Click here to view the Mar 8th INTEREACH webinar led by Dr. Stephanie Vasko, Senior UX Researcher with MESH Research, and Managing Director for the Center for Interdisciplinarity at Michigan State University. In this interactive session, Dr. Vasko presented an introduction to user experience design (UXD) & user experience research (UXR) and to key topics in these fields. We discussed how team science practitioners and researchers can integrate UXR and UXD both into their work and into growing their own web presence. As a way to illuminate the inherent commonalities in boundary-spanning work and UXD/UXR, Dr. Vasko also presented some information about her own UX career path and offered ways that UX is an exciting career option for members of the INTEREACH community.
February 8th: The Art & Science of Adjourning
Click here to view the Feb 8th INTEREACH webinar, the final installment of the Series: The Art & Science of Making Meaningful Moments – Subtle Strategies & Creative Conditions for Effective and Uplifting Facilitation. Hosts Anne Heberger Marino, Founder of Lean-To Collaborations, Hannah Love, Co-Founder of Team Divergent Science, & Alyssa Stephens, Founder of Cactus Consulting join us again to close out this series with some tips for making your meeting closures as “satisfying as a chocolate chip cookie”. Just as chocolate chip cookies can vary greatly based on the ingredients used, adjournment tactics will vary based on the nature of the meeting or retreat. They share 4 key elements to consider when deciding on your specific adjournment strategy: purpose of closure/reflection (including observing, learning, evaluating integrating), depth of reflection, format of reflection, and time available. The hosts then demonstrate 3 interactive adjournment strategies for 1) a quick closure that highlights participant learning, 2) a more in-depth closure for longer meetings and retreats where more reflection is required, and finally 3) ensuring follow-through and generating action items for after the meeting has ended.
January 11th: The Art & Science of Changing Organizational Culture
Click here to view the January 11th INTEREACH webinar, the sixth installment of the Series: The Art & Science of Making Meaningful Moments – Subtle Strategies & Creative Conditions for Effective and Uplifting Facilitation. Hosts Drs Ellen Fisher, Vice President for Research at University of New Mexico, and Ellyn Dickmann, Researcher/Consultant, Dickmann and Associates, LLC lead a highly interactive session addressing why organizational change is so hard, especially in our current cultural context of the COVID-19 pandemic. The presenters focused on alignment of definitions of organizational culture, the specific context of organizational culture in higher education institutions, stages of organizational change, and some telltale signs of when a culture is no longer working. They end by covering 15 strategies to engage as a facilitator of cultural change, with specific examples that our presenters have used in their own organizations. This webinar is great for those looking to learn more about leading and facilitating organizational culture change within their own organization. You can access a pdf version of this slides at this link.
December 14th: Creating Conditions for Compassionate & Resilient Community Work
Click here to view the December 14th INTEREACH webinar, the fifth installment of the Fall Series: The Art & Science of Making Meaningful Moments – Subtle Strategies & Creative Conditions for Effective and Uplifting Facilitation. In this webinar, Courtney Ngai returns (prev. Series Introduction, see “Aug 13”, below) along with series co-host Alyssa Stephens, Founder of Cactus Consulting, to focus specifically on collaborations between academics and community groups, and why, if not facilitated equitably, these types of interactions may result in “missed connections”, such as those see in the craigslist days of old. They argue that in order for these types of collaborations to be compassionate and resilient, 1) they must recognize the power of combining community expertise with scientific knowledge, 2) honor the skills and strengths of each group, 3) understand the needs and capacity of each group, and 4) work towards goals that benefit all parties. They discuss strategies and facilitation tools for building equitable relationships from the group up and baking in best practices throughout the relationship.
November 9th: 20 Small but Game-Changing Strategies for Equitable & Inclusive Facilitators
Click here to view the November 9th INTEREACH webinar, the fourth installment of the Fall Series: The Art & Science of Making Meaningful Moments- Subtle Strategies & Creative Conditions for Effective & Uplifting Facilitation. In this webinar, our presenters Sarah Stephens, Senior Program Coordinator of Community Engagement & Staff Development at Colorado State University, and Megan Jones, Research Scientist at Colorado State University, share strategies to set the foundation, communicate clearly, and planning holistically for equitable and inclusive facilitation. They offer pragmatic tips and tools to implement the 20 strategies and invite the audience’s input for more. The presenters also shared handout of the 20 strategies and the slides with the webinar participants.
October 12th: Articulating the Value & Practice of Science Facilitation
Click here to view the October 12th INTEREACH webinar, the third installment of the Fall Series: The Art & Science of Making Meaningful Moments – Subtle Strategies & Creative Conditions for Effective and Uplifting Facilitation. In this webinar, our presenters Amanda Cravens, Research Social Scientist at US Geological Survey, and Megan Jones, Research Scientist at Colorado State University, present work in progress and invite participants in the discussion to co-develop and deepen our understanding and practice of facilitation. They do this by creating a space for the group to devote time and attention to metacognition and conscious reflection. They propose that science facilitation is a form of facilitation that accounts for the interaction between the cognitive/intellectual with the interpersonal aspects of scientific collaboration and knowledge-making. Their work has been submitted for review, and we will link to it, upon publication.
