How we work, setting the culture

By Dr Kay Guccione, Head of Research Culture and Researcher Development.

Over the last two years the Research Culture and Researcher Development Team have been coming together to discuss our ways of working, our challenges and priorities, and what constitutes the collegial glue that helps us to succeed in our pursuit of delivering the best service possible for all the people we support and develop.

We believe that developing a good culture starts at home, by examining how we work, not just what we work on. By making space for such conversations, a set of Team Values has emerged that we are proud of, and that inform everything we do. We would like to share them with you, so you can get to know us a little bit better:

• We are part of an ecology of partners in learning, education and development. We recognise that development opportunities are everywhere, and we aim to enable researchers and research professionals to locate and select the forms of development and support they need. We work closely with supervisors and PIs, the Schools, Colleges, Groups and Teams across UofG as well as external experts.
• We take the broadest view of ‘who is a researcher’ and ‘who is a research professional’ and welcome all who are actively engaged in research work through our doors.
• We insist on inclusion at the point of design as part of our commitment to creating stimulating, fair, and inclusive environments in which colleagues help each other to succeed.
• We commit to open sharing of our learning designs and do so through our blog.
• For those we develop, we encourage engagement through choice and at the point of need, in line with adult learning theory.
• We reject the deficit model, and value what people bring to UofG as well as take away. We recognise that the true value of discussions, networks and communities, is the people who take part in them.
• We are aware that behaviour impacts on others more than knowledge and skills, and we drive for impact through enacted practices.
• We know that experience counts with employers, we create ways for colleagues to put skills into practice, and take up opportunities.
• We are committed to reflection, review, and enhancement of our work to create an evolving contemporary offer. In this we work in close partnership with the researchers and research professionals, through feedback, evaluation, and consultation.