Building Research Team Capacity

Professor Shelda Debowski

Winthrop Professor, Higher Education Development

Shelda.Debowski@uwa.edu.au

This presentation

• The nature of research groups

• The importance of good research project management

• Productivity, performance and innovation

• Constructive research environments

• Research leadership: some fresh insights

• Implications for research leadership and management

The nature of research groups

• Unpredictable

• May be unsuccessful

• Milestones? Endpoint?

• Money not contingent on performance

• Commercialisation possibilities

• Stakeholder expectations

• Funding

• Skill sets

• Staffing

– Short-term– Specialised– Students– Recruitment and retention

• Collaboration

– Role delineation– Communication– Intellectual property

• Timelines

• Reporting

The UWA Research Management Checklist

• Project phases

• Widespread consultation

• A quick checklist to act as a cue Risk

Management

Stakeholder Relationships

Research Team

ProjectManagement

ResearchFocus

SuccessfulResearch Projects

The current research context and risks

– Global rankings– Track record development and sustenance (focusing

on the individual)– Rewards for short-term performance– Grant periods and disrupted career flows– Fellowships context – Resource uncertainty / disruption– Focus on commercialisation / immediate benefits

• Loss of organisational memory

• Geographic and distance

• Political interference

• Internal competition (ignoring the collective)

• Lack of incentives for collaboration, sharing, risk-taking

• Administrative demands and low resource base

Research productivity and innovation

• Achieving research productivity and high performance outcomes

• Creating the conditions for research success

Productive Research Communities (Bland, Weber-Main, Lund and Finstad, 2005, The Research Productive Department, Wiley)

Leadership

Brokered support

Rewards

Capacity to research

Resources Communication

Collaboration

Mentoring

Shared culture, Positive climate

Clear goalsand

priorities

Recruitment And

selection

Productive Research

Community

Is Productivity Enough? Potential Research Outcomes

• Research outcomes:

– Papers, Grants, PhDs, Fellowships etc– Innovative products, processes and concepts– Collaboration and sharing across time, borders and institutions– Sustainable and growing research enterprise that is well

positioned for future growth– Research communities that nurture and value depth and breadth

of talent

• Time to explore, play, test and apply new and tangential ideas

Defining Innovation

The intentional introduction and application within a role, group or organization of ideas, processes, products or procedures, new to the relevant unit of adoption, designed to significantly benefit the individual, the group, organization or wider society.

(West M.A. and Farr, J. L. 1990, Innovation at work. In M. A. West and J. L. Farr, (Eds), Innovation and creativity at work: Psychological and organizational strategies, Chichester, U. K., Wiley Press: 3 – 13.)

Innovation Enablers

• Strategy

• Structure and organisation

• Innovation culture

• Financial Resources

• Human Resources

• Information and Technology

• Idea Generation and Creativity Process

Typology of Innovation Enablers. Impactscan: a policy intelligence tools for regional innovation policy. Accessed at: http://extra.iwt.be/impactscan/tool/typology_of_innovation_enablers.htm

Innovation Barriers

• Strategy impediments (Kanter, 2006):

– Hurdles too high, scope too narrow– Key contributors marginalised – Avoidance of failure / risk taking– Too many avenues being pursued

• Process:

– Controls too tight– Planning, budgeting, reviews, performance management,

focused on meeting short-term KPIs and accountabilities

Innovation Barriers (2)

• Structure

– Weak connectedness; strong segregation of possible collaborators

– Silos limit exchange, dialogue – Limited knowledge of relevant technologies

• Skills

– Weak / dispersed leadership– Communication across the group is weak– Relevant skills for innovation not nurtured /

encouraged.

