Note on Case Analysis and Classroom Discussion
for Students in the "Raw Fish" Seminar
Many courses employ cases. Some use them as examples of good (or bad) practice.
Some as "history lessons." Some as the basis for exercises in applying specific
techniques. In this seminar we will use them as opportunities for you to place
yourself -- as a participant -- in situations like the ones you will face in
the your field experience in Japan and in your future cross-cultural job as
a cross-cultural scientist, engineer, team leader or manager.
In these situations you will have to make the best decisions you can about
how to act to be effective, using analytic and cross-cultural tools, despite
the lack of total information and faced with considerable uncertainty. To prepare
for this, your task as a student in this seminar is therefore to immerse yourself
in each case in the same way you would immerse yourself in a similar problem
in your lab or job, and to do everything you can to creatively solve the problem
and create a realistic plan for carrying out your solution.
In class you will have the opportunity to share your analyses and conclusions
with others -- present your ideas, learn from theirs -- thereby developing and
practicing the skills you will need to be an effective cross-cultural intern,
scientist, engineer or manager. The purpose of this note is to provide four
sets of "tips" that may assist you in prepare for classroom discussion of such
cases and participating effectively in these class.
I. CASE REALITY
Cases are real. They are descriptions of real events, and they are intended
to be studied and discussed as representations of reality. Sometimes they are
literally "true". Sometimes they are "composites" of events that actually occurred
in several situations. Their "reality" is their charm and their value as teaching
vehicles. But that reality is tempered by an understanding of certain case conventions.
Specifically:
- Cases are generally not intended either as examples of good practice or
as examples of mistakes. Rather, they place you in the role of a responsible
actor in the situation who must make a decision on how to act. It is up to
you to analyze all the participants' actions motives and plans -- including
your own -- determine which you believe are sound and worth continuing and
which you want to change. Finally, you must create an action plan to implement
your decision.
- In a case, if the casewriter states a fact about the situation, or presents
actual data from industry or company sources, you should accept that and believe
that the data are "correct". You may assume that the casewriter has accurately
reported what he or she found. But you must still question whether the data
are relevant or useful. Often they are not.
- When the casewriter says that "Mr. Jones believed." or that "Miss Smith
proposed.", it means exactly that: They believed or proposed. But that does
not mean their beliefs were correct or their proposals sound. It is your task
to question their beliefs and proposals and actions. When you have reason
to believe your own views are better informed, you should follow your own
analysis and create your own action program, based on your insights. Most
of the time you will find that you can improve on even the best proposals
or plans presented in the case.
In short, cases are a lot like the reality of everyday technical and managerial
life. Each day engineers and scientists -- particularly those working in cross-cultural
settings-- are confronted with data and opinions that sometimes turn out to
be wrong, or incomplete, or inadequate. Sometimes others' demands or opinions
may seem irrational or inconsistent. It is your task to determine which to accept,
reject, or act upon. You may want to seek further information before deciding.
Working on cases helps improve your skills in handling such situations.
II. LEARNING FROM CASES
Doing a good job of learning from cases requires three specific actions your
part:
- Thorough Preparation. Effective class discussion requires that each
and every participant be thoroughly familiar with the key facts of the case,
takes on a "role" in the case, identified and considered options, makes appropriate
calculations and analyses, reaches a conclusion, and is ready to share this
understanding and conclusion -- including support for the recommendation --
with the class as a whole.
- Enthusiastic, Risk-Taking Participation. In class, usually you will
rapidly review the situation, establish known alternatives and then creatively
identify additional ways to proceed, before seeking consensus on one or more
potentially viable solutions. Effective participation in this process requires
that each of you take responsibility for presenting analyses, listening to
others, and helping evaluate and modify the ideas that are presented, until
conclusions are reached. This requires taking an engaged, assertive role in
the class.
At times this also involves taking risks. Others may disagree with your views.
You may find you have not seen the situation clearly or made errors in your
analysis. That's what the class is for -- to permit you to change your mind,
try out new approaches -- see what works -- and to use feedback from others
to modify your first attempt and try again. The task of the discussion leader
is to assist the class -- you -- in trying out your ideas and reaching better
understanding and resolution of the situation. This is a trial and error process
and the role of the leader is to help you experiment and learn. You don't
have to be "right" the first time.
