Team Science: Building Successful Research Collaborations

L. Michelle Bennett, PhD Deputy Scientific Director, NHLBI, NIH Howard Gadlin, PhD Ombudsman, OD, NIH University of Iowa January 2013

What Brought Us Here?

• Interested in: – Conflict and how to resolve it – Implementing strategies for avoiding conflict – Understanding what makes great collaborations and teams successful – Sharing those elements that contribute to successful participation in and leadership of collaborations and multidisciplinary research teams teamscience.nih.gov

Changing Nature of Authorship

Highlights from evaluation of >19M published papers and > 2M patents: • research is increasingly done by teams • high impact research is performed by teams (citation index data) • shift toward “ collective research ” is evident • team size is steadily growing over time The Increasing Dominance of Teams in Production of Knowledge Stefan Wuchty, Benjamin F. Jones, and Brian Uzzi Science 18 May 2007 316: 1036-1039 Note: team is defined as “ more than one author ”

What Problems Lend Themselves to Collaboration?

• • • • • • • • Ill-defined problems Multiple stakeholders with vested interests Disparity of power or resources among stakeholders Different levels of expertise/access to needed information Complex problems and/or scientific uncertainty Differing perspectives on a problem Unsuccessful unilateral efforts Existing processes are insufficient to address problems Adapted from: Gray, Barbara. Collaborating: Finding Common Ground for Multiparty Problems. 1989. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers 4

Reasons to Collaborate

• • • • • • •

Access to expertise or particular skills Access to equipment or resources Cross-fertilization across disciplines Improved access to funding Learning tacit knowledge about a technique Obtaining prestige, visibility or recognition Enhancing trainee education (Gabriele Bammer)

Reported SARS Cases: April 2003

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome

SARS!

• • • • • •

Scientific Network

On Monday 17 March 2003, WHO called upon 11 laboratories in 9 countries to join a collaborative multi-center research project on SARS diagnosis. An international multi center research project to expedite identification of the causative agent was established. The labs that ended up participating are listed below: • Centres for disease control & Prevention, National Centres for Infectious Diseases, National Microbiology Laboratory, Population Pubic Health Branch, Health Canada • Erasmus Universiteit, National Influenza Centre, The Netherlands Public Health Laboratory Service, Central Public Health Laboratory, United Kingdom Government Virus Unit , 9/F Public Health Laboratory Centre, China Institut für Medizinische Virologie im Klinikum der Johann Wolfgang, Germany Institut Pasteur, Head of Unit, Unité de Génétique Moléculaire des Virus Respiratoires National Influenza Center, France National Institute of Infectious Diseases Department of Viral Diseases and Vaccine Control, Japan • • • • • University of Hong Kong Faculty of Medicine, China Virological Institute, Chinese Center for Disease Control & Prevention, China Virology Laboratory, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, China Virology Unit, Singapore General Hospital, Singapore Guangdong Center for Disease Control & Prevention, China http://www.geocities.com/avinash_abhyankar/pgzone/sars_main

Identification of the Agent that Causes SARS on April 16, 2003

Newly Identified Coronavirus Thin section electron micrograph and negative stained virus particles Source: Department of Microbiology, The University of Hong Kong and the Government Virus Unit, Department of Health, Hong Kong SAR China

What is a Scientific Research Team?

…..think of it as a continuum…..

Low

Investigator initiated research

Investigator works on a scientific problem – largely on his or her own.

Level of Interaction and Integration

Research Collaboration

• Group works on a scientific problem, each bringing some expertise to the problem. • Each member works on a separate part, which are integrated at the end. • The interaction of the lead investigators varies from limited to frequent with regard to data sharing or brainstorming.

High

Integrated Research Team

• Team works on a research problem with each member bringing specific expertise to the table.

• There are regular meetings and discussions of the team’s overall goals, objectives of the individuals on the team, data sharing, and next steps. • One person takes the lead while other members have key leadership roles in achieving the goal.

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Power Sharing Credit and Resources Clear Vision Trust The Science Institutional Support Funding Communication

Architecture /Physical Space

Building Success

Institutional Support Researchers and Staff

Trust Membership (Building a Team) Shared Vision Getting and Sharing Credit Conflict Resolution Adversarial Collaboration Communication and Negotiation Team Dynamics Team Networks and Surrounding Systems Challenges to the Success of Scientific Fun

!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Leadership

Group Identity

Collaboration Introduces Threats

High Interaction and Integration Multiple Inter dependent Leaders

Status

Self Identity Independent

Power Autonomy

Interdependent

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“

Sometimes I think the collaborative process would work better without you.

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Trust: Sufficient confidence in another person to be vulnerable to their actions

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Trust and Collaborating •

Tell your partner about a time when:

Your trust was violated in the work setting

•

You had to build scientific trust. What do you remember most about doing it?

Types of Trust • • • • Rational/instrumental trust – built on calculations of the relative rewards for trusting or losses for not trusting Common cognition based trust – built on shared interpretive frameworks and similar understanding of a collective task Competence based trust – built on the confidence in people’s skills and abilities, allowing them to make decisions and train others Relational-identity based trust – built on a perception of perceived compatibility of values, common goals, emotional/intellectual connection

Trust and the Team

• • • • Trust goes hand-in-hand with your scientific confidence in the results generated by your: – Postdoc, Collaborator, Colleagues, etc… If trust is never established or damaged once formed…confidence will slip The relationship itself drives your perception of other’s technical and intellectual abilities Trust affects how one assesses the future behavior or another person and how one interprets their past and present actions.

