Anybody who has worked in an office knows that co-workers can sometimes seem less like colleagues and more like, well, barnyard animals. So it was probably only a matter of time before some enterprising business school decided to find a place in the curriculum for actual beasts of burden. That time has come.
Students in the MSc in Management Consulting program at the Grenoble Graduate School of Business in France (Grenoble Full-Time MBA Profile) now interact with a herd of horses–in a barn, or what Grenoble calls “semi-liberty”–to explore “fundamental notions of respect, trust and non-violent communication.”
The learning activity is based on “The Seven Games of Natural Horsemanship,” a home study program developed and introduced in Europe in the 1980s by Pat Parelli, a horse trainer, rodeo rider, and cowboy. Activities include “Friendly Game,” in which the leader helps a horse confront a noise or scary object, and “Squeeze Game,” in which the goal is to cross a narrow path between a fence and a tree. You can see some of these activities in a video on Grenoble’s web site.
Read the full article: Horseplay: B-School Takes Students to the Barn