PEDAGOGY
BIOGRAPHIES
growth and built up friendships with colleagues, but turned out to be a manipulator and something of a con man. In a third case, a woman was o ered an advantageous career move, provided she joined a team where the manager had a reputation for harassment. She accepted and had to fight to defend her integrity. Practical tips for teachers For those who want to adopt this method of teaching, here are some practical pointers. Ask students for examples of situations in their professional life (successes, di culties, failures, projects, bankruptcies, product launches, innovations and so on) that they have personally experienced or witnessed first-hand. Tell them not to censor themselves and provide as many details as possible about the personalities of the various people involved, the type of organisational context, how long the company has been in business, or how long those members of sta have been with the organisation, its history, culture, practices, products and services. The more the situation has challenged them, the more it has, at times, put them to the test, the more important it will now be to reinterpret and analyse it. Clearly, this situation should illustrate the need to develop or strengthen their managerial skills, as well as their ability to question, understand and act. After describing the situation as neutrally as possible in the first part, they will analyse it in the second part. The need to carry out this analysis in the light of what they have already learned on the course, providing between two and four lines of theoretical questioning (based on concepts, notions and reading grids that may or may not have been covered on the course) will help them to better understand the situation they have experienced. Get them to elaborate on the questions this situation has raised and how they have subsequently dealt with them. Both in the debates generated by the case studies and in the reading and use in class of the work of adults in training, the teacher is advised to adopt a non-judgmental, even benevolent, neutral stance, so as to value the students’ backgrounds. They also need to be active listeners to lead the debate, while sometimes discovering with them the incredible stories that populate our organisations. In one example, an adult learner once confided in their teacher about the mission of some hard-hitting consultants who had arrived at his company, a world leader in its sector. “They asked me if I was on the executive committee and when I replied that I was not, they said, ‘That means you’re not a real man’”. At this point, a general burst of laughter shook the class at the rudeness of the consultants, reinforcing the desire to continue sharing experiences. What seems to emerge from this experimentation is first and foremost the interest shown by the adults in this form of work, which enhances their experience far more than a simple theoretical examination. The teacher’s interest is also stimulated, as he or she discovers rich situations that can, on occasion, strongly encourage reflection and feed into the lessons. This exercise can also give rise to writing partnerships in which teacher and student then publish teaching material together for use in subsequent years.
Vincent Calvez holds a PhD from the Ecole Polytechnique and an MSc from HEC-Montreal, where he began teaching in 1993. At Essca, he is in charge of management courses and heads the Family Business Institute. His research interests include crisis management, the critical incident and case method, as well as conflicts within family businesses. He has published three books and some 40 case studies Stéphane Justeau has a PhD in economics and has been teaching since 2000. He was trained at the University of Lausanne and at the Open University, where he was awarded a Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice. Justeau is in charge of Essca’s Institute of Advanced Pedagogy where he trains faculty members of Essca School of Management, as well as faculty from other universities and schools both in France and abroad. Previously dean of faculty, he is now associate dean for pedagogy
Ambition OCTOBER 2023 | 15
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