The Trip They Still Talked About Years Later
Friday 9 October — Art of Leadership (II) · Pharma & healthcare
The table
The case
Subtitle: A fictional leadership case for discussion. Source: The owner's own case (Dražen Kapusta, 2026-09-13), verbatim — the eight questions are his
Five years later, someone posted a photograph in the alumni group.
It showed twelve people standing outside a railway station, carrying bags and laughing at something beyond the frame.
Within minutes, the messages began.
“That was before we realised we were at the wrong entrance.”
“Before YOU realised.”
“Who still has the restaurant’s name?”
A member who rarely wrote in the group appeared with the answer. Another suggested meeting again. By the evening, they had a date, a host and three people travelling from other countries.
The photograph came from a COTRUGLI learning journey.
None of them could immediately remember the title of the second company presentation.
They remembered the conversation afterwards. They remembered who had helped when a plan changed, who asked the difficult question and who persuaded everyone to stay for one more song.
They also remembered what they had begun to imagine for their own businesses.
Before Departure
The original trip had almost looked very different.
The programme director’s first schedule was impressive: company visits, expert sessions, a cultural programme and carefully planned transfers.
Every available hour had a purpose.
An alumnus reviewing it asked when the participants would have time to talk.
“There are dinners.”
“After eleven hours of programme?”
She understood the concern. Participants were committing money and valuable days away from work. She wanted to give them enough to justify the journey.
She also knew that a full schedule could leave people with little time to absorb what they encountered.
The group included founders, senior managers and several participants who were still relatively new to the generation. Their interests differed. Some wanted international business perspectives. Others wanted to understand how successful organisations worked from the inside.
The programme needed enough common experience to bring them together and enough space for each person to find something personally significant.
The Question They Took with Them
Before departure, each participant submitted one question connected to a real ambition or decision.
One founder wanted to understand how to grow beyond personal control. A manager was considering a move into a broader role. Another participant wanted to explore whether her company could develop a service around a product it already sold.
An AI assistant helped the organising team group the questions and prepare short background notes on the organisations they would visit. Participants checked the relevance of the suggested material and selected what they wanted to explore.
The preparation gave them a starting point.
It also revealed connections.
Two people working in different industries discovered that they were wrestling with the same problem: how to preserve quality while giving more authority to local teams.
They agreed to compare observations during the trip.
The Visit That Continued over Lunch
On the second day, the group visited a company that had expanded through a network of local operations.
The presentation was useful. The questions were better.
Participants asked about decision rights, hiring and what happened when a local manager made an expensive mistake.
One answer stayed with them.
The company’s leader described a decision he had disliked but allowed to proceed because it belonged to someone else.
On the coach afterwards, the founder who struggled to delegate challenged the story.
“It is easier to say that when you have their resources.”
A classmate asked what level of decision he currently allowed others to make.
The conversation continued over lunch.
By the end of it, he had identified one area in his own company where he could test a different approach without placing the whole business at risk.
The visit had supplied an example. His classmates helped him translate it into a question he could act on.
The Afternoon That Changed Shape
A scheduled activity became unavailable.
The programme director offered two alternatives: an additional formal visit or a free afternoon followed by a group dinner.
The participants chose the afternoon.
Some visited a neighbourhood recommended by their host. Others walked, explored shops or returned to the hotel. A small group sat in a café and spent two hours discussing one participant’s business idea.
The director worried that the day now looked lighter than promised.
At dinner, she heard what people had done with the time.
The manager considering a career move had spoken openly with someone who had made a similar transition. Two founders had discovered a potential collaboration. Several newer participants had formed friendships outside their assigned working groups.
Later, they found a place with music.
People who had been careful and formal on the first day were now making plans together.
The journey was becoming theirs.
What They Carried Home
On the final morning, each participant returned to the question they had brought.
Some had found a useful answer. Others had changed the question.
The group discussed one action each person wanted to take and the help they might need.
They chose peers with whom to follow up. The commitments were practical: test a delegation boundary, speak to three customers, revisit an expansion assumption or arrange a conversation with someone met during the journey.
AI helped participants organise their own notes into working summaries. They checked those summaries against what they had actually heard and experienced.
The most valuable insights often needed additional explanation.
A note saying “decentralise decisions” could not capture the conversation that helped someone recognise where to begin.
Their peers could.
The Return to Ordinary Work
Within days, calendars filled again.
The founder postponed his delegation experiment once. A classmate called and asked whether the issue was timing or hesitation.
Another participant shared the results of her customer conversations. Two others offered to examine what she had learned.
Not every commitment survived. Some ideas proved less useful than expected.
The relationships continued.
People began calling each other about matters that had nothing to do with the trip. Introductions followed. So did meals, visits, celebrations and support during demanding periods.
The shared journey had given them a history from which new conversations could begin.
Designing the Next Journey
Years later, the programme director was asked to build another experience.
The brief emphasised prestigious visits and memorable locations. She wanted both. She also wanted participants to work on real questions, meet people beyond their familiar circle and have enough time to discover what mattered to them.
She returned to the old photograph.
The wrong entrance had never been part of the programme.
The ease with which those people still came together was part of what she hoped to make possible again.
The CDayZ Leadership Challenge
You are designing a COTRUGLI learning journey or an extended CDayZ experience.
Create a programme that connects business learning, exploration and the relationships formed through travelling, eating and enjoying time together.
Decide what participants should prepare, where the programme needs structure and how the experience will continue after everyone returns home.
Discussion Questions
The owner's "Eight Questions for the Room":
- What should participants bring into the experience?
- Which shared experiences belong in the programme?
- How much time would you leave open?
- How would you connect people beyond their existing friendships?
- How can the tribe help translate an observation into action?
- Where could AI support the journey?
- What should happen in the first month after returning?
- What would make the journey valuable years later?
How would you help each person identify a real question or ambition worth exploring during the journey?
Explain how you would select visits, conversations and activities for their learning and relationship value.
Where might space for walking, conversation or individual exploration improve the overall experience?
What would help newer or quieter participants find meaningful relationships within the group?
Design a way for participants to challenge and adapt what they learn to their own circumstances.
Consider preparation, questions, personal notes and follow-up, including what people must verify or interpret themselves.
Propose a light, useful follow-up that helps people act while respecting the demands of ordinary work.
Consider decisions, habits, friendships, mutual help and shared memories alongside immediate participant feedback.
A Lesson for the Next COTRUGLI Generation
A shared journey gives people time to encounter ideas and one another in unfamiliar settings.
Its value grows through the conversations around the formal programme: over meals, during travel, while exploring and when celebrating together.
The COTRUGLI tribe carries those experiences home through relationships that make learning easier to revisit and action easier to sustain.
Years later, a photograph can reopen the whole conversation.
Your comment on this chapter
A question for the table, a disagreement, what you would have done. The case lead reads every comment; the ones the table takes up enter the chapter as questions from the room, with your name.