All change please:
Starting a new pre-award role with new
academics/research groups
Adam Golberg (Nottingham), Alisha Peart (Northumbria)
Emma Bowen (Durham), Rommany Jenkins, (Birmingham City)
Session aims:
Learn from colleagues who have made similar transitions into new
roles and find out about what has worked well and what hasn’t.
Attendees will:
• … have the opportunity to discuss (a) their experiences in recent job
changes; or (b) their plans and expectations, hopes and fears, for a
forthcoming change.
• … develop their own strategy for their next role and/or reflect on
their own progress in their current one
Session plan
• Introductions/Chatham House Rule/Session Aims
• 4 x 10 minute presentations
• Small group discussions
• Feedback
• Summary
The Chatham House Rule
When a meeting is held under the
‘Chatham House Rule’:
“… participants are free to use the
information received, but neither
the identity nor the affiliation of
the speaker(s), nor that of any
other participant, may be
revealed”
From https://www.chathamhouse.org/about/chatham-house-rule
The speakers
• Adam Golberg (Nottingham) – sideways move; restructuring; similar
disciplines (social sciences); brand new research development role
• Emma Bowen (Durham) - promotion - moved institution; moved
discipline (to social sciences), brand new job role
• Rommany Jenkins (Birmingham City) – promotion within institution;
moved from research admin to research dev, first role in research dev
• Alisha Peart - (Northumbria) – promotion within institution; moved to
STEM impact from pre-award coordinator role
“I was working as a waitress in a cocktail bar...”
• Research Manager at Nottingham University Business School since
Nov 2008. Previously Research Institute Manager, Public Policy and
Management, Keele University since 2005. Worked in HE since 2002.
• Role “deleted” as a result of an internal restructure
• Eventually slotted into a new role covering the Business School,
Economics, and Geography. A colleague covered the other half of the
faculty and an existing faculty-based team provided central support
• Same institution, similar disciplines, compulsory role change,
sideways move
Restructures – “Turn and face the strange”
• Nothing is certain except death, taxes, and organisational change
• Don’t be too passive, too fatalistic, too optimistic
• Don’t back yourself into a corner or bite off your nose to spite your face
• Pick your battles carefully – what elements are and are not set in stone?
• Join the UCU (or relevant union)
• Don’t take it personally
• Don’t neglect self-care - “This too shall pass…”
• Five stages of grief (denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance)
Restructures – “Everything is AWESOME!!!”
• A restructure is never over, even when the HR officer sings
• “No battle plan survives contact with the enemy” (von Moltke)
• Restructures only establish frameworks –how will it work in practice?
• Remember Bruce Tuckman’s stages of group development (1963)
•
•
•
•
Forming
Storming
Norming
Performing
• “Time may change me… but I can't trace time”
• Resilience, Resilience, Resilience
All Change
Bridging the gap in(to) Research Development
Rommany Jenkins
Birmingham City University
[email protected]
Three Bridges
• From PhD to Research Admin (March ‘16)
• From Research Admin to Research Development Officer (Nov ‘16)
• From newbie to ARMA conference June ‘17!
Crossing over to Research Administration
PhD
Admin
Ideal scenario;
• Know what the role is – research administration as a specialist skill
• Know what the role should deliver – a commitment to research = driven
• Know how to get there – work shadowing and strategy buy-in
Stormy Waters - Restructure
The space between Administrator and Officer
• Power vacuum = potential
• ‘I don’t know’…or do I?
• Get bridge building
All Change please: Alisha Peart
Research Impact Manager
Northumbria University.
7th June 2017
Time to grow
Moved into HE
Northumbria University
Pre Award Team - EU
8 Years at an ‘Outstanding’ FE
College
Developing and delivering
externally funded projects (FP7,
H2020, SFA)
Managed 6.2 M RGF project
5 years in medical
equipment sales (operating
tables, lights & sterilisers)
Promoted to Sales Manager
Newcastle University
BSc (Hons) Medical Microbiology
HE is very different from FE
Experience of projects, funding
and costing is portable
Change happens A LOT!
6 different managers, 3 Job titles,
4 campus moves
Adaptable, resourceful & persuasive
Male dominated area, scary
surgeons/ engineers & live
surgery!
I can handle anything
I don’t want to work in a
lab
Time to change, again
Promotion - Research Impact Manager (STEM)
Mixture of
new and
existing
academic
departments
and staff
Totally
different
practices
Will my head
hurt
New staff,
building new
relationships,
proving your
worth
Existing staff
could this
prove an
advantage or
disadvantage
Would I be
pre judged
Making yourself at home
Be confident in
your abilities
Building
relationships,
inside and outside
your team
Dive in
Small Group Discussion Task
• Please organise yourselves into small groups (suggest
4-5 people) as far as numbers, and room layout will
allow
• Try to have a mixture of people new to roles and
people about to start new roles in each group if
possible
If you have moved roles recently what did you learn /
what would you do differently.
If you are about to move roles, what are your hopes/
fears.