Photo of Ways to Change, Peter Wegner
Class Sessions
OVERVIEW
Interpersonal Dynamics is the currently the most popular elective course at the Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB), although it's taken many years to achieve that status. Known to most students as Touchy Feely, the course was first offered in 1968 and for several decades it was taught by a handful of faculty, most notably David Bradford, Mary Ann Huckabay and Jerry Porras. When I was enrolled in Mary Ann's section as a Second Year MBA student in 1999, I estimate that only about one-third of my classmates also took the course. But over the years the course's success at helping students prepare to be more effective leaders and managers by developing their communication and feedback skills has fueled demand to the point that today the vast majority of GSB students take the course.
After a decade of facilitating groups in the course and supporting faculty members Carole Robin, Scott Bristol, Gary Dexter, and Richard Francisco, I was asked to join the faculty and teach my own section in Winter 2016, and I taught the course again in Winter 2017. Later that year, the GSB invited me to teach a third section of The Art of Self-Coaching, a course that I designed and launched in 2015. I accepted the school's invitation, but I also decided to resign from teaching Touchy Feely, as my executive coaching practice, writing, and personal commitments preclude me from teaching more than one class per Quarter at Stanford.
Below are condensed versions of my slide decks and references to the readings on my section's syllabus from Winter 2017, as well as links to other resources.
I've also written a brief history of T-groups, which discusses the origins of the methodology employed in Touchy Feely and includes sections on my personal experiences, past research and T-group programs outside the GSB.
Thanks to...
The 72 students in my sections of the course in 2016 and 2017 and the 200+ students who participated in T-groups that I co-facilitated. It was an honor to work with you.
The facilitators and reading coaches who served on my staff: Agnes Le, Anamaria Nino-Murcia, Chevalisa Bruzzone, Don Hejna, Erica Peng, Kevin Martin, Lela Djakovic, Mark Voorsanger, Michael Terrell, Rich Kass, Sue Neville, and Tuquynh Tran, and Gabriel Cooper, Jamila Rufaro, Leslie Chin, Norman Tran, Stephanie Stevens, and Sunny Sabbini.
And the colleagues who've been generous with their wisdom and patient with my shortcomings over the years: Mary Ann Huckabay, Carole Robin, Scott Bristol, Gary Dexter, Richard Francisco, Andrea Corney, Collins Dobbs, John Cronkite, Yifat Sharabi-Levine, Chris McCanna, Ricki Frankel, Hugh Keelan, and David Bradford (among many others.)
CLASS 1: BEGINNINGS
Course Readings (Required, 39 pages)
- Course Manual (11 pages)
- Interpersonal Dynamics Reader (David Bradford & Mary Ann Huckabay, 1998/2015)
- Chapter 1: Introduction (3 pages)
- Chapter 2: Interpersonal Learning (7 pages)
- The Interpersonal Dynamics Reader was developed by Bradford and Huckabay specifically for use by students in this course and serves as the equivalent of our textbook.
- Safety, Trust, Intimacy (Ed Batista, 2010, 3 pages)
- Getting to "Us" (George Halvorson, Harvard Business Review, 2014, 1 page)
- Social: Why Our Brains Are Wired to Connect (Matthew Lieberman, 2013)
- Chapter 1: Who Are We? (13 pages)
- T-Group Tips: Conditions for Laboratory Learning (1999, 1 page)
- Our curriculum includes several T-Group Tips, brief chapters from the Reading Book for Human Relations Training (8th edition), compiled by the staff of the NTL Institute, the organization that formalized the T-group methodology in the 1950s.