- Periodic Rethinking/Integration. Although part of your learning
will occur as you work on preparing each case, the greatest benefit of the
case method comes from classroom discussion and interaction and from going
back and thinking about a group of cases, seeing how they illustrate and illuminate
a process or a way of thinking. By analyzing the subtle ways in which situations
unfold in a variety of situations, you will acquire the subtle skill of understanding
how to adapt your cultural understanding and problem solving to the demands
of new situations.
Critical to this learning process is the recognition that all decision-making,
while based in part on analysis, is also based on interpretation, logic and
questioning. And on judgments about people and their capabilities. Thus, your
task is not simply to take so-called "facts" as given -- but to determine
for yourself the difference between "true facts" and misguided opinions, assumptions
no-longer applicable conventions, and limited judgments about people and organizations.
To do so, you will practice by putting yourself into "roles" in many situations
and evaluating behavior, data, and organizations, revising your evaluations,
and converting these insights into action plans.
Developing the judgment to do this is the hard part, but it is also the most
important. It is learned only by repeated experience, in case studies and
in the field, by periodically going back and reviewing and integrating what
you have learned. Therefore, part of your task is to develop the habit of
periodic re-thinking, remembering each case and periodically mentally re-visiting
it, thereby getting the most out of your intensive preparation.
The discussion leader's role in this process is to help you identify the key
aspects of each situation, examine subtle similarities and differences, and
introduce analytic processes that are most helpful. Periodically we will explore
with you how these processes have been applied to a series of situations, to
help you integrate what you are learning.
III. CASE PREPARATION
The most significant determinants of whether you will get the most out of a
case or a case course are the quantity and quality of your case preparation
and that of your classmates. If you are "well-prepared," you will feel more
competent to volunteer to start the class off by providing a 5 to 10 minute
review of what is happening in the case, what problems or issues arise in the
situation, and what alternatives you see for resolving these issues. You may
even be prepared to offer a recommendation based on your analysis. Your discussion
leaders expect you to come to class prepared to do this. So it is important
to think about what constitutes "good preparation." There are four key elements:
- Knowing the Key Facts. This sounds obvious, but it isn't. After
all, which facts are "key?" Well, a good working definition is that key facts
are those that will significantly influence future action. Specifically, key
facts usually include:
- What basic situation are "you" in? What do you do in that lab or business?
What is the stage of your relationship? Are you a major player or a newcomer?
What are your major strengths and weaknesses?
- What are the major trends and outside influences affecting your lab
or business?
- How did this situation arise? Who is involved? How do the networks
in that situation operate? Interact?
- Is this an important decision? Why does it matter?
- What are the stakes in this decision? For whom?
- What are the cultural factors involved? How do they operate?
- Identifying the Issue. A case "issue" is a question that requires
an answer that will lead to action. The key facts help define this issue.
Often a general form of the issue is stated in the first or last paragraph
of the case -- or in the case assignment. Sometimes you have to search for
it. Virtually always, even if you do find a general statement of the issue
quickly and easily, an important part of your problem-solving process will
be to keep on refining your statement of the issue to make it more and more
precise.
You will practice this a lot because, the more precisely you can state the
issue, the more readily you can spot key facts, create alternative solutions,
evaluate alternatives, and recommend action. In short, good issue identification
- including the identification of cultural issues -- turns out to be far more
critical than it at first may seem.
- Evaluating Alternatives. Cases usually suggest one or two alternatives
for action -- even if they only partially defined Often you can come up with
better ones if you think about it for awhile. So don't fall into the trap
of just looking at what the people in the case have already proposed. In any
complex situation there are many action possibilities. You can't fully assess
all of them. So start by picking a few representative ones to use to zero
in on the range of solutions that is most promising. Then, at a second stage
of analysis, you can further refine your recommendation within this range.
One of the most helpful techniques for assessing alternatives is to "model"
the decision. That is, draw a picture of the way the decision and how it should
be made. For example:
- Will it be based principally on "logical" considerations such as effectiveness
or efficiency? What are they?
- Or, will emotion, custom, organization, influence, etc. play the major
role?
