Jan's agile methods right in the classroom and discuss their effects afterwards. He complemented our lecture wonderfully and enriched it with new knowledge and exciting anecdotes about challenges and projects from his everyday working life at Gruner+Jahr and RTL.
It was an inspiring afternoon, and we are very much looking forward to welcoming him back next year as a guest speaker again.
Thank you very much, Jan!