Weeknotes — 1 August

I didn’t have time for weeknotes last week, so this is a bumper edition covering two weeks.

At work

• We had a great meeting with our collaborative learning partners last week. This is a knowledge exchange partnership we’re developing. The last few meetings have focused on evaluation and it’s been fascinating to hear about the different approaches being taken. What are the challenges of evaluating this kind of work? How do we embed the approach? From an engagement perspective, I’m really interested in the story coming out of evaluation. What is the story of our projects, and what story are they telling us about our research cultures? We’re organising an away day for the partners in September, which will give us more time to work through some of these questions together.
• I really enjoyed hearing Professor Geraldine Fitzpatrick speak about ‘The people matters at the heart of research culture’. Many universities are currently thinking about research culture, and you can see similar themes being discussed across the sector, but Professor Fitzpatrick recommends focusing on the people who create the culture. After all, as she noted, in academia, very toxic cultures can ‘tick all the boxes’ on the metrics for research excellence. The talk included a surprise appearance from some ‘psychopath chickens, drawn from an experiment to increase egg-laying. The point being, in our striving for ‘research excellence’, are we risking ‘breeding’ hyper-competitive workplace cultures in which people peck each other to pieces? A healthy team is characterised by collegiality, role-modelling and listening. There some were really interesting thoughts on models for unpacking culture. I liked the framework of the ‘cognitive’, ‘relational’ and ‘emotional’ levels of culture. Very thought-provoking. My top takeaways — “we enact and produce culture in our everyday actions”, and the importance of conversation, meaning making, and taking small steps, especially in times of uncertainty and change.
• I’ve been putting the finishing touches on one of our projects within Ignite, which is quite exciting. I got to write an options paper — yes, I really do love researching and writing options papers. I’ll do one even if you don’t ask for it! Connected to this, I’ve also been learning more about interesting things, such as proof-of-concept, intellectual property, licensing, and commercialisation of research.
• I read the first report on the Wellcome institutional funding for research culture produced by our embedded social researchers based in Studio Susegard, What is needed to nurture research culture? It’s a really interesting and rich report full of insights from their work supporting the Institutional Research Culture fund community so far. The emerging themes are fascinating. And I was glad to see the little poem I shared at one of the events by Mary Oliver made it in. (I feel I should also mention the picture of yours truly captured by the sketch artist on page 13 which made me smile😊)
• Under ‘extracurricular’ activities at work, I went to Disability History Month and Black History Month planning group meetings to support the people who are leading on these initiatives. I’m also setting up a coffee morning for LGBTQ+ staff in September as part of my role on the staff network committee.

Learning

• I’ve registered for Dysgu Cymraeg Foundation Level 2 (Sylfaen) in the autumn. I’ve even made a start on revising, so I don’t end up too rusty by September. I’m truly terrible at practicing and doing revision, but I’m hoping to keep it up over the summer this year.

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Resources

• I saw this Inclusion Framework For Change | Pervasive Media Studio referenced in the Wellcome report mentioned above. It looks like a great resource to help teams think through and build inclusion into their projects.

Outside of work

• I went to a meeting with the Doers and Improvers book club to discuss Empire of AI by Karen Hao. I haven’t read the book myself, but we had such an interesting discussion, I think I may read it at some point when I feel I can cope with it.
• I was honoured to participate in a Spaces for Listening event for the second time. It was a completely different experience to the first one. Thank you to Brigid Russell for inviting me along again.

“What if we were to choose to gather together in a space and share with each other how we are really feeling about our experiences, what we are thinking about, and feel listened to and heard?” Spaces for Listening

Some Reflections

• I’m looking forward to August. I love the quieter, slower feel to the days in late summer. I’m excited about seeing butterflies, big dragonflies, fledgling birds, and bushes and trees loaded with berries, especially red rowan and rosehips.
• I’ve been drafting some general learning reflections on the year so far, which I may share here.
• Here’s a poem I’ve been thinking about over the last week, Small Kindnesses, by Danushka Lameris.