MANAGEMENT DEVELOPMENT INSTITUTE, GURGAON Effective Business Communication through Theatre Technique Core Faculty: Ashok Kapoor Course Outline

Introduction

Theatre is not merely a metaphor for workplace: it already exists in daily life, and workplace is just its extension. Individually and collectively, within and without, people are in a dynamic and dramatic relationship that is now planned or rehearsed and now improvised.

The Corporate is engaged in an ongoing drama that is being played on the larger stage of society. In their book, ‘Dramatic Success’, (Nicholas Brealey Publishing, 2004), authors Andrew Leigh and Michael Maynard reiterate that Corporate is Theatre. They have looked at ‘Self’, ‘Team’ and ‘Organisation’ as the three acts of a play. The dramatic scenario in Self consists of ‘Connection’, ‘Talent’ and ‘Power’; in Team of ‘Alignment’, ‘Creativity’ and ‘Exploration’; and in Organisation as ‘Insight’, ‘Inspiration’ and ‘Initiative’.

The key to being an effective player in corporate processes is to learn to observe, sense and listen to the unfolding drama at workplace. Theatre techniques prepare you to see yourself objectively in a dynamic situation, and thereby help you to realise responsibility and strategise communication. They aim to help the student transform and become an inspired performer, an effective team player and a leader.

The theoretical model of the Communication Process – comprising ‘coding’, ‘decoding’, ‘feedback’, etc.- is merely a codification of practical human communication, its strengths and pitfalls. These models help in somewhat superficial understanding the process and are of little help in real-life situations. The Role-Play methodology, successfully used over the years in management education, takes its cues from theatre. Theatre techniques, by way of communication-pedagogy, lend to the method new