Across the PROSPECT team, we have submitted numerous proposals to present posters, facilitate discussion sessions, and lead workshops at the joint S-STEM Scholar and PI Symposium in November 2024. (Note that the deadline to submit proposals has been extended til July 15, so there is still time to submit more proposals). One of the proposals the PI team submitted is for a workshop about structures for equitable partnerships. We recognize that few S-STEM PIs (including us!) have formal training in project management or inclusive team leadership. Our workshop proposal outlines goals of learning about multiple leadership strategies, project management techniques designed to foster team engagement, and how to apply such principles to local projects.
Here are a few highlights of the planned workshop:
--Distribute leadership: a collaborative structure where instead of a top-down single person (or small group of people) in charge of making decisions, the group collectively sets their own agenda, makes decisions, and shares responsibility in following through.
--Norm setting: We have engaged in norm-setting as a PROSPECT team; setting explicit norms for team interactions (emails, meetings, shared documents, goals, etc) is an equitable strategy that seeks to illuminate what often stays as hidden or implicit rules. Norms can also be structured to provide multiple ways to hear from diverse voices and to incorporate everyone’s ideas into the group’s efforts.
--Trust: effective teams take the time to build foundational trust among the group members. This trust encompasses norms, as well as fostering human connections that help people be vulnerable and engage with each other. Trying to make changes is inherently vulnerable work, since it entails the implicit or explicit assumption that the status quo is not good enough. Effective teams build time into their meeting agendas to engage in relational work, not just checking off tasks (although getting tasks done is one of the ultimate goals). Trust is also fostered by people following through on their commitments and adhering to the group norms.
--Restorative processes: effective teams adopt processes to address norm violations or other situations where trust is damaged. Team members are willing to apologize, do what they can to repair relationships, and commit to doing better.
--Collective goal setting: engaging with a team includes building in processes to hear from all voices in the team, and often from voices outside the team. Inclusive practices here often involve an anonymous way to brainstorm and have people submit ideas, and then discussion and other ways for team members to engage in sharing their thoughts and priorities. Goals should directly relate to the problems identified by the team. Ideally goals try to address root causes not just surface level symptoms; and focus on changing and improving the system and structures rather than “fixing” students (who don’t need to be fixed). Goals should also be regularly revisited, particularly when context changes.
--Collaborative documents: having group documents in a shared folder where all members can access and edit them helps to engage more voices. Allowing all members to contribute to the meeting agendas is a distributed leadership practice that can counter traditional power dynamics. It can be helpful for one person to provide a logical organizational structure for shared files.
--Planning for turnover: Every ongoing team experiences turnover in personnel. Collectively defining and documenting an onboarding process for new members that not only helps new members learn about the work to date but also provides ways that new members can add their experiences, goals, and creativity to the team’s work. It is an inevitable tension to seek balance between maintaining momentum and incorporating new ideas.
--Power Dynamics: power dynamics are inherent in all human relationships, particularly in systems like education that have historical power dynamics that privilege larger institutions, graduate degrees, white men, and continuing generation students and instructors (rather than first generation). Effective partnerships name the historic power imbalances and put norms and processes in place to challenge and address these. Strategies may include opportunities to provide anonymous suggestions and feedback, critical reflection processes, making sure those with less power historically have more of the “air time” during meetings to share their thoughts. For people and institutions with more power, how can capital (social capital, cultural capital, resources, etc) be extended to people with less power?
Throughout the workshop, we will engage participants in sharing and also discussing scenarios that we will craft that highlight inclusive and equitable partnership structures. Some of the questions will plan to pose include the following, which you may find helpful to consider for your own S-STEM project:
• What implicit and explicit norms does your S-STEM team have?
• Who usually sets team agendas?
• To what extent do team members have multiple opportunities for their voices to be heard?
• How are norm violations handled? Who takes responsibility to call out norm violations?
• How does your team build in opportunities to develop professional relationships, particularly across institutional partners?
• How do new team members get onboarded to the project?
• Where are your project documents stored? Who has edit/view access? How does a new person get oriented to your documents?
• How do you handle the situation when one dominant voice is taking up too much of the meeting time, not allowing others to share their ideas?
• How do you help people and teams prioritize their efforts related to the S-STEM project?
• How is your project team planning for potential turnover of project personnel, administrators, or others involved in the work?
• How does your team confront historic power dynamics between people and institutions?
As we make fall 2024 plans for PROSPECT, please let us know (reach out to Camilla or Wendy) what ideas you have for topics you’d like to discuss. If you are planning to attend the S-STEM Scholar and PI Symposium, we hope to see you there. We also hope to explore effective partnership structures more throughout the coming year with all of you. A group called Equitable Collaboration has pulled together many resources; although these are aimed at K-12 partnerships, many of these principles and practices can apply to higher education.
Click here to read more about the Equitable Collaboration Framework.
Summary provided by Wendy M. Smith