Working successfully across disciplines
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The document discusses the lessons learned from the Sustainable Uplands interdisciplinary research project. It describes the project's goals of helping people adapt to future changes across UK peatlands. It discusses how the author learned to work across disciplines through building trust, communicating effectively, establishing clear roles, and delivering tangible outcomes. The key lessons are that successful interdisciplinary work requires investing in relationships through open communication and fostering trust to deliver impacts that matter.
Working successfully across disciplines
- 1. Working successfully across disciplines Experience from the Sustainable Uplands project relu Rural Economy and relu Use Programme Land Rural Economy and Land Use Programme
- 2. Plan 1. Sustainable Uplands: an interdisciplinary research project 2. How I learned to work across disciplines 3. Lessons 4. Conclusions relu 10/04/12 2 Rural Economy and Land Use Programme
- 3. 1. Introduction to the project relu Rural Economy and Land Use Programme
- 4. • £1.1M RELU/LWEC & ESRC funded project helping people anticipate and adapt to future change across UK peatlands since 2005 • Almost £1M co-funding from research users • Interdisciplinary team of 25 people from 5 Universities & 2 NGOs • Combined models & with local knowledge relu Rural Economy and Land Use Programme
- 5. • Video relu Rural Economy and Land Use Programme
- 6. 2. My story How I learned to work across disciplines relu Rural Economy and Land Use Programme
- 7. relu Rural Economy and Land Use Programme
- 8. The result... relu Rural Economy and Land Use Programme
- 9. Impact • Findings featured prominently in evidence gathering initiatives used to inform policy: – National Ecosystem Assessment – EFRA Inquiry on Farming in the Uplands – CRC’s Inquiry on the Future of England’s Uplands – IUCN Commission of Inquiry on Peatlands – Government Office for Science’s Foresight Land Use Futures project relu Rural Economy and Land Use Programme
- 10. Impact • Contributed to policy processes: – Inputting evidence to a review, best practice guidelines and Action Plan re: Payment for Ecosystem Services as part of DEFRA’s Natural Environment White Paper – Working with DEFRA to develop UK Peatland Carbon Code to facilitate private investment in peatland restoration – Ranked no. 1 opportunity for business in the natural environment by Ecosystem Markets Taskforce and recommended to BIS, DEFRA & DECC Secretaries of State • Used by water companies to justify using land management to reduce water treatment costs relu Rural Economy and Land Use Programme
- 11. 3. Lessons relu Rural Economy and Land Use Programme
- 12. Lessons “ My eureka moment would have stayed by the toilets in the Chemistry building at Leeds University, without the collaboration & trust of researchers from many disciplines and the inter-professional ” network of Moors for the Future… relu Rural Economy and Land Use Programme
- 13. 1. Build trust • Take your time – draw on your networks • Work with people you get on with – Personality – How you view knowledge – Values and beliefs • More important than expertise and seniority (to a point) relu Rural Economy and Land Use Programme
- 14. 2. Communicate • Invest in internal communication – Not just about putting the right people in the room – Need to build capacity: understand each other’s language & approach • The result: you’re communicating with each other, not just talking at each other relu Rural Economy and Land Use Programme
- 15. 3. Facilitate • Who is conducting? • Establish clear roles & manage power • The power of good facilitation • Expect conflict & failure (its how you deal with it that matters) • The result: you achieve what you set out to do relu Rural Economy and Land Use Programme
- 16. 4. Deliver tangible outcomes • Different team members will want different outcomes: make room for as many as you can • Quick wins (papers re: preliminary findings) • Delivering outcomes: follow-on funding & legacy • The result: a team & impacts that last relu Rural Economy and Land Use Programme
- 17. 5. Conclusion relu Rural Economy and Land Use Programme
- 18. Conclusion “ Working successfully between disciplines and with stakeholders is all about investing in relationships – it is about communicating effectively with each other and fostering trust, so you can deliver outcomes that ” matter to people relu Rural Economy and Land Use Programme
- 19. www.sustainableuplandresearch.org www.markreed.webeden.co.uk Follow on: www.twitter.com/reluuplands www.twitter.com/lecmsr (Mark) relu Rural Economy and Land Use Programme
Editor's Notes
- #14: Building interdisciplinary teams takes time