STRATEGY
What fuelled the inspiration for this project? First, the possibility to work with someone who is a master of their craft, even though – and especially – when they work in a different field. This is not an opportunity many of us have often. Second, the risk factor. By aiming very high, and knowing that failure is possible, we were forced to mobilise all the creative tools at our disposal.
The precise moments where we tend to ‘lose’ our students are the ones that offer the greatest opportunity to help them
An educator and a comedian walk into a bar…
There is a fundamental paradox in our teaching. Typically, we are deeply familiar with the content and have taught it many times before. Yet, we are meant to introduce it to learners who are discovering it for the first time. Ideally, we would be able to look at the material through their eyes – but how? This is where educators can learn a lot from comedians. The success of a joke depends on being keenly aware of the information set and the expectations of the audience as it is guided towards the unexpected realisation that results in a laugh. This process is similar to (and synergistic with) moments of insight when one learns or discovers new knowledge. This means that the precise moments where we tend to ‘lose’ our students are the ones that offer the greatest opportunity to help them, in this case by embedding humour into our teaching – a task that is both challenging and inspiring. Using humour in management education has other benefits. The 2020 book, Humor, Seriously? is based on Jennifer Aaker and Naomi Bagdonas’s course at Stanford Graduate School of Business. It makes a strong case that humour, when deployed judiciously, is an invaluable tool not just in everyday life, but in business life as well. It helps communicate more effectively, provides social currency, defuses conflicts, enhances corporate culture, and strengthens leadership, among other benefits. By using high-quality and relevant humour at Business Schools, we are signalling to our students that humour has a place in business and getting them to be comfortable with using it. Does this mean that business educators should start looking for comedians to collaborate with? The answer is ‘yes’, but the even bigger issue is that, more than ever, education needs creativity to be more effective, more engaging and more inspiring. How do we get there?
Making inspiration happen ‘ Are you inspired yet?’ was Obeid’s joking question to the audience after I introduced him as our inaugural ‘Inspiring Guest’ at a faculty workshop. There is indeed something comical about being brought in to inspire; it was clear that we were taking a big risk. But the truth is, the workshop inspired many things, directly or indirectly. It inspired the realisation that much of a standup comedian’s toolkit is useful in teaching. It inspired a humorous educational video about product pricing, which a faculty job market candidate later cited as one of the reasons she was drawn to our school. It inspired an interdisciplinary (marketing/finance) research collaboration. It inspired more faculty and staff to take an interest in the Inspiring Guest project. And it inspired multiple reflections about how to develop the project further. A year later, Obeid and I presented another workshop on humour, this time at the Academy of Management (AOM) Teaching and Learning Conference (where it won the ‘Best Session’ award). It was very clear to us by then that risk-taking is part and parcel of the inspiration business. At the workshop, we announced that we were going to solicit audience ideas for our next humorous educational video which we would record three days later. This prompted a lively brainstorming session, resulting in the selection of expectancy theory of motivation as the topic; one that our team knew nothing about beforehand. We documented the creative process of making this video in some detail and the resulting video has already been used by professors around the world (all our output is freely available from the TBS website) to enthusiastic response from students.
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AMBITION | Be in Brilliant Company
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