Interview with Joanna Mihułka – Petru, president of Altkom Akademia, a leader in the education and training industry.

 

Dynamics define the business world today. To operate effectively, a coherent vision, clearly defined goals and interdepartmental cooperation in the organization are necessary. Altkom Akademia achieves synergy between these areas through a tool such as strategic workshops. Why this choice? 

Who from the organization should be invited to participate in the workshops as a participant?

I have always operated this way, in every organization. I believe it is extremely important for the entire team to know which direction we are heading, which is why for several years we have been meeting in the fall to sum up the current year, make a checkpoint of where we are, what we have managed to do, whether we acted according to plan (and if not, why and what corrections have been implemented) and develop a direction of action for the next year.

Thanks to this approach, we all feel that organizing workshops makes sense – we understand the importance of the arrangements that we have jointly approved, which is why we first summarize and reflect, and only then work on setting further goals.

 

The whole team, that is who?

 

Personally, I cannot imagine setting annual goals or having follow-up conversations with a team if its members have not previously participated in creating and prioritizing them.

For me, the key is interdisciplinarity, which we achieve by inviting managers from different departments. These are people who have different experiences (also from previous organizations), different education, different work experience, different needs and pains in their departments. This interdisciplinarity allows us to achieve a holistic approach to the organization’s strategic activities thanks to mutual understanding.

At this point it is also worth mentioning the context of personality and historical experiences resulting from involvement in similar projects in the past.

During the workshops, we sign a kind of contract

 

 

we all know that we have to support each other, cooperate, because otherwise we will not achieve the goals that we have set together. It is amazing how this type of meeting, during which managers get to know each other’s perspectives, their micro-goals, which do not have to be identical to the goals of their colleagues, influences mutual respect and sympathy, which in turn translates into greater commitment.