Other Readings
- Are You Too Stressed to Be Productive? Or Not Stressed Enough? (Francesca Gino, Harvard Business Review, 2016)
- The Five Keys to a Successful Google Team (Julie Rozovsky, Google re:Work , 2015)
- A New Theory Explains How Consciousness Evolved (Michael Graziano, The Atlantic, 2016)
- Don't Be Biased Against Bias (David Rock, Heidi Grant Halvorson, and Camille Inge, The Huffington Post, 2016)
- Experiments in Intergroup Discrimination (Henri Tajfel, Scientific American, 1970)
Related Posts of Mine
- First Impressions (2016)
- Two Sides of Trust (2016)
- T-Groups, Feedback and Double-Loop Learning (2007)
- T-Groups, Trust, Leadership and Management (2007)
CLASS 2: COMMUNICATION
Course Readings (Required, 69 pages)
- Interpersonal Dynamics Reader (Bradford & Huckabay, 1999/2015)
- Chapter 3: T-Groups and the Nature of Experiential Learning (6 pages)
- Chapter 4: Communication (10 pages)
- The Relationship Cure (John Gottman & Joan DeClaire, 2001)
- Chapter 1: How We Connect Emotionally (26 pages)
- The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work (John Gottman & Nan Silver, 1999)
- Chapter 2: How I Predict Divorce (22 pages)
- Gottman is a leading researcher on marriage, parenting and family relationships, and we apply his findings in this course to working relationships and organizational life.
- Erin Meyer on Culture and Communication (Ed Batista, 2015, 3 pages)
- T-Group Tips: What Is a T-Group? (Charles Seashore, 1999, 2 pages)
- From the Reading Book for Human Relations Training (8th edition), compiled by the staff of the NTL Institute, the organization that formalized the T-group methodology in the 1950s.
Course Readings (Optional,18 pages)
- We’re All Terrible at Understanding Each Other (Heidi Grant Halvorson, Harvard Business Review, 2015, 9 pages)
- Are People Likely to Misunderstand You? (Heidi Grant Halvorson, Harvard Business Review, 2015)
- A short online assessment based on Grant Halvorson’s book “No One Understands You and What to Do About It.”
- Mixed Signals: Why People Misunderstand Each Other (Emily Esfahani Smith, The Atlantic, 2015, 9 pages)
- Further discussion of Grant Halvorson’s recent work.
- John Gottman & the Four Horsemen
- A short paper assessment based on concepts from Gottman’s “How I Predict Divorce.”
Related Posts of Mine
- You Make Me Feel... (On Language and Responsibility) (2016)
- The Spirit of the Stairway (2016)
- Seeing What's Not There (The Importance of Missing Data) (2016)
- John Gottman on Successful Relationships (2007)
CLASS 3: SELF-DISCLOSURE & AUTHENTICITY
Course Readings (Required, 56 pages)
- Interpersonal Dynamics Reader (Bradford & Huckabay, 1999/2015)
- Chapter 5: Being Known—Issues in Self-Disclosure (6 pages)
- Five Levels of Communication (Ed Batista, 2015, 4 pages)
- Discusses a model developed by Richard Francisco.
- The Authenticity Paradox (Herminia Ibarra, Harvard Business Review, 2015, 13 pages)
- Managing Authenticity (Rob Goffee & Gareth Jones, Harvard Business Review, 2005, 8 pages)
- Leadership BS (Jeffrey Pfeffer, 2015)
- Chapter 1 (excerpt, pages 41-44): Why Inspiration and Fables Cause Problems
- Chapter 3: Authenticity: Misunderstood and Overrated (19 pages)
- T-Group Tips: Some Shortcuts to Laboratory Learning (Nancy Brown, 1999, 2 pages)
- From the Reading Book for Human Relations Training (8th edition), compiled by the staff of the NTL Institute, the organization that formalized the T-group methodology in the 1950s.
