Objective:
Entrepreneurs need to be able to act out different roles in different situations. A good entrepreneur is a good actor. In building relationships with different stakeholders the entrepreneur will need to act out different roles –with a banker, venture capitalist, government official, employee, regulator, customer and so on. It is a key essence of entrepreneurship to see oneself through the eyes of major stakeholders. As well as building personal confidence there is a strong emphasis upon being creative under pressure making collective decisions rapidly and working together as a team.
Overview:
The use of drama is the creation and performance by an individual or group of an incident, scenario or sequence of events designed to portray the emotional and relationship as well as cognitive aspects of the scene. Its use can serve a number of purposes:
- It is a reminder that no information received from interviews and research approaches (no matter how good the checklist) is truly objective. The results always reflect the values and beliefs of the person interviewed and often their recent experiences and emotions. For example, a person who has recently been convicted by police of a speeding traffic offence will have a different response to questions about the role and value of the police force in general than someone who has just been saved by the police from an assault. A dramatic presentation of interviews will demand interpretation of the emotions behind the message.
- It demands of the creators of the drama that they must put themselves 'in the shoes' of the provider of information and see the results from their point of view. The conventional academic process of data collection often makes little or no demand upon understanding the data from the providers' point of view.
- Drama demands that individual characters in the drama are understood through the eyes of the other characters. The dramatist makes the character believable by portraying him/her through the eyes of other characters in the drama.
- Messages and information delivered in innovative ways will make a bigger impact and can create wider understanding. Entrepreneurs often need to use creative ways of delivering messages. TV advertising is, for example, drama. A presentation can be dramatic to make an impact.
- Drama provides training in acting skills, which build confidence and ability to personally project.
- Developing a drama demands the use of creative ability often the need is to develop a metaphor to enhance the impact of a message or indeed generalise it.
- Developing drama in groups also creates a powerful bonding process.
Activity:
Use of drama can take a number of forms including Role Play and Hot Seating (see further How To Guides).
Participants can be asked, in small groups, to create a scene portraying a single message, often through metaphor. For example, in the entrepreneurship context they can be asked to prepare a short scene portraying one of a number of entrepreneurial behaviours or attributes e.g. entrepreneurial risk taking; opportunity identification; initiative taking; strong sense of autonomy; networking; learning by doing, and so on. The 'audience' of other participants is then invited to guess the message, to score the creativity of the metaphor and the degree of entertainment delivered.
The drama can also be constructed around a piece of research - for example, in the context of dramatising a series of interviews as a method of enhancing insight into the results of formal data collection. In this case the key issues arising from the research are discussed in a group and the messages to be delivered are set out. A metaphor is then created and dramatised under guidance and later performed. The audience is then asked to record the key messages of the drama and to score the presentation for creativity and entertainment.
Skill Development:
Participants gain understanding of the emotional aspects of knowledge and how difficult it is to be truly objective. They understand the importance of gaining empathy and insight into the passions, emotions and contexts of situations. They learn about the process of consolidation of ideas and of the importance of presenting these creatively but in a form that will be easily understood.
Resources:
- A Compendium of Pedagogies for Teaching Entrepreneurship. Professor Alan Gibb and Alison Price
- For further guidance on related activities referenced in this guide (above) see the ETCToolkit How To Guides 'Compendium of Pedagogies: THE USE OF ROLE PLAY' and 'Compendium of Pedagogies: THE USE OF HOT SEATS
References:
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