How to lead
A Case Study Discussion
Leading a Case Discussion
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when I think about leading I actually
believe it or not I start with before
class because if you just arrived a
minute before class I think you're not
really making the most of of this kind
of getting engaged and involved I would
arrive at least 15 minutes early it
gives the instructor a little bit of a
feel of the room there maybe even with a
well-established classroom important to
go back and check and make sure for
example if audio-visual materials are
being used that those are working
sometimes there will be some presetting
on the board
occasionally the instructor will want to
put maybe some summary facts of the case
or reference elements up and may want to
arrive early to pre-board those and I
think very importantly have a chance to
begin to interact a bit with the
participants what's on their mind do
they have any high-level reactions to
this case going in and this again may be
different from a lecturer who might
decide to just arrive a couple of
minutes before the lecture starts if we
move on from the pre class the beginning
of the session is is the opening they
call it the instructor opening and this
can contain various elements and to
really frame the session kind of why are
we here why is this important what are
we hoping to accomplish today really
ground this so that expectations are
aligned with with the discussion to come
so you're here you have the CEO the
chair of the Audit Committee we have the
external auditors and they're all
looking at the situation maybe from
slightly different perspectives and
figuring out the next steps ok so that
will takes us from the opening now into
the the first discussion pasture and
within any part of the discussion there
they're really three critical elements
to leading the discussion and those that
we think about it is this tripart
questioning listening and responding
when it comes to questioning you want to
think about is there a question that you
can use to to essentially get the
participants to exercise some judgment
a question that will engage for example
in diagnosing a problem assessing or
evaluating a situation or maybe a leader
in the case so you start by talking to
your legal counsel internal and external
then what happens after that often
situations like this will be kind of a
high in terms of listening listening is
really important to the case method
really listen with curiosity where are
they coming from
don't don't rush to judgment in
listening to the comment and as you
begin listening you know listen for
what's the core idea or ideas in this
comment you know I'm asking this get
vote help me out so I'm not confronting
him directly but why not well because I
might be wrong yeah but I'm a nice guy
I'm from California
I'm kind of laid-back I don't want to
get into a confrontation with my CFO
particularly if you know if there's
nothing wrong so we've talked about
questioning and listening and then the
third element is responding so there are
a number of options
once you've posed a question and you
hear response on the part of the
participant I think it's important first
of all just to acknowledge the
contribution so whether it's simply yes
or interesting or somehow letting the
participant know that you've heard
you're listening for opportunities to
generate debate that's right large any
growth wouldn't do it you're looking for
areas of tension and disagreement a
discussion that's just where everybody
agrees on everything there's not much
learning going on there right but if
there's a point at which reasonably
well-informed smart people view it
differently there's a great opportunity
to dig in and kind of orchestrating
those debates I think as part of the
role of the case method kind of seemed
like he was strong-arming both
the internal auditor and also the
controllers one of the things you'll
find in leading a case discussion is
that there are always some participants
who are very active very energetic and
managing balancing those participants
relative to some participants who may be
very quiet
they may be shy they may not want to
speak in a large group maybe they're a
little bit more reflective maybe they're
not as well prepared there can be many
reasons why some participants are less
engaged or quieter than others and so
throughout the discussion you want to
think a little bit about are we having a
balance here in participation
particularly you have a large number of
participants that some folks feel that
they just aren't part of the
conversation and so managing that in a
respectful way I think is important as
an overlay to all of this questioning
listening responding
