The Status Seminar

Richard Hahlo (co-founder of ‘Dramatic Resources’ with Geoff Church) had been invited to work on a theatre project using Shakespeare plays with dancers at the prestigious Béjart Ballet in Lausanne, Switzerland. While working there it was suggested that he make contact with the IMD Business School, also in Lausanne, and one of the leading institutions in the world for executive education.

Richard met with Professor Jim Dowd who invited him to be a guest speaker on an external programme running at IMD. Richard was then presented with the challenge of keeping the spirit of a theatre workshop with a group of 60+ in a lecture theatre. Out of this was born the ‘Status Seminar’ which seeks to explore issues of non-verbal communication in a highly interactive format.

Now some 5 years later Richard is a regular guest speaker at IMD and works with many different groups and programmes. Every year he works with the new MBA class as an introduction to the subject of ‘Organisational Behaviour’ – and below is an extract from their on-line diary:

Courage, groups, and an actor?

by Matteo Fabiano and Lawrence Ganti

"Acting is a job and an art. Just like leading an organization is.

Richard Hahlo is an actor from the Royal National Theater in London. He is also an author and a teacher. Earlier this week, Professor Martha Maznevski, Organizational Behavior, explained that before we can think outside of the box, we must first understand what the box is. Well, today she definitely led by example. In a successful effort to help us both understand the box and think outside of the box, she invited Richard to IMD to give us a crash course in non-verbal communication.

What is an actor doing leading a discussion for MBA students? We all know that body language and voice have a significant impact on communication. We have read it in articles and books. What is Richard going to tell us that we do not already know? In fact, he did not tell us … he showed us. His teaching method is based on role-play and active participation, making the session as practical and experiential as it could be. Over his four-hour gig, almost every participant took part in a role-play, one way or another.

Richard presented us with statistics that showed that communication is 38% voice, 55% visual and only 7% content. By voice, I mean voice inflection and tone, and by visual, I mean body language and presentation. As we thought about these statistics, Richard took us through a number of exercises to open our minds and demonstrate the importance of the different modes of communication. The exercises also showed us that each of us has a certain amount of status and confidence. External Status, which is often given to you through titles at work or tenure in an organization, is something that you bring with you. Internal Status is something that you can control and develop. It is often viewed as the confidence that you have. I don’t think any of us has ever thought that communication and organizational behavior could be so complex and analytical!

Richard took the exercises to a higher level when he randomly chose two of us to give an impromptu presentation. Marcos Pedote (Brazil) and Jerome Baudy (France) were the lucky ones. (Another statistic that Richard made sure to share with us was that the two things people dread most are death and public speaking.) Needless to say, Marcos and Jerome showed great courage getting up in front of all of us and giving an unprepared presentation. When the presentation was finished and Marcos and Jerome sighed in relief, Richard made them redo the presentation again and again adding different variables and highlighting certain types of body language.

Richard Hahlo used our own behaviors to display the power of non-verbal communication. He could not have been more convincing."