printer friendly pageOB 205: Managing Groups and Teams
This course introduces you to the structures and processes that affect group performance and highlights some of the common pitfalls associated with working in teams. Topics include team culture, fostering creativity and coordination, making group decisions, and dealing with a variety of personalities. You will participate in a number of group exercises to illustrate principles of teamwork and to give you practice not only diagnosing team problems but also taking action to improve total team performance.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 1
OB 206: Organizational Behavior
Building on the discipline of social psychology, this course helps you cultivate mindsets and build skills to understand the ways in which organizations and their members affect one another. You will learn frameworks for diagnosing and resolving problems in organizational settings. The course relates theory and research to organizational problems by reviewing basic concepts such as individual motivation and behavior; decision making; interpersonal communication and influence; small group behavior; and dyadic, individual, and inter-group conflict and cooperation.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 2
Instructors:
Flynn, F. (PI)
;
Kosinski, M. (PI)
OB 209: Leadership Laboratory
In the Leadership Labs class we ask you to consider the question, "Why would someone follow YOU?" This is a course in which you consider what kind of leader you want to be, what kind of leader you are, and how to align your leadership behavior with your leadership goals. In this class you will have an opportunity to lead your squad and in doing so to discover your strengths and challenges as a leader. You will receive feedback about your approach to leadership and you will have the opportunity to try out new skills and tools. Students will be placed into 5-6 person "squads" and the majority of class time will be spent in these squads. Your squad will meet to work on basic leadership challenges (e.g. managing conflict, assessing a team's progress). There will be the opportunity for a lot of feedback so you can achieve a deeper understanding of the impact of your behavior on others. The squads will do role-play cases and group exercises designed to help you think more deeply about the dynamics in your workgroup and to allow you to practice and experiment with new ways of leading. Each session will be divided into two segments, and one squad member will be the leader for each segment. MBA1 squad members will rotate through the segment leader position. Your squad will have an MBA2 Leadership Fellow assigned to it and he or she will also be present for these meetings in order to provide coaching to the leader and to the squad as whole. Over the course of the quarter your squad will work together on the group project for your Strategy Class. While the deliverable on this project is for your Strategy class, the experience of working together as a team provides a rich opportunity for learning about peer leadership. A number of activities in the weekly Lab will be focused on assessing and reflecting on how you are working together in both the Labs and on your Strategy project. Finally, the quarter culminates with the Executive Challenge. The Executive Challenge will be an opportunity for you to further refine your leadership skills by engaging with alumni judges in role plays that test your ability to lead effectively. The alumni will provide you feedback and evaluate your performance.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 2
Instructors:
Corney, A. (PI)
;
Cronkite, J. (PI)
;
Dobbs, C. (PI)
;
Frankel, R. (PI)
;
Keelan, H. (PI)
;
McCanna, C. (PI)
;
Miller, D. (SI)
OB 330: Leadership Fellows I
The Arbuckle Leadership Fellows Program plays an integral role in the GSB leadership curriculum by bringing together a group of talented second years to support the leadership development of the first-year class.
