A Safe Space: Demystifying the EMC Classroom Experience

INSEAD’s Executive Master in Change (EMC) began with a vision and an objective: to provide business professionals with new lenses through which to see and understand their world holistically—starting with themselves and moving outward to family, group and community dynamics, and finally to use that knowledge to create more effective organisations.

Inside the Classroom: The Clinical Approach

One of the hallmarks of the programme is that all learning takes a clinical approach. The term “clinical” simply implies that real-life situations are examined – as opposed to obtaining “theoretical” knowledge. This means that all of the programme’s content is directly derived from real life or can be applied to it. So how does this work in action?

Each class is made up of 36 participants, closely supervised by two programme directors who are both present for every session. Much of the learning also takes place in groups of six participants, which provide a framework for peer coaching. Each director looks after three groups, whose members are shuffled at various points during the programme. On the journey to gain a better understanding of yourself and others, you will explore the underlying motivational factors and past experiences that influence your own and others’ current behaviour patterns, as well as the influence and interconnection of context, for example, family, the organisation in which you and others work, and national culture.

In the class and in your group, you will explore deeply emotional topics and be invited to share in a way perhaps never experienced before, in a safe and confidential environment. The programme directors help to create and hold a space of completely attentive presence and respect for each participant. “A very important part of the teaching style is that we are not just in a transactional mode of transferring knowledge. We are part, and facilitators and protectors of a learning community”, explains Erik van de Loo, Affiliate Professor of Organisational Behaviour. To protect you during moments of vulnerability, the programme directors contain all interactions in the classroom by not allowing judgments, disruptions, “fixing” and negative energies to fly around unattended to.

The cognitive or academic part of the programme is delivered through a variety of methods: ranging from recommended readings, lectures from world experts, 720-degree feedback instrument, simulation exercises, discussion sessions and group work. You will also be invited to act as a “live case study”, should you wish to participate.

Outside the Classroom and Beyond

Outside of the classroom, you will engage in three carefully designed practicum experiences: a peer shadowing exercise in which you will shadow (and be shadowed by) another participant at work and observe what this triggers within, an organisational obervation at a company you are unfamiliar with to develop further your observation skills and form a hypothesis about the environment you are in without intervening, and finally designing an intervention where you will develop a plan to help facilitate change in a company.

This EMC learning experience will have a profound impact on you, on both a personal and professional level. “Through the programme, I’ve become a better person, a better father, son and husband, and a better businessman as well” says Piergiorgio Rossi, EMCCC’12 alumnus, while Andrea Bogusz, EMCCC’13 observes “I am now much more comfortable, confident and knowledgeable about designing and helping to implement change initiatives for an individual, a team or an organisation”.

If you would are considering to apply for the Executive Master in Change, please contact us to discuss your profile and the programme content in more detail.

Learn more

• A Life-Changing Journey of Intellectual and Emotional Discovery
• The Annals of Psychodynamic-Systemic Practitioner Research - a collection of EMC graduates' theses
• How to Gain Your Employer's Support