Course Readings (Optional, 13 pages)
- The Dangers of Feeling Like a Fake (Manfred Kets de Vries, Harvard Business Review, 2005, 8 pages)
- Nonverbal Cues Get Employees to Open Up—Or Shut Down (James Detert & Ethan Burris, Harvard Business Review, 2015, 3 pages)
- Self-Monitoring Scale
- Self-Monitoring and Authenticity (Ed Batista, 2011, 2 pages)
Other Readings
- Unless You're Oprah, "Be Yourself" Is Terrible Advice (Adam Grant, The New York Times, 2016)
- My Response to Adam Grant's New York Times Op-Ed (Brené Brown, LinkedIn, 2016)
- How to Beat the Imposter Syndrome Feeling (Christian Jarrett, 99u, 2017)
Related Posts of Mine
- Riding the Wave (Conscious Competence) (2014)
- Conscious Competence in Practice (2015)
- Brene Brown, Vulnerability, Empathy and Leadership (2014)
CLASS 4: FEELINGS & FEEDBACK
Course Readings (Required, 73 pages)
- Interpersonal Dynamics Reader (Bradford & Huckabay, 1999/2015)
- Chapter 6: Feelings: An Emotion, Not an Opinion (8 pages)
- Chapter 7: Learning from Feedback (6 pages)
- Make Getting Feedback Less Stressful (Ed Batista, Harvard Business Review, 2014, 5 pages)
- Thanks for the Feedback (Douglas Stone & Sheila Heen, 2015)
- Chapter 1: Three Triggers That Block Feedback (12 pages)
- Difficult Conversations (Douglas Stone, Bruce Patton & Sheila Heen, 2010)
- Chapter 5: Have Your Feelings or They Will Have You (24 pages)
- The Science of Trust: Emotional Attunement for Couples (John Gottman, 2011)
- Chapter 6 (excerpt, pages 175-196): How Couples Build Trust with Attunement
- Note that in the PDF provided for this course pages 1-15 are required reading; pages 16-35 are optional.
- T-Group Tips: T-Groups: Some Guidelines for Success (Morley Segal & Barbara Greig, 1999, 2 pages)
- From the Reading Book for Human Relations Training (8th edition), compiled by the staff of the NTL Institute, the organization that formalized the T-group methodology in the 1950s.
- Vocabulary of Emotions
Course Readings (Optional, 10 pages)
- SCARF: A Brain-Based Model for Collaborating with and Influencing Others (David Rock, NeuroLeadership Journal, 2008)
Other Readings
- Teaching Men to Be Emotionally Honest (Andrew Reiner, New York Times, 2016)
- Social Functions of Emotions at Four Levels of Analysis (Dacher Keltner & Jonathan Haidt, 1999)
Related Posts of Mine
- Make Getting Feedback Less Stressful (1-hour HBR webinar, 2015)
- Make Getting Feedback Less Stressful (HBR's summary of my remarks, 2015)
- Making Feedback Less Stressful (my webinar slides, 2015)
- Building a Feedback-Rich Culture (2013)
- Building a Feedback-Rich Culture from the Middle (2015)
CLASS 5: SOCIAL IDENTITY
Course Readings (Required, 63 pages)
- Interpersonal Dynamics Reader (Bradford & Huckabay, 1999/2015)
- Chapter 9: Demographics Influence, But Don’t Determine (10 pages)
- Whistling Vivaldi: How Stereotypes Affect Us and What We Can Do (Claude Steele, 2010)
- Chapter 5: The Many Experiences of Stereotype Threat (10 pages)
- Chapter 7: The Mind on Stereotype Threat (14 pages)
- Why Critics of the ‘Microaggressions’ Framework Are Skeptical (Conor Friedersdorf, The Atlantic, 2015, 9 pages)
- Microaggressions Matter (Simba Runyowa, The Atlantic, 2015, 7 pages)
- The articles from The Atlantic provide differing perspectives on a shared conceptual framework and should be read together.