September 14th: Creating Conditions for Playful & Mindful Facilitation
Click here to view the September 14th INTEREACH webinar, the second installment of our Fall Series: The Art & Science of Making Meaning Moments - Subtle Strategies & Creative Conditions for Effective & Uplifting Facilitation. In this webinar, our presenters Anne Heberger Marino, Founder of Lean-To Collaborations, and Sarah Stephens, Senior Program Coordinator of Staff Development & Community Engagement, Colorado State University, share techniques and tools for encouraging playfulness and mindfulness into workshops, retreats, meetings, and coaching sessions. From unique and creative methods for introducing and getting to know a large group of people virtually, to naming the value of play and mindfulness in collaboration, to breakout sessions to dive deeper, this session was fun-filled yet practical for intentional application of these interactive techniques.
August 10th: The Art & Science Behind Facilitation: Series Introduction
Click here to view the August 10th INTEREACH webinar, the series introduction to our Fall (& Winter) Series: The Art & Science of Making Meaning Moments - Subtle Strategies & Creative Conditions for Effective & Uplifting Facilitation. This webinar was presented by Dr Hannah Love, co-Founder of Team Divergent Science and Dr Courtney Ngai, Founder of Empowered Consulting. In this webinar, our presenters define and lead a discussion on the science behind facilitation and share their goal of sparking fresh ideas to enhance our participants’ art and practice of this important work. Throughout the webinar, they share resources (e.g., https://i2insights.org/2021/02/04/complexity-for-convergence-research/), and engage the collective wisdom of the call’s participants, while demonstrating technical and participatory tools for effective engagement. Follow Hannah’s (@dsteamscience) and Courtney’s (@courtneyngai) work social media and join us on Aug 17th 12-1pm ET for Facilitation Office Hours – a new way for INTEREACH to engage with our presenters! For more information, please subscribe to our listserv!
July 13th: Critical Components of a Successful Program Coordinator
Click here to view the July 13th INTEREACH webinar, featuring NRT Program Coordinators Nicole Scott (Iowa State University), Sara Mata (Oklahoma University), Jyothi Kumar (Michigan State University), Toccara Houston (Georgia Tech University) and Kristin Brethova (Indiana University). This webinar provides an overview of the National Science Foundation Research Traineeship (NRT) as a program designed to encourage innovation and interdisciplinary, sustainable graduate programs. Our speakers describe the characteristics and roles filled by a Program Coordinator, and highlight that despite the uniquity of this job title in academia, the role rarely matches the job description. Program Coordinators are responsible for a wide variety of tasks that require them to “change hats” throughout the day and throughout the lifecycle of the program. This confluence of factors drove our speakers to come up with three distinct components to achieving success in their roles, namely: creativity, change agent, and community building. The speakers end by highlighting some challenges that a Program Coordinator may encounter, which members of our INTEREACH CoP may resonate with. Learn more about the work of our speakers in their affiliated NRT’s at @CNS-NRT; @nrt_impacts; @GT_RoboARMS; @aero_eco; @p3iastate.
May 11th: Boundary Spanning Tools for Research Teams: Reflexivity & Readiness
May 11th: Boundary Spanning Tools for Research Teams, Session 4: Reflexivity & Readiness
Click here to view the May 11th INTEREACH webinar, the fifth and final installment in our Spring 2021 series on Boundary Spanning Tools for Research Teams. In this episode we are introduced to two (2) tools to help teams in the work of preparing for and reflect on how they will conduct their work together. The tools presented can help with reflexivity processes and awareness of our collective readiness to collaborate, including unlocking our hidden assumptions, bodily knowledge, and moral imagination.
First, Dr Antonietta Di Giulio, senior researcher at the University of Basel, presents her tool “Evaluation Criteria for Inter- and Transdisciplinary Research”, a comprehensive set of questions with instructions that can be used for internal evaluation and reflection on a project's inter- and transdisciplinary quality. Dr Di Giulio provides some bounding meta-information about the tool’s creation to provide our listeners with a contextual understanding of its intended use. The tool was published by the Swiss outlet Panorama, and the pdf is available at this link.
Next, Margot Greenlee shares with us her tool “Model the Metaphor”, which she employs as Artistic Director of BodyWise Dance to help teams better understand their perspectives, creative capacity, and overall readiness to work together. In demonstrating the tool’s use, Margot invites participants to explore their own creative space using poetic language, common household items and sense of fun, all while letting go of the internal editor and judge to make and build a model for a team, of which they are a member. This method serves as a way to reflect and gain new perspective and appreciation for what the team has accomplished and what lies ahead.