“I care deeply about how we can craft better research cultures and supportive policies to enable researchers to bring their best selves to do their great work together.”
Drawing on a diverse background, expertise as a trained facilitator, and my researcher interview and design skills, I offer a range of consulting and facilitation services tailored to your needs.
I bring a solutions-oriented strengths-based perspective to do more of what works well.
I have a particular interest in collegial workplace cultures to promote holistic wellbeing and to enable people to do their great work. This requires a whole systems perspective encompassing supportive policies and services, realistic performance expectations, good leadership and effective individual practices.
Starting a new project or team well is the basis for being able to deliver projects more effectively.
I can facilitate project kick-off events that help you define the shared values of the team, identify people’s strengths e.g., using StrengthscopeTeamTM, map roles, and establish the processes and systems for how the team will work together and how they will deal with inevitable challenges that arise.
Kick-off Team cohesion workshops – 2 half-days – online – for ACM SIGCHI Executive Committee – November 2021
As an external facilitator I can help; Refine your agenda; Prepare for the event; Facilitate interactive and engaging methods to deliver on that agenda.
Facilitating discussions and advising on programs to deliver on specific agendas.
Developing a mentoring programme – workshops, interviews, proposal, University of Queensland, Sept 2019.
Facilitator, online workshop, Bias Training to inform recruitment for EU ITN REMARO, Nov 2020
Workshop for Greek ACM-W, as part of GEC2022: “Becoming better together – learning through mentoring”. Hybrid, 90 mins. To start development of a mentoring programme in Greece Informatics. June 2022
Facilitating interactive panel discussions on a range of topics.
Moderator and designer: CHI2018 Panel on ‘Daring to change: creating a slower more sustainable academic life’ – May – 2018
Smart Cities – Panel Discussion: On ‘Transforming Cities’ – Vienna – 2016
One-one in-depth interviews that feel intimate and which draw out new insights.
Podcast host for Changing Academic Life podcast series. Conversations with academics, researchers, and thought leaders – since 2016
SIGCHI Lifetime Service Award Fireside Chat – with awardee Elizabeth Churchill – CHI2023 – Hamburg, Germany
Meetings don’t always have to be boring or a waste of time or dominated by one or two people.
I can help audit your current meeting culture, looking at what works well and what doesn’t and for whom. I can then facilitate a co-design process to re-imagine and re-design meetings so that they are more effective and time efficient, and more inclusive.
‘Towards inclusive meetings’ co-design workshops for Institute of Cancer
Research, Surry UK, April 2024
Applying over 30 years experience with qualitative and mixed-methods research
How well do you really know what is going on in your institution or group? What is working well and not so well? Where the opportunities are to develop as a unit?
Applying over 30 years experience with qualitative and mixed-methods research, I can conduct in-house research using interviews, observations and surveys, to take the current ‘pulse’ of the culture’. The output is an actionable synthesised report that identifies current culture issues, and provides the basis for discussions about relevant interventions to build more collegial productive sustainable research/workplace cultures.
Drawing from the Appreciative Inquiry, facilitating strategic change discussions from a values and strengths-based perspective.
At institutional, national and international levels
How do we develop the supportive and inclusive structures, policies, and strategies which value a diversity of contributions and career paths? How to interpret and apply the principles of international research evaluation reform initiatives?
I can contribute to policy and strategy discussions at institutional, national and international levels about how to put in place supportive policies and strategies and how to practically implement these policies in day to day practices.
BMBWF – Austrian Federal Ministry of Education Science and Research
BMBWF Workshop ‘Was Wissen schafft’– May 2023
Values in evaluating science – what values, whose values, what is important?
BMBWF Internal Information Event – January 2023
‘Evaluation and Diversity: Enabling Academics to Craft their Impactful Career Path’
Member of the TU Wien ‘Code Of Conduct’ Working Group 2022-2023, and the Research Ethics Committee 2019-2023
Contributing international experience on Faculty and Project Advisory Boards and Faculty Evaluation Panels.
For institutions and projects in Australia, Cyprus, Denmark, Germany, Iceland, Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland, UK – list on request
