Professor Ian Mercer hosting a three-part Power Skills Workshop this spring semester for the Professional Development Program
written by FDU Silberman College of Business Placement and Outreach Dept
We are excited to co-host, with the ideas and initiative of Dr. Ian Mercer, Assistant Professor of Management, a three-part Power Skills Workshop this spring for the Silberman Professional Development Program [PDP]. Placement and Outreach is always excited to work with enthusiastic faculty members on events that better prepare our students to start their professional careers. Professor Mercer’s goal is to engage students and build on their acquisition of ‘power skills’. This workshop will be a series of events, effectively sponsored by Placement and Outreach, that focus on leadership, teamwork, and decision-making development (with elements of influence tactics and conflict resolution). The initiative will comprise of three parts — an escape room experience, a speaker panel, and an experiential experience using analog games.
“As you know, I’m very active in research in gamification and experiential learning and there is a lot of support for the benefits of using such activities for skill development and many organizations adopt game-based activities in their professional employee development. I think we can make a mark at SCB doing something similar to leverage this concept.” — Dr. Ian Mercer
Day 1: March 27, 2024
Day 1 will consist of an Escape Room activity at American Dream Mall on March 27, 2024, from 10 am — 12 pm. Professor Mercer would brief students beforehand and then watch them via the video monitors in the rooms. After their escapes, a private room will be available to conduct a substantial interactive debrief about leadership examples seen, their communication, and team-based behaviors. This is a great experience for students to emerge as leaders and problem solvers. Space is limited (nine students from each campus!) and first come first serve — don’t hesitate to sign up!
Day 2: April 3, 2024
A speaker panel will be hosted on the Florham Campus on April 3, 2024, from 10 am — 12 pm, to discuss the importance of teamwork, ethical action, and ethical leadership. The Global Director of M&A at Johnson and Johnson, and the former head of Innovation at Loreal (now at Kenview, the new J&J spinoff), have offered their support. An hour panel and an interactive Q&A session will follow.
Day 3: April 17, 2024
The final day will consist of gaming stations and team debriefs on both campuses on April 17th, 2024. Metro Campus’ debrief will take place from 9 am — 12 pm and Florham’s from 2 pm — 4:30 pm. Dr. Mercer will use a number of experiential activities in class that he can adapt and use in a shorter session. He proposed to hold small group sessions, each about 20–30 minutes in length, on a rolling basis at the two venues. Students can cycle through and experience the challenges of working in a team in very hands-on activities. He would then debrief each group.
“The idea is that if students complete all three sessions, they will receive a certificate in power skills development. If they complete two, they will receive an achievement badge. If all goes well, this is something that we could expand and develop and hold twice a year for our SCB students, perhaps attracting sponsorship from local industry.” — Dr. Ian Mercer
Experiential Learning
This isn’t the first time Professor Mercer has used experiential learning to better engage his students. Last spring, Dr. Mercer utilized “Regenerate”, a cooperative resource management game, where players must navigate regenerative land stewardship, sustainable development, and systems design thinking.
If you’d like to incorporate the Professional Development Program into your curriculum, please reach out to the Placement and Outreach team to start planning! For our full PDP schedule, click here.
More from Professor Ian Mercer: Learning the Importance of Ethics in Business Practices