- Committing a Microaggression While Teaching a Class on Microaggressions (Ed Batista, 2016, 2 pages)
- The Power of Talk: Who Gets Heard and Why (Deborah Tannen, Harvard Business Review, 1995, 11 pages)
Course Readings (Optional, 22 pages)
- Why Your Customers’ Social Identities Matter (Guy Champniss, Hugh Wilson & Emma Macdonald, Harvard Business Review, 2015, 9 pages)
- Managing Multicultural Teams (Jeanne Brett, Kristin Behfar & Mary Kern, Harvard Business Review, 2006, 9 pages)
- Geert Hofstede on the Dimensions of Cultural Difference (Ed Batista, 2008, 4 pages)
Other Resources
- Stereotype Threat: A Conversation with Claude Steele (8-minute video, 2013)
- Reducing Stereotype Threat (a compilation of various resources, 2007-2009)
- Stereotype Threat Widens Achievement Gap (American Psychological Association, 2006)
- Bias Isn't Just A Police Problem, It's A Preschool Problem (Cory Turner, NPR, 2016)
- The Disturbing Reason Why We Don't Believe Young, Black Women Are Really Doctors (Carolyn Y. Johnson, Washington Post, 2016)
- Implicit Bias Tests (Project Implicit)
- Don't Be Biased Against Bias (David Rock, Heidi Grant Halvorson, and Camille Inge, The Huffington Post, 2016)
- Can Training Help People Un-learn a LIfetime of Racial Bias? (Kat McGowan, Nautilus, 2016)
- Experiments in Intergroup Discrimination (Henri Tajfel, Scientific American, 1970)
Related Posts of Mine
A note on microaggressions
The concept of microaggressions was first coined in 1970 by Chester Pierce, a professor of education and psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, and achieved wider prominence in 2007 when Derek Wing Sue, a professor of psychology at Columbia, co-authored a paper on the subject, which he expanded into a book in 2010. Subsequently the concept has been hotly debated as its application has spread more broadly, most notably on college campuses, and the two Atlantic articles from 2015 cited above provide cogent perspectives on its strengths and weaknesses. This debate has recently expanded to include criticism of shortcomings in microaggression research, a view that Sue has rebutted:
- Microaggressions: Strong Claims, Inadequate Evidence (Scott Lilienfeld, Perspectives on Psychological Science, 2017)
- Lilienfeld, a professor of psychology at Emory University, expresses concern that microaggression research rests on core premises that remain unproven. He calls for a moratorium on microaggression training programs while further research tests the validity of these underlying premises.
- The Unwisest Idea on Campus (Comment on Lilienfeld) (Jonathan Haidt, Perspectives on Psychological Science, 2017)
- Haidt, a professor of social psychology at NYU's Stern School of Business, supports Lilienfeld's concerns about microaggression research. He notes that the concept goes against current psychological thought on the importance of cognitive reappraisal in the face of negative experiences, and that certain personality traits, notably negative emotionality, are correlated with a greater likelihood to perceive microaggressions in ambiguous circumstances.
- The scientific evidence for microaggressions is weak and we should drop the term, argues review author. (Alex Fradera, British Psychological Digest, 2017)
- A summary discussion of Lilienfeld's 2017 paper and related concepts.
- Microaggressions and "Evidence": Empirical or Experiential Reality? (Derek Wing Sue, Perspectives on Psychological Science, 2017)
- Sue responds directly to Lilienfeld's critique, noting the limitations of psychological science to encompass experiential reality and expresses concern that an over-emphasis on internal validity in microaggression research runs the risk of ignoring the lived experience of marginalized groups.
I find both Lilienfeld's critique of the underlying science and Sue's defense of the concept as a means of describing lived experience compelling and thought-provoking, but in the context of an experiential course such as this one I continue to believe that the best way to address this debate is to read both of the 2015 articles from The Atlantic cited above.
CLASS 6: GROUP NORMS & ROLES
Course Readings (Required, 50 pages)
- Interpersonal Dynamics Reader (Bradford & Huckabay, 1999/2015)
- Chapter 10: Member Roles and Group Development (8 pages)
- Group Roles (Flo Hoylman, Mary Ann Huckabay & Carole Robin, 2003, 3 pages)
- Reading the Room: Group Dynamics for Coaches and Leaders (David Kantor, 2012)
- Chapter 2: Action Stances: The Four-Player Model (25 pages)
- Building the Emotional Intelligence of Groups (Vanessa Druskat & Steven Wolff, Harvard Business Review, 2001, 11 pages)
- T-Group Tips: What to Observe in a Group (Edgar Schein, 1999, 3 pages)
- From the Reading Book for Human Relations Training (8th edition), compiled by the staff of the NTL Institute, the organization that formalized the T-group methodology in the 1950s.
