Arguments all in the name of learning

Arguments all in the name of learning

A University of Queensland Master of Business Administration (MBA) unit not only teaches professionals how to better deal with organisational challenges but how to sell their ideas back at the office.

Graduate School of Management senior lecturer Peter Lynch has developed a teaching tool known as "leveraged debates" as part of units within the University's MBA program.

"When professionals return to their workplaces from postgraduate management study, they often encounter an established and honoured professional tradition which will try to overpower suggestions of organisational change," Mr Lynch said.

"The debates simulate this sometimes adversarial office environment and encourage students to anticipate the rebuttals and defensive strategies colleagues sometimes employ.

"The component involves me asking the students ?not to be reasonable'. Both sides vigorously argue the extremities of their respective positions. These extreme positions then provide a starting point for the critical analysis and more considered position which follows.

"In essence, teams of three people research and debate specific topics. The whole class then orally reviews each debate, exchanges prepared papers and critically analyses each other's arguments in writing, thus ?leveraging' off each other's efforts.

"We trialled the technique last year in an MBA subject, Professional Service Firm Management. The evaluations were very high with a couple of the School's highest achieving students describing it as the best learning experience they had encountered. In the long haul of an MBA, it also provided some variety in assessment away from the more familiar case study approach. I am using it again this year."

Mr Lynch recently presented a paper on the debating program at the Higher Education Research and Development Society of Australia's international "Cornerstones" Conference at the University of Melbourne.

"It's terrific fun but educationally that doesn't count for much unless the topics are appropriately grounded in the subject's objectives ," he said.

Examples of debate topics include: That funding the training of highly career-mobile professional staff is a waste of the firm's time and money, That in professional environments, widespread delegation simply doesn't work and That as an indicator of the firm's well-being, at the bottom line, all that matters is chargeable hours and their recovery.

For more information, contact Peter Lynch on (telephone 07 3365 6757).