{"id":14856,"date":"2014-04-15T13:39:56","date_gmt":"2014-04-15T19:39:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/?p=14856"},"modified":"2022-02-09T11:39:09","modified_gmt":"2022-02-09T16:39:09","slug":"what-i-learned-atstanford-graduate-school-of-business-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/what-i-learned-atstanford-graduate-school-of-business-part-2\/","title":{"rendered":"What I Learned at\u2026Stanford Graduate School of Business, Part 2"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>In our \u201cWhat I Learned at\u2026\u201d series, MBAs discuss the tools and skills their business schools provided as they launched their careers.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Sandi Lin is the CEO and founder of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.skilljar.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Skilljar<\/a>, which provides businesses with online course software. Before founding Skilljar, Sandi was a senior manager at Amazon.com in Seattle. She earned her MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. In Part 2 of this three-part series, Sandi discusses some ways in which the school\u2019s notable \u201cTouchy Feely\u201d course prepared her for the real-world challenges associated with founding a start-up. (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/2014\/04\/08\/what-i-learned-atstanford-graduate-school-of-business-part-1\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Click here<\/a> to read Part 1.)<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Most Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB) alumni will tell you that the most impactful class they took at Stanford was <a href=\"http:\/\/www.gsb.stanford.edu\/news\/bmag\/sbsm1005\/deans-column.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u201cInterpersonal Dynamics,\u201d also known as \u201cTouchy Feely.\u201d<\/a> Five years out from graduation, I can certainly tell you that \u201cTouchy Feely\u201d is something I use every day. I can look up the details of Porter\u2019s five forces analysis or of the generally accepted accounting principles when I need to, but the lessons of communication are universal.<\/p>\n<p>There are already several great posts on the impact of \u201cTouchy Feely,\u201d including <a href=\"http:\/\/www.quora.com\/Stanford-Graduate-School-of-Business\/What-are-the-key-lessons-from-the-Touchy-Feely-class-at-the-Stanford-GSB\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">a Quora thread<\/a> and a facilitator\u2019s blog post. What happens inside a T-Group [training group] is confidential, but at a high level, the groups are intense learning labs for active listening, communication and influence. It is easy to read about these topics in the abstract, but it is another matter to deeply understand how I am perceived by others, how I communicate and what my biases are.<\/p>\n<p>I use \u201cTouchy Feely\u201d lessons in multiple ways at work. Here are three tactical examples:<\/p>\n<p><strong> \u201cI feel [feeling word].<\/strong><b>\u201d <\/b>In \u201cTouchy Feely,\u201d I learned that I can only know my own feelings and my interpretation of other people\u2019s actions (for more information, see the <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Johari_window\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Johari window<\/a>). But I cannot know other people\u2019s feelings or their motivations for why they took those actions. So instead of assuming, \u201cJoe Smith is so inconsiderate. He\u2019s always interrupting me when I\u2019m working,\u201d I should talk to Joe directly and say, \u201cI feel frustrated when you drop by to ask me questions. I want to give you my full attention, but I also lose track of what I am doing. Can we figure out a strategy that will work for both of us?\u201d The key technique I remember to use is to say, \u201cI feel [feeling word].\u201d Try it\u2014it is harder than it sounds.<\/p>\n<p><strong> \u201cTell me more.\u201d<\/strong> I learned that the word \u201cwhy\u201d is inherently challenging and puts a burden (no matter how slight) on the other person to explain themselves. Using phrases such as \u201ctell me more\u201d are more inviting and produce the same result.<\/p>\n<p><strong> \u201cWhat I\u2019m hearing is\u2026\u201d <\/strong>One of my biggest weaknesses in terms of communication is cutting people off and immediately jumping to solutions. I learned firsthand in \u201cTouchy Feely\u201d that often the most valuable part of a conversation is first acknowledging that I do hear what the other person is saying.<\/p>\n<p>Most of entrepreneurship comes down to communication. As a founder, I am constantly asking investors to believe in my company, asking customers to trust our product and asking potential hires to join the team for long hours and little pay. Understanding the potential impact of my words and actions, experienced firsthand through \u201cTouchy Feely,\u201d has made a profound difference in both my professional and personal interactions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In our \u201cWhat I Learned at\u2026\u201d series, MBAs discuss the tools and skills their business schools provided as they launched their careers. Sandi Lin is the CEO and founder of Skilljar, which provides businesses with online course software. Before founding Skilljar, Sandi was a senior manager at Amazon.com in Seattle. She earned her MBA from &hellip; <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/what-i-learned-atstanford-graduate-school-of-business-part-2\/\">Read&nbsp;More&nbsp;&nbsp;<i class=\"fal fa-sm