Faculty
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.
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.
Rein, Irving, Philip Kotler, and Ben Shields. New York, NY: McGraw Hill Education, 2014.
Whether on the court or in an office, winning leaders use data and storytelling to achieve sustained performance from their teams.
Before it’s in the boardroom, it’s on the syllabus at MIT Sloan — including a new course on pursuing a meaningful life.
"Owning a sports team, or even a piece of it, is a crowning achievement," said senior lecturer Ben Shields. "It's the ultimate vanity asset."
"If a piece of content does not capture the attention of the audience, it will be difficult to monetize it."
In a report from MIT SMR Ben Shields said: "Depending on the subject and the faculty member, there may be a different approach and philosophy."
"Build a fandom and a movement capable of organic growth, convert casual fans into avid fans."
This productivity course is designed to increase your personal productivity through a series of case studies, practical exercises, and background readings. Encouraging self-evaluation through polls and surveys, you’ll have ample opportunities to explore your work habits and learn through doing. Special guest CEO of Gentreo, Renee Fry, will also discuss how you and your teams can use tools such as Generative AI to increase your productivity. At the conclusion of the course, you’ll be able to immediately implement the best practices and lessons learned.
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.
