We are definitely not having a ‘normal’ MBA. Rushing to class through the crisp Lausanne air has been replaced by frenetic keyboard-tapping as we hastily log in to make it onto Zoom before 8 AM. Delicious buffet lunches now have to be self-created (or not). Heated team meetings are now conducted in the eerily quiet atmosphere of our living areas.
But does different mean less? Does a break from ‘normal’ equate to a loss?
I don’t believe so. There is nothing we can do to undo the Covid-19 pandemic. It is happening. I know that this is not the experience we all had envisioned when we started our journey. This is not the situation which anyone could have predicted just a few short months ago. But, ask yourself, colleagues, is there any better position to be in during one of the biggest economic and health crises our world has ever faced than to be part of such an incredible group of people as we forge our way into the future?
We have a unique opportunity to be part of the most dynamic network during one of the most challenging times our generation will ever face. We are exposed to and given the opportunity to pick the top minds of our time, including that of Yves Daccord, the Director General of the International Committee of the Red Cross (guest speaker in our Business and Society class last week).
Our lectures are enhanced by speculation about the forever-changed environment in which we find ourselves, heated debates about the best way forward, musings about the impact of this disease on life as we know it, not only on our own countries, but on those of our fellow classmates. And during a time when all those around us are reflecting on the way ahead, we are able to tackle it with the best cavalry.
Normal is an ideal. But it’s not reality. Reality is brutal, it’s beautiful, it’s every shade between black and white, and it’s magical. Yes, magical. Because every now and then, it turns nothing into something.
Harmonic Feedback authored by Tara Kelly
