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Cou rse, I Parallel courses on opposite sides of the ocean teach students vivid lessons about disruptive events, change management, globalization, and teamwork. by Sharon Shinn 34 BizEd MARCH/APRIL 2007 nterrupted Undergraduates at Indiana University's Kelley School of Business in Bloomington were in the middle of a fairly straightforward course on business management software and enterprise resource planning when the bottom fell out of their world. For the first half of the semester, they happily undertook the task of mapping work- flow processes for the auto supply parts companies that each team of students had created. As they reached the midpoint of the class, they were shocked to learn that their companies had been purchased by German automakers—that is, mock auto manufacturers created by teams of students in a parallel class at the Fachhochschule Brandenburg. At the same time, to their equal surprise, the German students learned they had acquired the American companies. Students from both sides of the Atlantic were told they had to work together for the rest of the semester to prepare a joint video presentation they would give to a panel of experts on change man- agement and process integration. Not only would they have to figure out how to merge their companies and make their processes compatible, they would have to overcome language barriers and time zone differences to craft the presenta- tions under a very tight time frame. A class on enterprise resources? Outsourcing? Technology? Globalization? Yes, says Dan Conway, clinical associate professor of operations and decision technologies at the Kelley School. While the umbrella category for both the U.S. and German class is business process management, the course more truly introduces students to the chaos that can be real-world business. "In general, I think universities try very hard not to throw curves at students," Conway says. "Students are allowed to schedule classes so they don't have to handle too many things at once. So we are trying explicitly to disrupt them." He doesn't disguise it. "On my syllabus, a day in November says, 'Disrup- tion,'" says Conway cheerfully. "After that, it says, 'Change management.'" Cross-Cultural Collaboration Conway hatched the plan with Brandenburg's Robert Franz, a colleague with whom he was working on another project. They were speculating about ways to make a traditional business processes class more interesting than, say, a series of computer programming exercises. An international merger not only would force students to struggle with change management, it would require them to master the challenges inherent in globalization and working in virtual teams with people they'd never met. Helping to brainstorm ideas was Amelia Maurizio of SAP's University Al- liance Program, which promotes collaboration among its 700 or so member schools worldwide. Her input was key, as students would need to learn and use enterprise resource planning software as they attempted to work together long- distance. Together, they came up with Cross-Cultural Collaborative Learning— or 3C Learning—as the name of the new project.