Postdoc Workshop

Workshop Goals

Postdoctoral researchers are a somewhat forgotten collective in the research system, despite their key role in running research projects and in managing and training junior staff. The goal of this workshop is to address their changing needs as increasingly expert researchers with growing responsibilities and pressures. Participants will gain a renewed perspective of some key transferrable competencies for the postdoctoral research stage and beyond. The over-riding principle of this training is awareness-raising: to develop a conceptual framework to understand and deal with some of the most common challenges that postdocs face, and to acquire a set of practical tools and methods that are immediately applicable in the participants’ working environment.

Workshop Content

• A Review of core communication skills
  Communication is the key to everything we do as researchers, whether it’s transmitting our science or managing our colleagues. Interpersonal communication will be a recurring thread throughout the workshop, and we will begin by exploring a model for interpersonal communication, how to give and receive feedback.
• Time and task management
  How do you prioritise tasks to get important things done first? How do you plan your day to work effectively? Participants will learn intuitive tools to gain efficiency, as well as how to set realistic medium-term goals, and review digital helpers to manage their work and collaborate better.
• Motivation
  Science can give us many reasons to feel demotivated, with consequences for our work and career progression. We will work with a simple framework for understanding demotivation, both in ourselves and in colleagues we supervise.
• Delegation
  As researchers work on and lead ever-larger projects, we become increasingly responsible for the work of other team members. In this module, we will learn an intuitive model for delegating effectively, and following-up on progress.
• Understanding Conflicts
  This workshop has an important communication focus, with tools to facilitate working relations through good communication. However, conflicts inevitably arise in any working environment, and are a cause of stress and lost productivity. We will present a model to understand how conflicts develop, and a powerful tool for resolving them through direct, appreciative, de-escalated communication.
• Negotiation
  Researchers increasingly find themselves in situations where negotiating well is essential for professional success, including for roles and workload on collaborative projects, authorship on publications, or start-up package for career moves. In this module, participants will practice a proven framework for negotiation, with the goal of maximising satisfaction for all parties.