What to expect from us in 2024/25

By Dr Kay Guccione, Head of Research Culture and Researcher Development, and Co-director of the Lab for Academic Culture.

Our Research Culture & Researcher Development Team annual review and planning day was held in July 2024. We take time out as a Team each summer to think though our recent successes, appraise the upcoming challenges, and take stock of the impact we want to have in the year ahead. This annual time out, allows us to think not just about whether we are ‘doing things right’, but also whether we are ‘doing the right things’, noting that sometimes we need to make modifications to practice in deeper ways, ones that involve rethinking the underpinning norms, policies and objectives as well as the delivered products (after Argyris & Schön’s 1978 theory of Single and Double loop learning, see also this simple explanation). A deep analysis of what we are doing, why, and how, enables us to tackle some of the ‘meta-issues’ in our work which for us right now includes building productive cross-university partnerships, raising our internal profile, and increasing engagement and agency.

Sustaining a high performing team

The aims of the away day were twofold, firstly to plan a balanced programme of work across the year, and secondly to keep building our foundation of team trust and cohesion. Both are equally important for sustained success; a high-performing team requires leaders to actively support the building of trust, good communication, and shared goals that lead towards a shared vision (see this review of the evidence, p16). High performance also requires time out to reflect on how the team is working as a team. This is critical (same review, p14). And even a team full of people who teach teamworking skills still need time out to be reflexive and apply the theory to their own practice.

We began with a celebration of all of our major and minor contributions in 2023/24 because what better way to get the party started! Our human brains, wired to focus on problems and failures, need an active reminder that we rocked 2023/24 and achieved a very great deal, notably: the growth of Talent Lab, the Launch of the Research Professional Staff Network, engagement with the Research Staff Assembly, renewal of the British Academy ECR hub for Scotland, a collaborative and innovative new Researcher Concordat Action Plan, launch of the Research Culture Commons, re-launch of the Lab for Academic Culture, successful implementation of Inkpath, a full web overhaul, and a 20-stop Research Culture Roadshow! Not half bad!

As the Research Culture & Researcher Development Team grows to over 20 members in the coming year, it takes active work to maintain the high levels of trust, collaboration and openness we enjoyed as a small team of five back in 2021. We have very experienced and very new people working together, different disciplinary experiences and specialisms, different projects and priorities, different talents and blind spots. It’s important to hold space and time to break down the old ‘this is how we do things around here’ and create new ones together that everyone can own.

To achieve this, our individual pre-work was to come to the event with:

• ‘Where are we going?‘ One point of feedback or suggestion for enhancement about the direction of travel of the whole Team.
• ‘How are we going?’ One personal request for the way the Team works together (are we living up to our Team values?)

I’m not here to share what we brought into the room, as that is personal and confidential to us. It should be noted though that this activity was very enlightening! It helped each of us to see the team through others’ eyes. Things that each of us may have thought were obvious or certain or working well, were seen quite differently though others’ eyes. An activity well worth spending time with.

Creating balance and a sense of control

A day out of the daily routine also felt like a very needed opportunity to pause and make commitments to re-set our boundaries with work and workload. As well as our headcount, we have had a couple of years of growth in terms of the Team’s remit and responsibilities, and hence the volume of delivery. It’s so easy to innovate to the point of unsustainability, so it’s vitally important for us to close old things down, and put things on hold, to make space for new projects and initiatives. Infinite growth is a fools game.

So, what should we prioritise? To some extent this is dependent on what is happening at sector-level, and this needs to be balanced with what our researchers and research professionals need from us right now. To help set this is our minds I presented my scanning of the Research Culture and the Researcher Development horizons (noting the well-known overlap in these disciplines).

