Richardson Column in The Free Lance-Star

UMW College of Business Dean Lynne Richardson

College of Business Dean Lynne Richardson’s weekly column in The Free Lance-Star discusses being bold about your organization’s plans for after the pandemic. Read IMAGINING THE FUTURE.

THE PANDEMIC has totally disrupted so many parts of our lives, not the least of which is the workplace. So I’ve been wondering how our organizations will look in a few years.

In conversations with people who work in a variety of industries, a common theme is astonishment that work requiring an office setting a year ago can effectively be done from home today. One person said to me, “If I hadn’t seen it, I wouldn’t have believed it.” We can relate.

While what we do may be similar, how and where we work is different. So where do we go from here?

Upon my arrival at the University of Mary Washington, I created small groups of faculty and staff and challenged them to dream a bit. What would our college look like in five years? I told them to not worry about budgets, personnel, facility issues or anything else. No boundaries should prevent us from dreaming. Read more.