Course Readings (Optional, 2 pages)
- Symptoms of Group Strength (Ed Batista, 2015, 2 pages)
CLASS 7: INFLUENCE
Course Readings (Required, 66 pages)
- Interpersonal Dynamics Reader (Bradford & Huckabay, 1999/2015)
- Chapter 8: The Influence Process (6 pages)
- Connect, Then Lead (Amy Cuddy, Matthew Cohut & John Neffinger, Harvard Business Review, 2013, 7 pages)
- Why It Pays to Be a Jerk(Jerry Useem, The Atlantic, 2015, 26 pages)
- Power: Why Some People Have It—and Others Don't (Jeffrey Pfeffer, 2010)
- Chapter 2 (excerpt, pages 42-54): The Personal Qualities That Bring Influence
- Chapter 7 (excerpt, pages 130-139): Acting and Speaking with Power
- Self-Empowerment, Awareness and Choice (Patricia D. Williams, 1999, 4 pages)
- From the Reading Book for Human Relations Training (8th edition), compiled by the staff of the NTL Institute, the organization that formalized the T-group methodology in the 1950s.
Course Readings (Optional, 21 pages)
- The Psyche on Automatic (Craig Lambert, Harvard Magazine, 2010, 7 pages)
- A further discussion of Amy Cuddy’s research.
- A Social Identity Theory of Leadership (Michael Hogg, 2001, 14 pages)
- Discusses how social identity affects perceptions of leadership capability and influence.
Other Readings
- Harnessing the Science of Persuasion (Robert Cialdini, Harvard Business Review, 2001)
- Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, Revised Edition, (Robert Cialdini, 2006)
- Want to Be A CEO? It Helps to Look the Part (Alina Dizik, Wall Street Journal, 2017)
- The absence of women from this research is a reflection of the very issue it purports to explain.
Related Posts of Mine
- A Power and Influence Primer (2014)
- Three Definitions of Power (2013)
- Underdoing It and Overdoing It (Assertiveness Over Time) (2013)
- The Influence Pyramid 2.0 (2009)
- Interpersonal Power (2008)
- Howard Gardner on Influence (2008)
CLASS 8: PREPARING FOR THE WEEKEND
Course Readings (Required, 7 pages)
- Interpersonal Dynamics Reader (Bradford & Huckabay, 1999/2015)
- Chapter 11: Support Is Not Protection (2 pages)
- Chapter 12: Learning Goals and Risk-Taking (3 pages)
- Risk Management (The Importance of Speaking Up) (Ed Batista, 2012, 2 pages)
Course Readings (Optional, 4 pages)
- Racing Up the Ladder of Inference (Ed Batista, 2014, 4 pages)
CLASS 9: FROM THE LAB TO THE REAL WORLD
Course Reading (Required, 2 pages)
- Yes, But Is This Experience Real? (Morley Segal, 1999, 2 pages)
- From the Reading Book for Human Relations Training (8th edition), compiled by the staff of the NTL Institute, the organization that formalized the T-group methodology in the 1950s.
CLASS 10: ENDINGS
Course Readings (Required, 22 pages)
- Interpersonal Dynamics Reader (Bradford & Huckabay, 1999/2015)
- Chapter 13: Can People Change? (4 pages)
- Social: Why Our Brains Are Wired to Connect (Matthew Lieberman, 2013)
- Chapter 11: The Business of Social Brains (18 pages)
Course Readings (Optional, 17 pages)
- Interpersonal Dynamics Reader (Bradford & Huckabay, 1999/2015)
- Chapter 14: Intergenerational Communication (5 pages)
- T-Groups, Feelings and Management Theory (Ed Batista, 2011, 2 pages)
- What Makes a Leader? (Daniel Goleman, Harvard Business Review, 2004, 10 pages)
