Delivering the project and sustaining the relationships for the future
As the project nears completion, you might be looking forward to celebrating results, disseminating findings to academic and non-academic audiences and also taking the work forward in new projects or directions. Although it’s the end of the project, it doesn’t need to be the end of the collaboration.
Experienced GW4 collaborators have told us about public workshops, new subject-networks they’ve established, journal special issues, conference sessions or using their institutional Communications support to help them get a public news story out. What are the outputs and outcomes you’re most looking forward to? We’ll come back to these as you think about sustaining your connections beyond the immediate project.
At the same time, this stage can involve tight deadlines for completion and reporting to funders, as well as people finishing contracts or moving onto the next project.
In this section, we’ll look at some crucial areas to think about as the project concludes:
- Troubleshooting challenges to delivery.
- Tying up loose threads and ensuring outcomes are disseminated.
- Reflecting on the learning from the project.
- Ensuring the relationships are in a good place to pave the way for future collaborations.
Troubleshooting challenges to deliver collaborative projects
Interdisciplinary collaborations bring diverse perspectives together to push boundaries, so you actively want to encourage lively debate. But what happens when this goes beyond productive and robust discussion?
This might be time to revisit your project plan and the questions in the previous section around expectations and roles. Has there been a misunderstanding, lack of communication or mismatch in expectations? If so, as well as clearing up the matter in hand, what can you put in place to minimise the chances of something similar happening again? Authorship is a common cause for friction, which is why it’s crucial to talk about publication strategy at the outset; but perhaps it is about a personality clash or differences in culture or values?
Whatever the issue, if you are leading the collaboration, you have a responsibility to address issues early, to avoid them escalating or impacting on others. If you are avoiding having a difficult conversation, ask yourself:
- What will be different in six months if the issue is resolved?
- And what could happen / what will it be like if it isn’t resolved? Who else might this impact?
Planning a challenging conversation
- Try to notice any assumptions you are making or where you might be lacking information.
- Write down the outcome that you want to have.
- Try to frame the conversation as a learning one – you are there to share what you have directly observed (‘I noticed that…’), to listen to the other party with an open mind, hear their perspective and explore ways forward together.
- Use open questions (what, when, how…)
Your institution may offer training on difficult conversations and conflict.
What if you’re getting no response?
The most common challenge is that a collaborator simply goes ‘off radar’ and stops responding to emails or deadlines. Doing the work at the outset to explore motivations, capacities and risks, and then communicating regularly, can help minimise the likelihood of this.
Inevitably, there will be times when some partners are less motivated or less able to engage due to conflicting priorities. This can be discouraging for the team as well as leading to delays. It’s important to be aware of the impact and try to mitigate it where you can by staying on top of the project plan and ensuring regular communication.
Can you check to understand whether those partners’ needs are still being met by the project? You could ask:
- Are you able to take control over the bits of the project you want to?
- Are you learning and growing from the project?
- Are you able to use your expertise?
- Is what you are doing going to make the difference that you want it to?
Sometimes, it is necessary to end a collaboration, if circumstances mean the other party is no longer able to commit. Unfortunately, the crunch point often coincides with the team’s ability to write up publications. Having good data management structures and an agreed publication plan may allow you to continue, even if a collaborator steps away. If a funded project risks not meeting its intended outputs, seek advice from your institution on contractual obligations, finance and access to data.
There are no easy answers, but we asked some experienced GW4 PIs on how they keep up motivation within collaborations, and ensure everything is on track, and you can read their suggestions in the sections below.
Tying up loose threads and ensuring outcomes are disseminated
- Organise a ‘wash-up’ meeting to look back at things like your publication and data management plans and ensure all the raw data is curated appropriately.
- Identify anything which might be thought of as ‘pilot data’ for future proposals and agree whether these will be taken forward.
- Review your outcomes, comparing them to your initial proposal.
- Celebrate: thank each other in an inclusive and fun way.
- Organise a conference which celebrates your own community and also invites in new potential partners for the future.
- If you have set up a website, or built a community which will continue work on this area, make sure the proper support is in place and handovers completed.
Reflecting on the learning from the project
An informal review meeting (distinct from the wash-up) gives everyone a chance to reflect constructively on the project in a relaxed and open atmosphere. Include perspectives from across the collaboration, including the more junior members.
People often rush to focus on the negative so, instead, start with a recap of the project (maybe some team photos?) and ask what went well, which bits individuals are most proud of, focussing on process rather than only on outputs. How has the collaboration resulted in something that is greater than the sum of its parts? What allowed this to happen? What new research niche or questions are we starting to develop?
Then go on to look for areas where you learned and adapted over time. Try asking: what got in the way of us being the best collaboration ever? What will we do differently next time? Offering the opportunity to discuss in small groups and share thoughts anonymously (e.g. on post-its) can help people to be honest.
Who else might benefit from this learning? Document your learning in a place that will be findable for future project teams.
Leaving the door open for future collaborations
If you want to maintain the collaboration as a possible future direction of travel, it’s really important to try to build some activities in following the formal end – webinars are easy to organise as a way of bringing people together. It’s worth recognising that some collaborators have more time than others to devote to getting the publication out, therefore it’s important to think about task distribution at that point. Good collaborations never really end. They just lie dormant for a while and then the project idea comes along with the right set of conversations happening and things start back up again.
Dr Adrian Healy, Cardiff University
Sometimes a collaboration doesn’t have a fixed end point and the research and relationships continue in various forms. Even if there is no formal end, schedule an away day to think collectively about what you want to do next. Ask yourselves:
- What new questions are starting to emerge?
- What networks need to be nurtured?
- What other skills or expertise might be relevant to bring into the collaboration at this point?
Make a plan to keep in contact over the next year. Maybe some virtual coffees or a meet-up at a conference? Look back at the ideas for starting small, such as equipment sharing. Maybe a writing retreat or book sprint would help get outputs written up, or even the next proposal? Are there further stages available of the funding you were awarded (e.g. via the GW4 Communities schemes)?
Useful links
- The Surprising Truth about what motivates us: autonomy, mastery and purpose (Dan Pink, RSA)
- Some advice on managing conflict in research projects: 3.3 Competence: Planning difficult conversations – Wellbeing Resources for Researchers | Rise 360 (articulate.com)
- An Exercise to Help Your Team Feel More Comfortable with Conflict (hbr.org)
- Frontiers | Understanding and Addressing Problems in Research Collaboration: A Qualitative Interview Study From a Self-Governance Perspective (frontiersin.org)