OB330, an 8 unit two-quarter MBA2 elective course (in combination with
OB331), is the academic component of this program and runs the entirety of both Autumn and Winter Quarters. Both quarters must be completed to receive any units of credit. The course is open only to those students who have applied and been accepted into the Leadership Fellows Program. Interested students apply at the start of Winter Quarter of their first year and undergo a competitive application process, after which successful applicants are invited to take part in the program. Informational meetings are held late in Autumn Quarter and during the first week of Winter Quarter and Fellows are selected from the first year class in mid- Winter Quarter.n nKnowing how to develop others is a crucial leadership competency. In this class, Fellows develop the advanced leadership skills of leading leaders and developing others through coaching and mentoring. Among the competencies developed in this class are: 1) Team Coaching Skills (e.g. facilitating a group, diagnosing group dynamics, debriefing, coaching without undermining the leader), 2) Individual Coaching Skills (e.g. effective inquiry, asking powerful questions, balancing support and challenge, providing effective feedback, holding others accountable, utilizing, valuing and connecting across differences and power differentials, using oneself in service of another's development) and 3) Personal Development Skills (e.g. self-reflection and self-awareness, leveraging strengths, stretching outside one's comfort zone.)n nIn the Autumn Quarter Fellows are assigned to a squad of six MBA1s in Leadership Labs. Fellows guide their MBA1 squad through the learning process in the Labs and provide both individual and team coaching to their MBA1 squad members. In addition to the work with their MBA 1 squad, Fellows provide in-depth 1:1 coaching to three additional MBA1 students who are not members of their squad. This 1:1 coaching begins after Autumn midterms and continues through the end of Winter Quarter.n nFellows classes meet twice a week for 105 minutes. There will be a reading list of conceptual material which will be supplemented during class with lectures discussions and activities. Students will apply concepts through role-playing and experiential exercises during class time as well as in their coaching and mentoring of their MBA1 coachees. Additionally, Fellows will attend weekly Leadership Labs with the first year squad to which they have been assigned and meet 1:1 with MBA1 coachees. Fellows meet regularly with five of their peers in "clinics," standing groups led by Leadership Labs Instructors who are also GSB Leadership Coaches. Fellows meet with their Leadership Coach and clinic approximately every other week during regular class time to discuss specific strategies for working with their first year students. Fellows also periodically meet with their Leadership Coach one-on-one to hone their skills and explore their areas for specific improvement.n nNote:
OB374, Interpersonal Dynamics, is a PRE-REQUISITE for this course; students who want to be Fellows are advised to assess whether that is a class they want to take in the spring quarter of their first year. Additionally, signing up for 1:1 coaching by a Fellow as an admit strengthens a MBA1 student's application to the Arbuckle Leadership Fellows program.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4
Instructors:
Robin, C. (PI)
OB 346: Inside Life and Leadership
We created this class around the premises that 1) you have great potential, 2) you have had, and will continue to have, numerous opportunities to affect the world, and 3) to maximize your potential you need a reliable framework to gain self-insight and develop yourself and those around you.nnIn this class we seek to aid you in customizing a framework for yourself, based on a model to increase your self-knowledge and guide your ongoing development. In particular, this class is designed to help you swiftly identify and resolve gaps between your current and desired state, and to help you inspire others to do the same. We will accomplish this by facilitating your active engagement and full participation in interactive exercises and assignments, case studies, and self-reflection.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3
Instructors:
Lowery, B. (PI)
;
Simone, L. (SI)
OB 353: Cultural Imperative: The Ideal of Organizational Design
Business doesn't just happen, significant amounts of time are spent creating business plans, executing them, and ultimately trying to figure out what went wrong in order to correct them. This class argues, that similarly, organizational culture shouldn't be allowed to just happen; organizational culture should be designed. In this class we suggest that there is an ideal, a cultural imperative, which organizations should strive for. nnWe believe that individuals have near infinite problem-solving ability, and, that all else equal, organizations that tap into this potential will outperform those that only see people in terms of labor hours and dollars. Thus, the class focuses on learning to see the role of organizational culture in creating an environment that engages, stimulates, and drives growth of the people in the organization, and aligns this engagement with the organization's mission.n nWe will accomplish this through class discussion, case analyses, and a group project designed to provide hands-on experience.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3
Instructors:
Lowery, B. (PI)
;
Youmans, A. (SI)
OB 363: Leadership Perspectives
What does it mean to be a principled leader? What role do values play in an organization, and how do successful leaders apply their values in their daily business lives? This course examines the concept of principled leadership and the various ways that leaders try to institutionalize particular values within the organizations they lead. Equally important, it explores the difficult challenges that leaders sometimes face when trying to apply their principles in a tough, fast-paced business environment, where others may not share the same expectations. Through assigned readings, interactive lectures with visiting executives, and weekly small group discussions, students will learn how practicing leaders implement their principles, while reflecting the realities of different cultural expectations and meeting business demands. The course will provide a forum for students to learn directly from practicing leaders and to think introspectively about their own personal values, leadership styles, and long-term aspirations.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4
