Navigating Team Dynamics: Cultivating Collaborative Synergy Through Team Science |
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Interdisciplinary research is done by teams, not individuals and research consistently highlights the effectiveness of collaborative, diverse teams. As such, team dynamics play an important role all of our interdisciplinary endeavours, and team science offers important support in my role as a Principal Investigator. As a group we often encounter the belief that investing time, resources and energy in team functioning takes away from the actual work. In our experience this is a false tradeoff: high-impact science and education thrive on values such as diversity, equity, and community focus, but only if the focus is authentic, intentional and early. If not we are at risk of perpetuating unhealthy practices that only benefit the identities that have been welcome in sciences since centuries. Team science supports us individually and collectively across identities, keeps us attentive, honest and humble, while teaching us how to hold ourselves and others accountable to the values we care about.
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For example, one of our early and pivotal realizations revolves around recognizing our preferred modes of interaction, be it specialist, generalist, and/or broker. We have implemented a practice where team members openly self-identify their interaction styles, fostering a deeper understanding of our team's dynamic composition and how each of us contributes within group settings. Personally identifying as a generalist and broker, I naturally gravitate towards overarching structures and the interplay among individuals, processes, and methodologies, but I can have the tendency to underestimate the importance of details. This awareness helps be be accountable and responsible for how I show up in the team, and support the group synergy where every role is thoughtfully represented.
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Figure in Perdrial et al. 2023 (modified from Cheruvelil et al. 2014).
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The realization that we should clarify values at the front end of project ideation, so that all decisions are made in alignment with these values, is probably the lesson I need to learn again and again. We wrote the paper in Earth's Future to support this learning and offer support for other groups who struggle with similar issues. We have not solved anything yet, but have the aspiration to do better every day.
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Team science and meetings
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Team science and intentional facilitation also helps us with meetings, be it the first in-person meetings after the pandemic (pictures to the right), virtual meetings, or our CZNet and Big Data allhands meetings (see pictures below). In all cases we pay attention to the critical need the meeting addresses and define goals that guide agenda design. Especially early in the project we intentionally integrated a component of relationship-building in all gatherings to allow us to meet the person before meeting the professional persona. I truly believe this makes a difference (and I can rely on the team to tell me when they need a change).
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Big Data and CZNet allhands meetings
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