Objective:
Participants gain confidence in responding to questioning under pressure. They may importantly also learn that they need to âactâ differently with different stakeholders. They learn quickly to adapt to othersâ point of view.
Overview:
This is a group exercise. Members of the group in turn are put in the âHot Seatâ to respond to intensive questioning from other group members. Traditionally, this âHot Seatingâ technique is used by actors to help them identify with the character they are playing. It is used in entrepreneurship education to enable participants to get inside the culture and values of stakeholders with whom they might have to deal. But it can also be used for intensive questioning of an individualâs own personal aims, objectives and plans including business plans. Other participantâs (the group) act as interrogators in this exercise; note: it can be useful to agree ground rules as what is appropriate in terms of questioning and approach within this task.
Activity:
The hot seat itself is in the middle of a semi-circle of chairs. The person in the âHot Seatâ can be himself/herself or represent a client or stakeholder. Dependent upon the role, questions fired rapidly may relate to personal issues; business/organisational problems or community activities (part of ground rules).
Example Hot Seat: Business/plan/idea
The individual is surrounded by those role playing different stakeholders which the plan might need to convince. The aim is to create recognition that the plan will be seen very differently by very different stakeholders. Interrogators may, for example, play the roles of bankers, venture capitalists, family, local government officials offering grants; a potential large customer who will be judging whether to include the client on a buying list or a major potential supplier who may be asked for credit.
Other participants can then be similarly hot seated. At the end of the hot seating there can be a review of what has been learned about the business plan as a relationship management instrument and how it might be best developed to meet different needs.
Example Hot Seat: different stakeholders
Using the same focus of the business plan; hot seaterâs, in turn, can be asked to play the roles of different stakeholders, as above, and are quizzed about what they are looking for and why?
Example Hot Seating: on a problem
The technique can be used to role-play individuals from a case study with the aim of creating lively personalised discussion of major points for learning from the case. It can also be used to focus discussion on how to deal with a particular problem set out in a simple brief.
Skill Development:
This is an exercise in thinking and responding under pressure. It also is designed to stimulate understanding of relationship management and the value of thinking empathetically. It can be used to throw light on the âorganisational culturesâ of different stakeholders that make them see the same things in different ways.
Resources
A Compendium of Pedagogies for Teaching Entrepreneurship. Professor Alan Gibb and Alison Price - Â (PDF)