Instructors:
O'Reilly, C. (PI)
;
Peterson, J. (SI)
OB 374: Interpersonal Dynamics
PRE-QUALIFICATION IS REQUIRED BY THE DEADLINE (APPROXIMATELY FIVE WEEKS BEFORE THE QUARTER BEGINS). The focus of this course is to increase one's competencies in building more effective relationships. Learning is primarily through feedback from other group members. This course is very involving and, at times, can be quite emotional. However, this course is not a substitute for therapy; we deal more with inter-personal issues than with intra-personal ones. If you are in therapy, please talk this over with your therapist and get their advice before enrolling in this course. The students are divided into three 12-person T-groups that meet the same evening of the class. It is very important to note that when you decide to take this course, you make an explicit contract to be actively involved. Attendance to the first class is required for the 1-day/week sections of this class. Attendance to the first two classes is required for the 2-day/week sections of this class. Failure to attend the first class(es) will result in an automatic drop. Students who are waitlisted must attend the first meeting of each section they are waitlisted for in order to secure a place in the course should space open up. It is the student's responsibility to notify respective
OB 374 faculty of your attendance and wish to fulfilling your waitlist requirement. T-group meetings for all sections will meet for 3 hours the same evening as 1-day/week class and the same evening of the first day of the 2-day/week section. The class has a weekend retreat the seventh or eighth week (check your specific section) of the course. Because of the highly interactive nature of this course, it is very important that all students attend all sessions. Missing class, class T-group, evening T-group, or any portion of the weekend will negatively influence your grade and may result in a student's grade being dropped one grade level (for each absence). Arriving late on Friday to the weekend will negatively influence your grade level - missing any more of the weekend beyond that will result in a U. Students must pre-qualify before taking this course. Qualification assignments are due approximately five weeks prior to the quarter. For exact due dates and complete assignment details, see:
https://sites.google.com/a/stanford.edu/ob374-prequalification/
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr
| Units: 5
Instructors:
Batista, E. (PI)
;
Chin, L. (PI)
;
Corney, A. (PI)
;
Dexter, G. (PI)
;
Francisco, R. (PI)
;
Robin, C. (PI)
;
Sharabi Levine, Y. (PI)
OB 381: Conflict Management and Negotiation
Conflict is unavoidable in every organization. The key question is how it will be handled: will it escalate to dysfunctional levels or will it be effectively managed? Hence, a first aim of the course is to develop your ability to analyze conflicts, to look beneath the surface rhetoric of a conflict, to isolate the important underlying interests, and to determine what sort of agreement (if any) is feasible. We'll analyze which negotiation strategies are effective in different conflicts. We'll also examine psychological and structural factors that create conflict and often pose a barrier to its resolution. But understanding how to analyze a conflict is not enough. To manage conflict effectively, you need a broad repertoire of behavioral skills. Developing these is the second aim of the course. To achieve this, negotiation exercises are used in every session. When playing a role in a simulated conflict, you will be free to try out tactics that might feel uncomfortable in a real one. You will get feedback from your classmates about how you come across. In sum, you can use this course to expand your repertoire of skills, to hone your skills, and to become more adept in choosing when to apply each skill.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3
Instructors:
Bendor, J. (PI)
OB 512: Creating, Building, and Sustaining Breakthrough Ventures
This course is designed to provide students with a summary of entrepreneurial processes that have successfully created, developed, and sustained breakthrough ventures. By "breakthrough" we mean ventures that have had a lasting and positive impact, touching millions of lives. We consider ventures that are not only software related, but also ones based on technology and business models that impact markets ranging from medical devices to small satellites to home robotics systems to clean water and more. nThe examples are based on the experiences of Norman Winarsky, formerly President of SRI Ventures, and Henry Kressel, Partner Emeritus at Warburg Pincus. They include companies like Siri, Nuance, Intuitive Surgical, Sandisk, and others. nThe course leads us from the source of breakthrough venture ideas, to building a great value proposition and business plan, recruiting a team, finding investors and board members, deciding whether to sell or go IPO, and ends with what it takes to build a company that can sustain itself through continuous innovation. At each step, we follow examples of companies we've helped build, and provide lessons of success as well as failure. We compare and contrast the strategies of these ventures with other popular strategies, such as those proposing "fail fast, develop minimal viable products, and pivot often..." nThe course will be highly interactive, and engage students in discussing their own experiences and future plans. Invited speakers will include venture capitalists and entrepreneurs who have created breakthrough companies.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 2
Instructors:
O'Reilly, C. (PI)
;
Winarsky, N. (SI)
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