Take the Stage

No, that isn't Tim Gunn nor is this Project Runway (the Spanish edition)~ but instead an interesting acting workshop

Not entirely recovered from the previous day's ordeal, I was up at 9am on a Monday to attend a workshop entitled "Take the Stage". IE Business School had invited professional actors from London to train us on communication and body language.

"Pick a card... and behave according to the number
given to you."

7% of what we communicate is solely on the content of our words or what we say per se. The 93% is all body language~ our movements, micro expressions all the way to the tone of our voice. We took several exercises to illustrate each of the points the coach (Richard) was making across.

At some point, I was picked out from the group to act in front of everybody (sorry, no photos!). I was told to play the role of an airport supervisor who was tasked to tell passengers that their flight has been delayed for 2 hours.

Airport supervisors usually have an authority level of 5 (from 1 to 10, with 10 being the highest). In the first part, I was tasked by our coach to behave as if I had an authority level of 3. True enough, when I started t behaving like a "3", I received all sorts of "attacks" from angry passengers who all decided to take advantage of the situation.


In the second round, I was then tasked to behave as if I had an authority level of "10". And so I tried my best to act as if I was in control... attempting to parry questions thrown by a crowd like an experienced public relations professional for politicians. The crowd seemed to be less aggressive, and I realized first hand a big difference how an external facade can influence other people's behaviors.

But that said, we were advised not to always have a "strong" superficial facade, but instead one that truly reflected who we were. We were encouraged to be better at being ourselves~ which is something I personally believe in.

All these amazing pre-program workshops helped me understand why IE is a top 10 MBA program~

The session was entertaining to say the least and it's probably something I'll think about later in life. Richard had mentioned that we are never really off the stage during our MBA because we're always assessed in and out of the classroom. He did mentioned as well that it's important to breathe once in a while in order to help yourself cope for the next big thing that you need to do.