Three Reasons to Ban Guest Speakers from the MBA Classroom
Our Technology Management class ran over tonight -- again. Two-thirds of the way through, it's a definite trend; in fact, I think it's run over every time I've been in class. At least half the time, a guest speaker has contributed at least partially to the time issue. Tonight was one such occasion.
As I tried to focus on what our guest speaker was saying about ERP implementations, I started thinking about some of the other guest speakers we've had since the program began. And I realized that, so far, I haven't really learned much from them.
While contemplating the situation, I came up with three reasons to keep guest speakers out of the MBA classroom:
Guest speakers cover too broad an area »
1. Guest speakers try to cover too broad an area in too limited of a time. Of course, you could argue that the professor should have been more specific in his or her guidelines and expectations. (And you would be right.) However, in an accelerated MBA program like the one I'm in, time is at a premium. Our classes only meet for six sessions, and one of those is usually an exam or group projects.
And so far, our courses have been rather broad, making it a challenge for professors to fit a semester's worth of information in six sessions. For example, tonight we had three group presentations, a lecture, a case study, and the guest speaker -- all in three hours. And in his allotted hour of time, our guest speaker tried to cover the finer points of ERP systems, project management best practices, and tips for working on international teams.
Guest speakers underestimate your experience »
2. Guest speakers often underestimate the experience of MBA students. Every time we have a guest speaker, he or she seems to equate us with college freshmen. They assume only a few of us work, and they seem to think we've had little experience in the "real world."
At 31, I'm far from the oldest student in the class, and I've been out of college for a decade. Some of the speakers aren't that many years older than me. The result is a presentation catered to a different audience than we actually are -- and filled with information too basic to be useful.
Too much theory, not enough practice »
3. Guest speakers often fail to relate their specific experience to the broader topic at hand. While obviously an issue that varies from speaker to speaker, it's still been a theme in the guest speakers we've had so far. Far too often, they speak specifically about their industry or position instead of focusing on the more general topic of the course itself.Our speaker tonight came the closest by offering up some project management best practices, information that can apply whether you work at a bank or an Internet company. However, the class is on technology management -- while related, they're two different disciplines -- and some of the best practices got lost in the rest of the information he crammed into his presentation.
Of course, this is simply my opinion. Several classmates have apparently enjoyed our speakers. In fact, many of my classmates even voted for an executive management speaker series for one of our electives. (As you can probably guess, I wasn't one of them.)
Fellow MBA students, what do you think? Have you had a lot of guest speakers? Have you found them useful? Has the structure of my program hurt the effectiveness of speakers, or do the same things apply in semester-long courses?