I am issuing a warning to future (and current) INSEAD MBAs.  This is a problem across both campuses and I know many people who have suffered to varying degrees from it: Break Out Rooms (BoRs in colloquial speak) are very dangerous places.  You think you’re sitting there enjoying the quiet and privacy of a confidential conversation, when BAM! you realize that everything you said is audible to the people in the next BoR over.  Sike!  There is no privacy!

The illusion of privacy is very strong though, leading people to unwittingly divulge juicy gossip ALL THE TIME.  You think you’re safe, but then someone silently slips into the BoR next to you – you have no idea – and goes to work only to hear all about what you did at 3AM on Saturday night and with whom you did it.  So while I guess the advice should be “don’t gossip”, I’ll go the more practical route and say: PLEASE just make sure you’re paying attention to who’s in the next BoR over before you open your big mouth!  (Not that your mouth is big… I mean other people’s mouths…)

Here’s an example of a bunch of a bunch of gossipy INSEADers giving each other the dirt on their weekend, while another group listens in and is totally appalled.  At least that’s my read on this picture.

 

Break Out Room