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“Decisions easily made never work out”: an open lecture by Rostyslav Pavlenko

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Published on Thursday, 25 January 2018 13:11

The Association of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy Political Studies Program Alumni has invited Rostyslav Pavlenko to give a talk in front of our students on January 24.

Rostyslav Pavlenko has tight connections with the Political Studies Department: he received his Bachelor Diploma here in 1997, then stayed for some time to teach its next generations and even used to be the Head of it. Now he is the Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration of Ukraine. Despite his taught timetable he managed to find some time for the Kyiv-Mohyla students.

“I’ve decided to visit Kyiv-Mohyla [Academy] because speaking to the new generation of colleagues gives me inspiration, because talking over your experience is always useful, because I believe that an alumnus has to support his Alma Mater in every way he can, and simply because I’m always glad to come the Academy, to be among the mohylianians!” – Mr. Pavlenko explains.

This lecture was dedicated to the problem of decision making. The temptation to make a simple and obvious choice is common and frequent. Yet this seeming simplicity may hide some actual obstacles  which can affect the results considerably. One could ignore such obstacles, but then what is going to happen to the consequences of the decision made? Would any decision not become void if one doesn’t think over all the possible results beforehand, but prefers to cut it short and simple?

Rostyslav Pavlenko suggests that we put the aim first. Why do we do what we do? What for? The second important factor to consider is the circumstances we work in, both internal and external. The space we work in, the social network around us, the motivations of our co-workers – these are the essential factors that may affect the results of our decisions a lot. Only after analyzing every positive and negative factor that could come into our way and defining our goal with maximum precision we can make a proper decision, Mr. Pavlenko claims.

Besides that, the lecturer gave an analyses of a current political situation in Ukraine with a special focus on the most hot problems our government faces, and the most fruitful perspectives our country has at the moment.

The Q&A session was active and serious. The auditory seemed to be primarily interested in such questions as:

• what is Ukraine’s place in the international political and informational network?
• what the nearest future of our electoral system would be and how could it affect our political parties?
• is it possible for our society to go beyond the current problems and look into the future?
• are we able to make real influence on the international political processes?

The fact that the students of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy perform such an interesting extra-curricular activities as organizing such open lectures and taking active part in professional discussions is extremely pleasing. Not less pleasing is to see how our alumni are still willing to dedicate their time to the Alma Mater and to share their professional experience with the new generations, even despite being busy with some very important and complicated work.

A report by Olesia Dalebiha, 2nd year Master student, Department of Philology; Strategic Development Center.