I split this into what’s happening:

• In the sector, for example the influences of REF People Culture and Environment, the New Deal for PGR​s, the new Vitae/UKRI model for Research Culture enhancement, and indeed a new government.
• At the university, where we will see a change in both University and Directorate leadership, develop a new Research Strategy, take a focus on ‘service excellence’, and renew our commitment to driving a positive Research Culture through a new collaborative Action Plan.
• Within the Team, in how we expect to welcome new roles and teammates, shift the way we collect data and report on our work, and create ways to increase engagement with new groups.

The Research Culture & Researcher Development Team is entering it’s [________] Era

We used a ‘finish the sentence’ activity to surface our feelings about the vibe, or tone we want to bring to next year. Borrowing from our Patron Saint Taylor Swift, I asked people to finish the sentence: “The Team is entering it’s [________] Era”

This was a great activity for distilling down our gut feelings about 2024/25 into one sentiment. We didn’t try to negotiate these; we just shared our sentiments for the future and listened to each other. As leader of these teams, it was very important for me to really hear this, and hear what people are telling me they need from the team. Three themes came out of this activity, which I have noted (literally on posts its attached to my monitor) and centralised in how I lead in the coming year:

• Service: illustrated by words like influence, reach, impact, harmony, slick, and visibility.

• Quality: illustrated by words like equilibrium, capsule (like the wardrobe), balance, quality (over quantity) and ‘Cambrian’ (avoiding unsustainable growth that means we run out of oxygen)

• Synergy: norming (finding our ways of working), togetherness, complementarity (maintaining our specialisms), collaboration, synergy, and inclusion.

Fascinating, eh?!

Next, we mapped our roles visually (time for the big paper and marker pens to come out!), starting with what our P&DR objectives say we do in theory, and then adding what our roles look like in reality. We looked to reduce areas of imbalance (looking for what’s taken over, and what has been squeezed out), and to enhance areas of cross connectivity between roles, teams, and with the wider university.

Creating momentum

This done, and lunch devoured, my mission was then for each of us in the team to end the day with the certainty and security created by leaving with a personal plan, and two collective Team Delivery Plans. We spent 2-3h on this action planning section, covering:

(1) Our part in delivering development activity for our researchers, their supervisor and PIs, and the full range of research professionals.

(2) Our connectivity to each other, working together on projects and setting clear ownership and responsibility.

(3) Our Hidden Curriculum mapping the ‘behind the scenes work’ we do – for example programme and framework (re)design, defining our internal and external communications strategies, consultations and relationship building work, standard operating procedures and policies, alignment to strategies and new literature, evaluation and reporting.

(4) Our ‘to don’t’ lists. What won’t we be doing this year.

(5) Our commitment to our team, how are we committing to working as a team, and making sure that we are upholding the values we have set, for ourselves as well as for those we develop

(6) Our career development. Reflecting on how we will use our own ’10 days’ to maintain our career advancement and professional credibility.

What to expect from us in 2024/25

With our collaborative, service-orientated, capsule offer, giving quality over quantity, we move forward, and man do we have some exciting things in the making! These include, in addition to our regular (and now streamlined) programmes:

• Launch of the InFrame (collegiality and research leadership) project, welcoming five new team members.
• A shift in supervisor development, to better align with how we support all of our research leaders.
• Piloting of a second year PGR Re-Induction week.
• A brand new and innovative writing development programme for all researchers.
• New projects to support PGRs who speak English as an Additional Language.
• Creation of a UofG Fellowships Framework and development offer.
• Development of the next phase of our Research Culture work.
• Expansion of Pathfinder (career destinations work) with a new full time staff member.
• An exciting new 5-point action plan for the Research Professional Staff Network.
• Design of a bespoke mentoring platform to enable scaling of our highly popular programmes.
• Consolidating the great successes the Inkpath (learning management) platform has given us.
• New support for PGR Convenors.
• Refining of our administrative roles to fit with our team’s changing needs.

I feel very privileged to be part of such a reflective, committed and skilled team, and I look forward to all of us bringing you regular updates about the successes of our upcoming projects and programmes.