Collaboration: From groan zone to growth zone

May 28, 2019December 30, 2019 Community Member Diversity, Integration, Participation, Processes Author - Carrie Kappel, Collaboration, Conceptual models, Convergence, Creativity, Dialogue, Facilitation, Metacognition

By Carrie Kappel

What is the groan zone in collaboration? What can you do when you reach that point?

As researchers and practitioners engaged in transdisciplinary problem-solving, we know the value of diverse perspectives. We also know how common it is for groups to run into challenges when trying to learn from diverse ideas and come to consensus on creative solutions.

This challenging, often uncomfortable space, is called the groan zone. The term comes from Sam Kaner’s diamond model of participation shown in the figure below. After an initial period of divergent thinking, where diverse ideas are introduced, groups have to organize that information, focus on what’s most important, and make decisions in order to move forward into the phase of convergent thinking. Continue reading →

Building a research impact culture

April 16, 2019December 31, 2019 Community Member Processes, Research implementation Author - Louise Shaxson, Co-creation, Collaboration, Culture, Iteration, Networks, Policymaking

By Louise Shaxson

What sort of research culture underpins effective research impact on policy and practice change?

As part of a research program on inclusive economic growth in low-income countries, we commissioned four case studies to help understand how researchers had engaged with policymakers and practitioners and what happened as a result. We were particularly interested to understand whether specific types of knowledge activity (simply providing the information, translating knowledge, brokering it within the policy environment, or facilitating innovative approaches to engagement) led to different types of impact.

We found no clear links between the type of knowledge activity and type of impact. Instead, five cross-cutting issues emerged that we think speak more to how getting the research culture right can foster different and sometimes unexpected types of impact. Continue reading →

Incommensurability, plain difference and communication in interdisciplinary research

April 9, 2019January 14, 2020 Community Member Concepts, Integration Author - Vincenzo Politi, Collaboration, Competition, Incommensurability, Interdisciplinarity (general relevance)

By Vincenzo Politi

Where does the term incommensurability come from? What is its relevance to interdisciplinarity? Is it more than plain difference? Does incommensurability need to be reconceptualized for interdisciplinarity?

Incommensurability: its origins and relevance to interdisciplinarity

‘Incommensurability’ is a term that philosophers of science have borrowed from mathematics. Two mathematical magnitudes are said to be incommensurable if their ratio cannot be expressed by a number which is an integer. For example, the radius and the circumference of a circle are incommensurable because their ratio is expressed by the irrational number π. Continue reading →

Improving transdisciplinary arts-science partnerships

April 2, 2019January 16, 2020 Community Member Participation, Processes Art, Asymmetry, Author - Keith Armstrong, Author - Tania Leimbach, Boundaries, Collaboration, Creativity, Framing, Mutual learning, Physical environment, Relationships, Time commitment, Transdisciplinarity (general relevance)

By Tania Leimbach and Keith Armstrong

Collaborations with scientists have become a major focal point for artists, with many scientists now appreciating the value of building working relationships with artists and projects often going far beyond illustration of scientific concepts to instead forge new collaborative frontiers. What is needed to better “enable” and “situate” arts–science partnerships and support mutual learning?

Our research looked at the facilitation of arts–science partnerships through the investigation of two unique collaborative projects, developed at two geographically distinct sites, initiated by artist Keith Armstrong. One was enacted with an independent arts organisation in regional Australia and the other at a university art gallery in Sydney, Australia. Continue reading →

Idea tree: A tool for brainstorming ideas in cross-disciplinary teams

March 12, 2019January 14, 2020 Community Member Methods, Participation Author - Dan Stokols, Author - Gary Olson, Author - Judith Olson, Author - Maritza Salazar, Brainstorming, Collaboration, Creativity, Feedback, Metacognition, Science of team science, Teams

By Dan Stokols, Maritza Salazar, Gary M. Olson, and Judith S. Olson

How can cross-disciplinary research teams increase their capacity for generating and integrating novel research ideas and conceptual frameworks?

A key challenge faced by research teams is harnessing the intellectual synergy that can occur when individuals from different disciplines join together to create novel ideas and conceptual frameworks. Studies of creativity suggest that atypical (and often serendipitous) combinations of dissimilar perspectives can spur novel insights and advances in knowledge. Yet, many cross-disciplinary teams fail to achieve intellectual synergy because they allot insufficient effort to generating new ideas. Here we describe a brainstorming tool that can be used to generate new ideas in cross-disciplinary teams. Continue reading →

Knowledge asymmetry in interdisciplinary collaborations and how to reduce it

February 26, 2019January 16, 2020 Community Member Concepts, Participation, Unknowns Accountability, Author - Max Kemman, Co-production, Collaboration, Expertise, Failure, Knowledge asymmetry, Mutual learning, Negotiation, Tacit knowledge, Time commitment, Trust, Unintended consequences

By Max Kemman

How can tasks and goals among partners in a collaboration be effectively negotiated, especially when one party is dependent on the deliverables of another party? How does knowledge asymmetry affect such negotiations? What is knowledge asymmetry anyway and how can it be dealt with?

What is knowledge asymmetry?

My PhD research involves historians who are dependent on computational experts to develop an algorithm or user interface for historical research. They therefore needed to be aware of what the computational experts were doing. Continue reading →

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Collaboration

Collaboration: From groan zone to growth zone

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Building a research impact culture

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Incommensurability, plain difference and communication in interdisciplinary research

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Improving transdisciplinary arts-science partnerships

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Idea tree: A tool for brainstorming ideas in cross-disciplinary teams

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Knowledge asymmetry in interdisciplinary collaborations and how to reduce it

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