New book gives fresh perspectives on team collaboration

Many people have had negative experiences while working on research projects within teams. A new book titled: Sustaining Synergies, launched at USQ earlier this month (October), explores some of the ways in which team members, regardless of their individual backgrounds, can work better together to produce successful research outcomes.

Sustaining Synergies was written by members of the Capacity-Building, Pedagogy and Social Justice Research team in the Faculty of Education, with a Foreword written by Bruce Muirhead, the founding Chief Executive Officer and Professor of EIDOS Institute.

Professor Phil Candy, guest speaker at the launch and author of the book’s Preface, believes that this book takes a fresh new perspective on collaborative team research.

'The chapters of the book concentrate not so much on the ‘mechanics’ of research, but the social, emotional and intellectual contexts,' Professor Candy said.

'The authors have courageously turned the spotlight onto themselves, and reflected on their own experiences as researchers, authors and colleagues. This tackles each subject from an innovative perspective.'

Team member Associate Professor Patrick Danaher, explains that the writers are all looking at research collaboration through different lenses, but there are common themes that assist the team to work well together.

'All seven co-editors are coming from diverse areas of expertise, such as linguistics, literacies, early childhood, community development, and adult and higher education. This gives us different perspectives on gathering research and looking at the data,' Associate Professor Danaher said.

Co-editor Dr Warren Midgley believes that the strategies provided within the book can be used to get research teams thinking more closely about ways of working together, not just within universities, but any workplace where staff are involved in collaborative projects.

'The strategies include ideas for topics that generate deep group discussions, and encourage collaborative work within the strategies themselves, which then flow on into other areas of the team' Dr Midglely said.

'The last chapter of the book actually reflects on the process of collaboration when writing the book: the empowering and encouraging experiences of thinking together, writing together, editing together, when time is always a challenge.'

'In an era where everyone is time-poor and academics have to juggle heavy teaching loads and still find research time, this book models how to form chapters that are theoretically framed from relatively small sections of data, and how to be more efficient and effective,' Associate Professor Danaher said.

Co-editor Dr Mark Tyler thinks that the team learned key lessons about being open-minded, being inclusive and recognising that there are always going to be challenges.

'Many of us were accustomed to working together in small groups, but we’ve actually functioned better as a larger team than we thought possible, because we all agreed on a common theme, and all had a degree of trust, respect - and of course, friendship, which promotes a sense of goodwill,' Dr Tyler said.

'Communication is another key factor – when all the team members couldn’t make a meeting, they were able to easily keep up with what was happening, in order that the project continues to flow,' Associate Professor Danaher added.

The research team now plans to take their experiences one step further to look at how these strategies can be used to enhance group work within different cultures and contexts, and how teams manage different knowledge.

For more information about ‘Sustaining Synergies’, contact the research team at CBPSJ.research@usq.edu.au