Creating the context for innovation: our challenge

• Innovative hotspots (Gratton, 2007)

– Cooperative mindset• Collective intelligence, insights, wisdom, learning,

enjoyment, intellectual challenge – Boundary spanning

• Depths of relationships, trust, shared expertise, experimentation and merging of knowledge

– Igniting purpose• Common and collective mission and purpose

– Productive capacity • Best use of talent; effective work context; productive work

flows, relationships managed, interdependencies and rhythms co-ordinated,

Productive to innovative

• Longer time frames and vision

• Negotiate and affirm the research strategy and its directions

• Cultivate research leadership throughout the community

• Develop an environment that encourages innovation and collaboration

• Maximise the use of (and recognise) research talent

• Create a learning environment that promotes new skills and capabilities – including your own skill development

• Encourage alliances and stakeholder engagement

• Encourage innovative practice as well as productive work

Current support for research leaders

1. The expectations for research success are rapidly escalating, but with little support to increase the required outcomes,

2. Research leaders are not formally inducted into their roles.

3. Strategic research leaders in the community, such as the research executive and faculty associate deans (Research), generally emphasise corporate initiatives and priorities and post-graduate research quality assurance.

4. Research leaders are vulnerable to shifts in their context and funding for their research.

5. PhD graduates are not well-prepared in the areas of team skills, grant seeking and project management, let alone leadership capabilities.

6. There is little understanding or infrastructure to support the development of research leadership capabilities.

Indicators of research success (Debowski 2010)

Traditional metrics

Collaboration /StakeholderEngagement

Impact

Leadership Effectiveness

Impact

• Societal impact

• Adjunct appointments

• International recognition

• Editorial boards

• Teaching /research nexus

• Research translation

• Influence on policies

• Education of politicians

• Public outreach

Collaboration / Stakeholder Engagement

• Collaborations

• Industry partnerships

• Philanthropy

• External partnerships

• Consultancies, focus on diversifying funding options

• Effective communications with stakeholders and potential partners

• Sustainable advisory committees

Leadership Effectiveness

• Clearly defined mission

• Effective strategy

• Integrity and ethical practices

• Positive perceptions of the research group and its contribution

• Reputation

• Quality of papers, graduates, labs, pedigree

• University valuing / recognition

The challenges of leading research

• Maintain an outstanding track record across the traditional measures of excellent performance

• Develop a strategic vision for the research group

• Consolidate the research niche

• Move the research group forward

• Flexible, effective decision making and good delegation

• Lead and manage the research team

• Deal with underperformance, difficult personalities, depression and team conflict

• Team development

• Balance the many demands

• Manage overall productivity and impact

• Innovate and collaborate

Research Leadership Capabilities

• University and research strategy, policy and protocols

• Research project and risk management, quality assurance, including national performance indicators and their meaning

• Research capacity building, research training and research management, risk management, quality assurance, national performance indicators and their meaning

• Financial management

• Human resource management, recruitment, selection, performance management, conflict resolution, mentorship and capacity building

• Marketing and sponsorship of the group and its outcomes

• In some cases, facility and laboratory management

• Collaborative and productive research network management, particularly with those working in other disciplines, and

• Relationship management, industry engagement and philanthropy……

Creating a responsive support environment 1• Research leader inductions – provided at faculty and

university levels to encourage improved awareness of policy and performance expectations;

• The provision of a research leadership programme that explores the role and its successful enactment.

• Access to 360 degree reviews, models, mentorship, coaching, and shadowing;

• The brokering of a research leadership network that allows ongoing discussion of complex leadership matters;

• Facilitation of team building and strategic reviews;

• Mentorship capacity building;

Creating a responsive support environment 2

• Early career researcher development programmes

• Inclusion in university retreats and faculty planning days;

• Increased access to university executive to debate university policy and funding strategies;

• The provision of targeted, relevant and research-specific workshops that address emergent leadership and management issues;

• Access to professional support teams at point of need, and

• Professional guides and tools that offer just-in-time advice when a crisis might occur.

The broader research context

• How can we better articulate, value and acknowledge research leadership and management?

• We need to review the metrics by which we measure research success

• We should place greater emphasis on recognising and facilitating innovation and creative research leadership and management

• Our promotion systems and university support strategies need significant reform to ensure high quality research leadership.