Ben Shields

Faculty

Ben Shields

Support Staff

Get in Touch

Title

About

Academic Groups

Academic Area

Ben Shields is a Senior Lecturer in Managerial Communication at the MIT Sloan School of Management. His work as a teacher, researcher, and practitioner focuses on digital transformation in the sports, media, and entertainment industries.

He teaches a number of courses in the graduate programs at MIT Sloan. He created and teaches Creative Industries: Media, Entertainment, and the Arts; Social Media Management; and Sports Strategy and Analytics. He also teaches Communication for Leaders and co-teaches the Sloan Fellows Seminar on Leadership. In 2020, he received MIT’s Teaching with Digital Technology award. In 2022, he received the Jamieson Prize for Excellence in Teaching, MIT Sloan's most prestigious teaching award.

Ben also teaches in the MIT Sloan Executive Education program. He is the Faculty Director of the Global Executive Academy, a two-week program focused on leadership that convenes executives from around the world. In addition, he developed and teaches the open enrollment program Data-Driven Teams: The Art and Science of Winning. He also teaches in two other open enrollment programs: Communication and Persuasion in the Digital Age and Maximizing Your Personal Productivity. 

He is the author or coauthor of three books, Social Media Management: Persuasion in Networked Culture (Oxford University Press, 2016), The Sports Strategist: Developing Leaders for a High Performance Industry (Oxford University Press, 2015), and The Elusive Fan: Reinventing Sports in a Crowded Marketplace (McGraw-Hill, 2006). He has also coauthored MIT Sloan case studies on Formula 1 and the National Women's Soccer League.

Prior to MIT Ben served as the Director of Social Media and Marketing at ESPN.

He holds a BS and MA in communication studies and a PhD in media, technology, and society, all from Northwestern University.

 

 

Honors

Shields wins teaching award

Shields wins Jamieson prize

Publications

Featured Publication

Social Media Management: Persuasion in Networked Culture.

Shields, Ben. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2016.

Featured Publication

The Sports Strategist: Developing Leaders in a High-Performance Industry.

Rein, Irving, Ben Shields, and Adam Grossman. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2014.

​The Elusive Fan: Reinventing Sports in a Crowded Marketplace.

Rein, Irving, Philip Kotler, and Ben Shields. New York, NY: McGraw Hill Education, 2014.

Recent Insights

Ideas Made to Matter

New courses at MIT Sloan include ‘Pursuing happiness’

Before it’s in the boardroom, it’s on the syllabus at MIT Sloan — including a new course on pursuing a meaningful life.

Sep 27, 2022
Read Article
Ideas Made to Matter

4 ways data plays a role on winning teams

How data plays a role in talent, system, culture, and leadership of winning teams.

Jul 20, 2022
Read Article
Load More

Media Highlights

Executive Education

Communication and Persuasion in the Digital Age icon
Executive Education Course

Communication and Persuasion in the Digital Age

Grounded in extensive cognitive research on how we learn and observe, Communication and Persuasion in the Digital Age is designed to help executives and managers become successful communicators in person and in virtual contexts: from group discussions to presentations to social media.

  • Sep 18-19, 2023
  • Oct 31-Nov 1, 2023
View Course
Data-Driven Teams icon
Executive Education Course

Data-Driven Teams

Data-Driven Teams: The Art and Science of Winning examines how high-performing teams differ from their competitors across four main dimensions: talent, system, leadership, and culture. Drawing on best practices from the sports industry, this new course explores how data can be applied across each of these factors, from identifying talent to measuring your team’s culture.

  • Nov 14-16, 2023
View Course
Load More