A chair isn’t a chair. It’s a taco. At least, that’s what your classmate is telling you. And with a straight face. You’re at a nationally ranked business school, and one of your first orders of business is to watch someone point to a chair and insist that it’s a taco. Does it sound ridiculous? Sure. Is it even more ridiculous when you’re the one pointing to a chair and saying it’s a taco? Obviously. But at Vanderbilt Business Orientation, sometimes ridiculous is exactly what the doctor ordered.
On the first day of orientation week, students across MBA and specialized master’s programs skipped the awkward small talk portion of their Owen introduction and got to know their new classmates through something a little less conventional: improv. No rehearsed introductions. No rundown of where you went to undergrad or what you’re currently streaming. Instead, students created stories together, reacted to whatever their partners threw at them, and, occasionally, tried to convince one another that a chair wasn’t a chair.
The laughs broke the ice, but the absurdity had a purpose. Before their first real team project even began, students were practicing how to listen, adapt, collaborate, and recognize how they show up in a group.
This makes learning how you operate in a group more than an orientation exercise. Because the person who dominates an improv scene might also dominate a team meeting. And the person waiting for an opening might have the idea the group needs but never find the space to share it. And, of course, the person busy planning what to say next might miss what a teammate is actually telling them right now.
In the end, nobody really remembers the chair or the imaginary taco. What they remember is who they became in that room—the person who stepped up, the one who hung back, the one who listened. How did they feel? How did those around them feel? That’s what Vanderbilt Business is banking on: that a little absurdity on day one pays off in every team project that follows. By the time things get real, students already know how they will show up.