fa-angle-right\"><\/i><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[60,29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14856","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-b-school-insider-interview","category-stanford"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>What I Learned at\u2026Stanford Graduate School of Business, Part 2 | mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/what-i-learned-atstanford-graduate-school-of-business-part-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What I Learned at\u2026Stanford Graduate School of Business, Part 2 | mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In our \u201cWhat I Learned at\u2026\u201d series, MBAs discuss the tools and skills their business schools provided as they launched their careers. Sandi Lin is the CEO and founder of Skilljar, which provides businesses with online course software. Before founding Skilljar, Sandi was a senior manager at Amazon.com in Seattle. She earned her MBA from &hellip; Read&nbsp;More&nbsp;&nbsp;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/what-i-learned-atstanford-graduate-school-of-business-part-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-04-15T19:39:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-02-09T16:39:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/mbam-yoast-fallback-image.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"675\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Aimee Lukin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@mbamission\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Aimee Lukin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"What I Learned at\u2026Stanford Graduate School of Business, Part 2 | mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/what-i-learned-atstanford-graduate-school-of-business-part-2\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"What I Learned at\u2026Stanford Graduate School of Business, Part 2 | mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting","og_description":"In our \u201cWhat I Learned at\u2026\u201d series, MBAs discuss the tools and skills their business schools provided as they launched their careers. Sandi Lin is the CEO and founder of Skilljar, which provides businesses with online course software. Before founding Skilljar, Sandi was a senior manager at Amazon.com in Seattle. She earned her MBA from &hellip; Read&nbsp;More&nbsp;&nbsp;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/what-i-learned-atstanford-graduate-school-of-business-part-2\/","og_site_name":"mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting","article_published_time":"2014-04-15T19:39:56+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-02-09T16:39:09+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":675,"url":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/mbam-yoast-fallback-image.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Aimee Lukin","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@mbamission","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Aimee Lukin","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":["Article","BlogPosting"],"@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/what-i-learned-atstanford-graduate-school-of-business-part-2\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/what-i-learned-atstanford-graduate-school-of-business-part-2\/"},"author":{"name":"Aimee Lukin","@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/e2a8ab013f1e32cf7d70068036dd8f1e"},"headline":"What I Learned at\u2026Stanford Graduate School of Business, Part 2","datePublished":"2014-04-15T19:39:56+00:00","dateModified":"2022-02-09T16:39:09+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/what-i-learned-atstanford-graduate-school-of-business-part-2\/"},"wordCount":578,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/#organization"},"articleSection":["B-School Insider Interview","Stanford University (Stanford Graduate School of Business)"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/what-i-learned-atstanford-graduate-school-of-business-part-2\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/what-i-learned-atstanford-graduate-school-of-business-part-2\/","url":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/what-i-learned-atstanford-graduate-school-of-business-part-2\/","name":"What I Learned at\u2026Stanford Graduate School of Business, Part 2 | mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2014-04-15T19:39:56+00:00","dateModified":"2022-02-09T16:39:09+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/what-i-learned-atstanford-graduate-school-of-business-part-2\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/what-i-learned-atstanford-graduate-school-of-business-part-2\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/what-i-learned-atstanford-graduate-school-of-business-part-2\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"What I Learned at\u2026Stanford Graduate School of Business, Part 2"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/","name":"mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting","description":"World&#039;s Leading MBA Admissions Consulting Firm","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/#organization","name":"mbaMission","url":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/mbam-yoast-organization-logo.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/mbam-yoast-organization-logo.png","width":696,"height":696,"caption":"mbaMission"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/e2a8ab013f1e32cf7d70068036dd8f1e","name":"Aimee Lukin","description":"Aimee Lukin has been part of the mbaMission team since 2010. 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