MGT531 Interpersonal & Group Dynamics Sample Syllabus
Studies have shown that the average manager spends about two-thirds of his or her time interacting with others. It should be no surprise that skill in interpersonal relationships is one of the most frequent determinants of managerial success or failure.
This course is designed to help students learn some of the skills necessary to build more open and effective working relationships. This course aims to increase student understanding of interpersonal and small group behavior. The central focus is to increase student ability to understand and diagnose interpersonal dynamics as well as to increase personal understanding of how she or he impacts others. While readings and group exercises are used to begin discussion, the core learning material emerges in small group interaction. Students learn how they function in small groups and how they relate to others from feedback and reaction of other class members.
Alumni/Student Testimonials
“So I use [IPD] all the time. I’m a consultant at IBM and we work with federal clients and these massive organizations. I’m often embedded in these tech teams, and sometimes people just jump ahead and think about the technology but they’re not really thinking about the whole system. They are not thinking about the different stakeholders and how to really understand their pain points and engage with them and build consensus. And so oftentimes, it can be very challenging with different personalities within our teams or even with the clients. IPD is giving me more tools to figure out how to engage those stakeholders. I am more aware of my choices and how vulnerability or confidence can impact groups. I’ve been able to witness how a group goes from being strangers to a tribe over and over in the IPD lab. I basically take those learnings and use them with my clients and teams.”
– Jared Petravicius, Yale SOM MBA 2016
“[IPD] fundamentally (and I think permanently) changed my ideas about what influence looks like, what power can look like, and more generally opened up new possibilities in the way I approach relationships. I’m not the same person I was before IPD, mostly because now I have a sense of what I don’t know. It’s a beautiful thing to finish a course feeling like you will spend the rest of your life figuring out how to learn from humans. There are very few experiences in my academic/professional life that taught me how to think, how to learn, how to listen, and how to empathize deeply.”
– Sarah Hallowell, Yale SOM MBA 2020
“My learnings from the course about myself, my biases, motivations, values, and aspirations as well as my effect on others and on group dynamics went on to guide my interactions with my learning team, my classmates, my friends, and even my family. The two components of the course (the class and the lab) played off of each other. During the lab, you learn by interacting with a group of 9 other participants and two facilitators, giving you the opportunity to have some of the most honest, challenging, but also rewarding conversations you can have. During class, you reflect on what happened in the lab and are exposed to frameworks to help you see things differently and make sense of it all. I cannot say this enough. If you take nothing else at SOM, take IPD. It will stay with you for life.”
– Aly Gamay, Yale SOM MBA 2020
“An alum told me that IPD was the most useful class they’ve taken, so I came in with high expectations…. I felt hesitant and disappointed at first when they announced that labs would be moving virtual, but I couldn’t be more surprised that every single one of my classmates gave it their all so that we got the experience that we signed up for… With the virtual format, I gained the ability to be able to more thoroughly study my lab-mate’s magnified expressions…. No emotions and reactions can be hidden and that led to a more vibrant IPD experience”
– Wira Ramanto, Yale SOM MBA 2020
Learn more: Feeling Back to Your Roots – Interpersonal Dynamics (James Lin, MBA 2015)
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
The syllabus refers to class and to lab. Are they different and when do they occur?
Class is generally held on Tuesday and/or Wednesday afternoons during both the fall and spring semesters. In addition to class, all students in the course will be part of a lab group which generally meets after class or on Friday mornings. Once you are assigned to a lab, that lab group and time remains constant.
That sounds like 6 hours per week of time in-class or lab. Is that right?
Yes. Class includes discussion of the session topic and often an exercise to introduce/refine a skill relevant to interpersonal and group dynamics. The lab is a more open format and, given the experiential nature of the course, is where the bulk of the generative learning experiences occur.
That’s a lot of in-class time for this course. Is there a lot of outside work in the form of readings, assignments, and prep for class?
Most students say that the course demands can be met in about an hour outside of class and lab time each week. Since the course methodology is experiential, we use the readings and assignments as stimulus and reflection. They do not need to be onerous to establish a solid foundation for powerful learning in this course.
Who are the lab facilitators and how do you select/train them?
The lab facilitators are present in each and every lab meeting to support the conditions for learning. We have had CEOs, entrepreneurs, faculty, psychologists, leadership coaches, non-profit managers, and SOM alumni facilitators. Some have been facilitating the course for many years and others will be newer to this adventure. All facilitators have attended at least one 3-day facilitator training retreat and facilitator attend weekly supervision meetings with course faculty. A number of students who have taken IPD have referred to the facilitators as some of the most important influences during their time at Yale.
Is the retreat optional?
This course has a crescendo into a weekend retreat. The retreat is not optional – attendance is mandatory for course completion.
What do you do on the IPD retreat?
I am always hesitant to try to answer this question because I cannot usefully illustrate what you cannot yet imagine. But here I try: We create learning to last a lifetime. By the time of the retreat, the lab groups have established a learning environment that works. They get right to work on student directed learning goals that the students have set for themselves, sometimes in consultation with a small group. Read the overview in the syllabus for more info about what we do in the course for all these hours. Come to the course and check out the first readings if you remain intrigued after that. What I know from teaching experientially is that most people won’t understand the descriptions well without experiencing it because the course method is to learn from experience rather than primarily from concepts. If you are someone who may enjoy self-directed collaborative learning, come check it out. If you are only interested in learning from a more conventional didactic set up (also important and effective, of course), then this course may frustrate and confuse you.
How much should I bid?
I am hesitant to advise on this one. What I can suggest is that you consider that there have usually been different price points for the different sections in different semesters. I hope that you will get in if you really want to be there. If you don’t get in, you are welcome to show up to first class to see if a spot opens.
When should I take IPD?
IPD is a significant time commitment, and the weekend retreat is required so I encourage you to plan accordingly. We try to offer IPD regularly so that the many students who truly want this unique experience have a high chance of enrolling. You may not want to wait until your final spring semester only to then realize your best friend’s wedding is taking place the same weekend as the retreat!
How much does this content directly help me to think about difficult interpersonal dynamics in the workplace including leadership situations and working with difficult people?
This course provides ample opportunity to practice the skills involved in many relevant situations in the workplace. However, we primarily create learning from interactions with those present in the course and the lab. It can be unclear for some students how to apply what they are learning outside of the classroom or lab context. We will spend a session on these issues near the close of the course and we lace examples throughout the semester. But in an experiential format, the best learning set-up for the goal of learning to work with difficult people is to have a person you experience as difficult in your lab. If you then work a DO-REFLECT-APPLY cycle, you have the ingredients for powerful active learning on this topic. Since there are so few difficult people who are SOM students enrolled in the course, the lab may be a more harmonious and pleasant experience than you may prefer. Students are encouraged to take advantage of the 1-1 conversations with the faculty as well as to raise these issues during class.