Dr. Eva Bilhuber Galli

My B360 assignment at NUST, School of Management Sciences, Department of Human Resources, comprised three major tasks:

1. Teaching students in «Principles in Training, Education and Development» (PTD)

2. Research Consultancy for lecturers at the department pursuing a PhD and

3. Supporting Graduate School of Business in developing an Executive Education Module in Coaching as well as conducting Public Lectures

1. Teaching

We decided for an experiment - we gave students a real problem case at NUST as assignment of the whole course: How to introduce foreign guest lecturers in an efficient and effective way into student life at NUST? We asked them to design and deliver a short 3-5 minutes self-learning program about important aspects of their student life. We ended up with 12 groups that submitted and presented very thoughtful and creative little introduction nuggets. I was very much impressed by the openness of all to engage in this project assignment. I think it was a great way to bring students to practice in training design and delivery.

2. Research Consultancy

As a second big basket of my assignment, the Department of HRM asked me to support research projects of the lecturers. When arriving, I learned that NUST - only recently transformed from Polytechnic to University - recommends lecturers to qualify on PhD-level in order to support this transformation. However, support for such research projects seems not yet been organized systematically. It was a very lucky situation that B360 expert Armin Hollenstein, a former statistician professor, was at NUST at the same time. This opened up the avenue to offer both parts of research in fruitful combination: running statistical data analysis as well as making sense of results, hypotheses, research design and methodology.

I experienced the collaboration with the PhD candidates among the most rewarding during my stay. It led me to enjoy very intense, trusting and beneficial relationships with the lecturers – probably more than if I had only cooperated for teaching. I felt like making part of the department-team, of their individual challenges and joy in research and life. Above - and not less worth to note - it was also the wonderful cooperation with Armin that made this research consultancy a fruitful experience not only for the candidates, but also for myself.

3. Graduate Business School

The third part of my assignment included the support of the Graduate Business School at NUST in developing an Executive Education Module about Coaching for Managers. We started our collaboration already beforehand and decided on a Public Lecture about Coaching, functioning as an «appetizer» for the planned module. During our preparation discussion around the Coaching session we were also touching the involved change of the Managers’ role towards an orchestrator of collaboration and purpose. Cynthia and Christine from Business School raised interest in the topic of «Creating Collaborative Advantage» and so we agreed additionally on a Business Breakfast Session on this topic.

After advertising the public lecture on Coaching, Business School was quite overrun with registrations (80). So, we decided to hold a second turn one week later, as the venue only supports 40 people. The response to the session was quite positive and a lot of people raised their interest in a more indepth Executive module. Further, Business School was able to leverage two interesting contacts for potential trainers for this module.

The cooperation with business school was very rewarding as well. I could imagine Business School to act – beside being an education institute - as well as Hub for supporting transcultural leadership discussions among leaders in Namibia in a more general way. Pairing systematically international experts with Namibian managers, entrepreneurs and also small businesses for discussions and workshops on current strategic issues, like we offered with the Breakfast session.

Overall, I am still trying to find words for this fulfilling, enriching, horizon-broadening and rewarding experience I was able to enjoy over B360 at NUST. I am very grateful and still touched and overwhelmed by all the openness and trust I encountered and all the gratitude expressed. I certainly will return once…