- Will it depend on facts already known? Are the facts clear? Or is there
need for new information? If so, how will you get it?
- Will it depend on weighing several qualitative factors? How? You may
find it useful build a grid of factors and weights, or a diagram of webs
of influence, to show how they lead to action.
These are just a few examples. By thinking through the key factors guiding
the decision -- and by bringing to class exhibits that show how facts
and analyses - including cultural analyses -- will aid in making the decision,
you will make a major contribution to the class discussion. This will
help ensure that the problem is solved well and efficiently, in class
as in your internship or future job. Discussion leaders will help you
practice this.
- Recommending action. By the time you have done all the things spelled
out above, there usually isn't much preparation time left. But it does pay
to consider how you will present and explain your view of the situation, analyses,
and recommendations to others. The trick in presenting your ideas to the class
is to focus on what really matters and to cut out everything else. This means
trying to:
- Capsule the key facts that shape the opportunity or issue in a simple
explanation or diagram.
- Suggest the range of alternatives and focus on the most representative
ones.
- Show how the decision should be made, and apply this model or process
to the key alternatives, thereby creating the basis for your recommendation.
- Prove that your recommended alternative is not only theoretically best,
but also practical and can be implemented.
Doing all this is obviously a tall order. But it is the set of skills you will
need to be a successful engineer, scientist or manager in the future and it
is therefore our focus.
Many students find that it is very helpful to use a study group as part of
the process. An effective study group will require that you come prepared by
having read the case and begun to analyze it, state your views, listen to others,
and divide up the work of making additional analyses. Often these analyses can
be made on the spot and shared with the group. Then you can seek consensus and
go to class knowing that at least some other students in your group have views
similar to your own.
IV. PRESENTING YOUR VIEWS
There are several ways in which class discussion of cases provides opportunities
for you to present your views. This provides important opportunities for you
because as a future team leader or manager you must be able to inform and convince
others to share your view of a situation or recommendation. The case classroom
is an excellent place to learn to do so.
In each class, as part of the general discussion, you will have opportunities
to define the situation, suggest and apply analytic techniques, and recommend
action. This plays out differently as the class progresses:
- Naturally the person who starts the class discussion has the greatest opportunity
to shape the class. If you go first you may be expected to take 5 to 10 minutes
to lay out key aspects of the whole situation, suggest alternatives and analyses,
and structure a direction for the class. Sometimes this initial comment will
take the class all the way to a recommendation. More often it will set the
stage and open up possibilities and analytic directions. If this opening is
well structured and clearly presented, the class will progress more rapidly.
Early in each class faculty often try to work with the first one or two student
participants to build a clear, succinct presentation of the situation. If
we ask questions at this point, it is usually not to question what you are
saying, but to encourage you to express your ideas with greater clarity, or
to provide more support for the model or course of action you are proposing.
- As the class progress there will be times when you will want to propose
actions or analyses that are quite different from those proposed by others.
Give those who are proposing other ideas a chance to finish. Wait for a moment,
until those ideas have been well explored. Then you can feel free to introduce
a radically new idea and take an extra few minutes to carefully present your
new analysis or recommendation. Take the time to make sure that your idea
or proposal is well understood.
- When you do bring in new ideas, you can have a significant impact on the
class discussion. Don't hesitate in the mistaken feeling that you would be
"holding up the class." Quite the contrary. Switching paths takes a moment
to overcome the existing momentum and create movement toward a new and better
consensus, but it's worth it. Part of your job as a "leader-in-training" is
to sense this necessity and to shape your presentation of your ideas to be
full and forceful enough to create this movement.
- Near the end of the discussion there are usually opportunities to revise
what has been said earlier and to sum up a reasonable consensus position.
This is good practice for your future cross-cultural role as a team leader
or manager.
By taking advantage of these opportunities, you can use class participation
to speed up your own learning and sharpen your skills.
* * *
Everything that goes on in the case classroom is designed to help you learn
and internalize this process. We encourage you to periodically reflect on what
you are doing as a participant, why and how you are doing it, and how it serves
your goal of becoming a better cross-cultural scientist or manager. That will
speed up and enhance your learning.
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Contact: Pat Boyd
Last modified: 10 August 2000
