The best business school in the nation, Kellogg, doesn’t suffer from poorly taught classes (save a few…). Indeed, the number of epiphanies and Eureka! moments are legion across great professors such as Scott McKeon, David Besanko, and many many more. But, if you dared to expend all your points in the class bidding lottery, you would not go wrong to embark upon the Marty Stoller Experience. The Marty Stoller Experience was something 80 exclusive few, out of almost a thousand students, every two years, experienced first-hand.

Paying nearly $60K/year for all the room and board, tuition, beer, etc. while not working, for an average of four classes per quarter, works out to about $500/hr you’re paying to learn, know, and/or experience. The Marty experience was worth every penny.

This treat, this marvel of a class, went beyond simple classification. Proof? Sample material from the first five minutes of the first class:

In a Kellogg classroom
[lights go dark]
[playing on the screen at the front of the class was a clip from The Usual Suspects with suspects standing up in a line-up]
Policeman [not seen]: "Alright, you all know the drill. When your number is called, step forward, and repeat the phrase you’ve been given. Understand? Number one, step forward."
Number One (actor: Kevin Pollak): "Hand me the keys, you fucking cocksucker."
Policeman: "Number two, step forward."
Number Two (actor: Stephen Baldwin): "Gimme the fuckin keys, you fuckin cocksucker motherfucker [as he pretends to be blowing away people with a gun, acting crazed. The others in the line-up crack up]
Policeman: "Knock it off, get back!"
Number Three (actor: Benicio Del Toro) [in somewhat broken English] "Hand me the keys, you cock sucker."
Policeman: "In English, please?"
Number Three: "Scuse me?"
Policeman: "In English."
Number Three: "Hand me the fuckin keys, you cock sucker. What da fuck?"

Marty stops the film, brings up the lights and walks over to one of the students in the class, hands him a note card with something written on it, asking the student to stand up and read the card.

Student: “Hand me the keys, you fucking cocksucker.”

Thus started one of the truly memorable experiences in a classroom ever. As evidenced, there were no bounds of standard classroom decorum observed; everything was fair game.

So, what was this class? What was the formal title recorded in our report cards? I think it was Management Communications, but in reality it was “Stop being so boring and get off of the PowerPoint ad nauseum reading bandwagon and perform.” Not just perform as in act or make what you’re saying more interesting to the listener, but perform in the sense of do your job to your utmost.

You do your utmost by analyzing what the audience wants. If you’re giving a speech to MBAs, make it funny, cheese it up; they’ll get bored otherwise. If you’re giving a speech to kids, feel free to be silly, fun, and/or gross. If you’re giving a speech to the Board, or to the CEO, don’t cower and not take risks. Get to the point quick, but don’t lose the value of the delivery compared to what’s delivered. Case in point…

Peter Norvig’s Gettysburg Address PowerPoint gives you a sample of what the Marty Stoller Experience was all about. Norvig went through the Gettysburg address and applied the standard PowerPoint breakdown of the speech. Scroll through it and you can see what we do with typical management communications; we steal all energy from it. Remove the emotion, the person, and the performance from what you’re saying; antiseptically deliver content. Terrible!

What made Stoller a master at getting us out from the PowerPoint drudgery and into the rhetorical mindset was his fantastic preparation before class. When asked why he didn’t have more classes, he responded, “I can’t do that much psychoanalysis on that many people. 80’s about all I can handle.”

Indeed, Marty would try his best to deliver the value one’s bidding points for a class deserved. The lessons were tailored to the individual. If someone really was too shy or too scared to perform as he wanted him/her too, he’d back off and try to cajole them to open up. He succeeded on a number of occasions.

He also was not scared of getting rather “vituperative.” If someone did not prepare due to a ski trip or hangover, he’d let him/her have it. If someone was not progressing at the pace he felt possible, he’d be on ‘em.

Going to Marty’s class was like going to camp. It was fun. It was informational and based in the rhetorical sciences. It was a challenge. And, it was hard work. But, like camp, it tends to fade to some extent once you’re away from it.

The key takeaways from the class were that you need to take more risks (don’t get stuck reading from notes or PowerPoint slides in life) and you need to perform for the audience by getting into their heads before the presentation.

So, it is with great sadness and remorse that I learned that Marty has died of brain cancer after nearly six years of battling it. I’m sorry I didn’t get to see him again, but the memories of him are deeply etched. My condolences to his family and friends. Thank you Marty!