Inter-Personal Dynamics Elective

Course Summary

Why this elective? As described in the school's Elective Portfolio Review (2012), "recruiters are increasingly demanding that students are equipped with a broader set of 'softer' skills which will allow them to be more effective in the workplace. Currently, such skills are not formally delivered as part of the elective portfolio."

Building and maintaining effective relationships is at the core of career and business success. This elective has been developed to give you an opportunity to refine your relationship building and management skills and to ensure that you are well equipped to meet the inter-personal challenges that often become increasingly complex and demanding the more senior you get. The objective of this course is thus to help you develop your ability to build more effective professional relationships. This involves a set of skills that are evidence-based and can be learnt through practice.

Given that this course is about building relationships, being a passive observer will significantly limit your own learning and the learning of those around you. By attending this course, you are committing to being actively engaged in the discussions and activities, as well as bringing a mindset that allows you to be open to taking risks and giving and receiving feedback to help yourself and others maximise their learning. If you do these things, I am confident this will be a very rewarding course.

Self-Awareness

These skills start with knowing and developing yourself – enhancing your ability to accurately assess and regulate yourself. We will build your skill at paying attention to your thoughts, feelings, sensations and impulses. We will explore what identity is and what it means to be authentic. You will receive intensive feedback on how others perceive you.

Building Relationships

We also focus on how you read emotions and connect with them to build successful relationships. This includes dealing with people who are different to you personally and culturally, as well as how to manage conflict and difficult conversations.

Personal Impact and Communication Skills.

We will analyse the elements of effective communication and what it means to connect more profoundly with those around you.

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this course, you will be able to:

-Effectively understand and influence the impressions others form of you to build trust
-Manage yourself more mindfully and respond more consciously to people and situations
-Be more effective at connecting with people and building relationships with people who are different
-Handle difficult situations and conversations more successfully
-Communicate more powerfully in a wide range of situations

Your time commitment

Teaching Hours: 27.5

Every Tuesday from 25 March to 7 June 2024 from 4pm to 6:45 pm

*No class on 23 or 30 April due to half -term

Suggested Independent Study Hours Suggested Independent Study Hours: 30.

Course Preparation and Reading

An individual assignment is due to be turned in on the first day of class. This will require a fair amount of work before we meet, so that we can get the maximum value out of our time together. Course materials will be distributed electronically.

This course will use lectures, class discussions, guest speakers, videos, in-class exercises, and some cases to illustrate course concepts.

Course Assesssment

** Assessment arrangements are indicative only and subject to change but will be confirmed when the course syllabus is published to the class**

Alumni will receive a pass certificate upon succesful completion of the assessment. The assessment will be based on individual assignment, role modeling assignment and group assignment.

Download syllabus here