Open and Honest Discussion: How To

• • • • • • All input is valuable Any team-member can challenge an assertion Any team member can raise a concern Every team-member is allowed to express his attitudes, desires, and needs No speaker should be prevented from expressing himself All team-members agree to participate actively when they have the information to do so Adapted from The Ideal Speech Situation - Jürgen Habermas

Vision

Vision impacts organizational performance, shapes people’s views of leadership, and improves group effectiveness. Vision is a key to successful leadership, and is central to strategic planning. It creates the spark that lifts organizations beyond the mundane.

O’Connell et al. Group and Organization Management 36: 102 (2011)

Elevator Speech

•

You are in the elevator with a member of your institution’s leadership who just acquired a 1M gift from a donor. She is looking for projects to fund and she asks you to explain the value of your project and the expected outcome.

•

What do you say?

(you have 30 seconds) 22

Groups of Three

Person 1: Describe the Vision for a project you have just initiated or are considering starting Person 2: Restate what you heard Person 3: Is it clear? What is missing? Is it too broad? Narrow?

Establishment of Research Teams •

Successful research teams can be initiated both from the top down and from the bottom up

•

Regardless of approach, support from the top is critical for team success

Model of Team Development

Adjourning and Transforming Forming Performing Storming Norming

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Bruce Tuckman, 1965, 1977

• • •

Interviewing and Hiring Models

Values-based interviews

– This interviewing approach is designed to learn about the values of the candidate and to determine if they match those of the “ ideal candidate ”

Performance-based interviews

– This interviewing approach asks the question of whether the person being considered for the position can actually do the job for which s/he is being considered

Behavioral-based interviews

– This approach focuses on understanding how an applicant would behave in very specific circumstances.

Model of Team Development

Adjourning and Transforming Forming Performing Storming Norming

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Bruce Tuckman, 1965, 1977

Model of Team Development

Adjourning and Transforming Forming

• • •

Threats: Power Status Autonomy Performing Norming Storming Challenges:

• trust, personality styles, style under stress, style in conflict, competition for power, autonomy, status, language, culture, and poor listening 28

Bruce Tuckman, 1965, 1977

Storming is Important

• • • •

Creates a new framework for the team Provides source of energy Is not “optional” – must occur, so make the most of it If you don’t – the team will not mature past a superficial level of interaction

Productive Collision Contain Affective/Personal Conflict Share Perspectives/Invite Disagreement

What is Expected from a Collaborator?

What did you say?

Leaders Set Clear Expectations

Provides a scaffold for building deeper trust There are no secrets or surprises and there is a strong platform for discussion • Communication • Regular Meetings with Clear Agendas • Authorship • Conduct of Investigation, Research… • Technical Support • Career Development • Evaluation Criteria, etc….

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What is the #1 issue that causes problems in a collaborative research effort?

http://learning.ucdavis.edu/LabAct/ 33

Prenuptials for Scientists: Collaborative Research Agreements

Categories to cover

• Goals of Collaboration o Including…when is the project “ over ” ?

• Who Will Do What?

o Expectations, responsibility and accountability • o Authorship, Credit Criteria, attribution, public comment, media, IP • o Contingencies and Communicating What if …? and Rules of engagement • o Conflict of Interest How will you ID conflicts? And resolve them?

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The Value of Diversity

Diversity is an asset when it is assumed that insights, skills, and experiences developed as members of different identity groups are a valuable resource that the workgroup can use to rethink its primary tasks and strategies.

Managing Diversity: Harnessing Differences

• Essential Differences – disciplinary world-views, methodologies, technologies, criteria for credit and authorship.

 Require integration • Incidental Differences – personality styles, work habits, identity factors – race, gender, etc.

 Require effective management but depends on degree of scientific integration

Diversity and a Tech Team

• • • • • Technology development is for “everyone” If tech teams aren’t diverse, innovation is at risk Diverse perspectives are critical Consider HP’s recent fiasco with regard to its facial recognition software Diversifying tech teams makes stronger products as well as strategies to recruit diverse techies Facial Recogntion and HP

Still, no matter what type of collaboration…

• • • • • • • •

Collaborative partners face difficulties:

Poor listening and new language Conflicts over goals and methods to achieve them Squabbles about validity of conceptual frameworks Competition for influence, power, recognition, … Threat to ego and/or status Inability to integrate diverse perspectives Institutional disincentives—stress disciplinary competence vs. out-of-box thinking Difficulty finding funding and publication outlets

Motivating Team Identity

Essential Work Division Priorities and Objectives The Sweet Spot • Where personal strengths and passions align with essential work in a setting which provides opportunities for challenge and growth. • Where individuals are the most valued and their contributions most valuable. Passions Tasks that Engage the Mind and Spirit Strengths Competencies and Expertise Maximize the Value of each Individual: Aim to increase the overlap among these three circles, while keeping in mind the changing contents within each circle.

Trust Membership (Building a Team) Shared Vision Getting and Sharing Credit Conflict Resolution Adversarial Collaboration Communication and Negotiation Team Dynamics Team Networks and Surrounding Systems Challenges to the Success of Scientific Teams

Fun !!!!!!!!!!!!!

Leadership

Sharing Credit

•

Samantha Levine-Finley – Associate Ombudsman, NIH OD

We Welcome Your Feedback: Michelle

[email protected]

Howard

[email protected]

teamscience.nih.gov