PLUS Organizational Culture

 

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Diversity and Opportunity

  1. Ensure disciplinary representation, when possible.
  2. Ensure adequate site representation, when feasible.
  3. To encourage fresh perspectives, encourage group member involvement, irrespective of disciplinary expertise.
  4. Represent all consortium members’ opinions through discussion, voting during meetings, anonymous voting and feedback, and dissemination of results.
  5. Consortium members welcome and value input from research coordinators and other PLUS personnel (e.g., moderators, cognitive interviewers).
  6. Create a transdisciplinary approach:
    • Solicit and listen to all voices, perspectives, opinions
    • Make shared decisions, when applicable
    • Put minimal limits on who can lead a project and encourage different disciplines to co-chair
  7. Vary/change leadership, while remaining attentive to need for continuity in leadership.
  8. The Consortium seeks and integrates community engagement broadly in our research.

Responsibility

  1. Chairs of workgroups proactively reach out to other chairs to facilitate progress and timelines (either offline or during consortium calls).
  2. To facilitate core values and the creation and maintenance of a peer learning community, workgroups will:
    • share the logic underlying their work, as well as the outcomes of their work, with other workgroups and consortium members
    • invite comments, questions, and constructive criticism
  3. Begin each presentation (oral/written) with the purpose and desired outcomes, (with definition of acronyms and other orienting information provided.)
  4. Hold one another accountable for accepted responsibilities, while allowing for flexibility in assignment/reassignments. Bring up for discussion in a timely fashion, activities that may be overlooked, but could be of potential value to the PLUS Consortium.
    • Be understanding of competing deadlines, unforeseen life events, and professional commitments. 
    • Consortium members recognize when they are having difficulty meeting deadlines and request assistance.
  5. Bring up for dicussion in a timely fashion, activities that may be overlooked, but could be of potential value to the PLUS Consortium.
  6. Members of the consortium have a responsibility to express their opinions in timely response to queries (surveys, polling, exercises, and discussion). As an example, no response will be interpreted as support for a decision.
  7. PLUS consortium members, facilitated by SDCC, learn PLUS collaboration tools. Skills include appropriate use of technology for meetings and other communication and data access, as well as best practices and mindfulness of etiquette, such as muting oneself on group calls to minimize disruption.
  8. Be transparent about one’s own professional objectives, goals, and desired opportunities for career advancement.
  9. Allow those with expertise in certain areas to serve in leadership roles specific to that area; but not to the exclusion of input from those without such expertise. Leaders encourage participation across disciplines, listen to and respect others’ views, and – when feasible and scientifically justified –integrate different viewpoints into policies and protocols relevant to their specific area of expertise.

Learning

  1. Prepare for and attend educational webinars as scheduled, to learn ideas from different disciplines.
  2. Adopt a philosophy of “plain language” writing to promote transdisciplinary communication.

Sustainability

  1. Cultivate the culture of a “peer learning community” and develop “buy-in,” to maintain engagement by all consortium members.
  2. Re-engage expertise in ongoing processes, as needed.
  3. Understand one’s voice is wanted and appreciated, even when decisions go in a different direction.
  4. Take time to ensure every project is high quality (i.e., prioritize quality over speed)
  5. Consortium members should identify to group members what expertise they bring to the group at the time of its formation.
  6. When feasible and likely to promote high quality work, pair senior and junior colleagues on projects.
  7. When workgroups have “hit their stride” and can work effectively offline, consider “checking in” to make meetings shorter (e.g., 30-minute meetings)
  8. Strive for consensus and utilize other methods to resolve differences of opinion when needed (voting, delegating to experts or small groups)

Conflict Transformation

  1. Separate differences of opinions from misunderstandings (i.e., misunderstandings may mask general agreement on an issue).
  2. Resist the temptation to interpret others’ strongly held, potentially opposing, scientific opinions as negative judgments toward one’s own scientific abilities or contributions.
  3. When communicating disagreement or criticism, be constructive and courteous. Without a collegial style of communication, messages may be perceived as off-putting, and ideas may not be fully considered and integrated by the listener.
  4. Welcome differing, even opposing, opinions and establish mutually agreed upon processes to create consensus within a group (e.g., allow time for all members to voice their opinion; consider different options for integrating opinions into a scientifically justified approach; trust others’ expertise and experience, while also offering “non-expert” perspectives, which may lead to innovation).