The Need for Training on Team and Meeting Management

to Enhance Capacity for Team Science

Kady Nearing, Senior Evaluator

The Evaluation CenterColorado Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute

• Colorado Clinical & Translational Sciences Institute

• Charge: to transform research to accelerate the pace of

discovery and the application of new knowledge to

improve clinical and community-based practice

• Team science: thought to be an important mechanism

to promote cutting edge research and foster innovation

Evaluation Context

• Serendipitous discoveries• New insights (new interpretations) of existing

data • Innovative approaches (new or novel

applications)• Findings that advance a field/discipline• Grants, publications, patents• Positive attitude toward to collaboration

Anticipated Outcomes

How do aspects of team structure and functioning relate to anticipated

outcomes?

Evaluation Question

Two-stage approach: 1. Administration of survey that explored different

dimensions of team science

• Translational reach

• Disciplinarity

• Safety

2. Focus groups with research teams to explore their unique experiences in greater depth

Methods

An inverse relationship was found between perceived productivity and team size:

• As the # of team members increased, perceptions re: meeting productivity decreased (r(17)=-.61, p=.005)

• Perceptions of productivity (overall) tended to decrease as the teams grew in size ( r(17)=.54, p=.016)

Results: Survey Data

Results: Focus Groups

Needs:

• Negotiate authorship early in the process to manage expectations/roles and establish accountability

• Mentors and institutional leaders to serve as facilitators and active supporters/champions

• Protected research time for clinicians to engage meaningfully in each phase of team science endeavors

• Increased start-up time (e.g., for regulatory review)

• Leadership skills development to bring teams together, maintain focus and enthusiasm, facilitate team identity

• Administered March 2011

• Distributed to CCTSI members and non-members based at the Anschutz Medical Campus, as well as CCTSI members at affiliated organizations

• 639 individuals responded

Results: CCTSI Needs Assessment

• Question: “Please provide any suggestions for education, training, or career development programs that … would support clinical or translational research … at your institution.”

• Themes that surfaced:

• Leadership development

• Teambuilding (e.g., forming interdisciplinary teams)

• Lab / personnel management training

Results: CCTSI Needs Assessment

• “Networking, running meetings, time management, email management, leadership, running projects, managing staff and budgets. We all do these things every day but most of us have no training in how to do them really well.”

• “Training on how to develop an efficient research team to conduct moderate to large-size clinical studies would be great.”

• “Mini-symposia on how to build interdisciplinary teams”

• “Ongoing development of investigators as leaders of research teams.”

Results: CCTSI Needs Assessment

• Senior and mid-career faculty and academic administrators

• 4 two-day sessions over academic year

• Sponsored by the CCTSI ETCD Core

• Goal: create and sustain a strong network of colleagues who will mentor / train the next generation of clinical and translational scientists

Leadership for Innovative Team Science

• Leadership development

• Teamwork

• Interpersonal relationships

• Conflict as a productive, creative force

• Decision making and task management

• Meeting management

Leadership for Innovative Team Science

The team science approach permitted research teams

to:

1. Frame more interesting/robust and clinically-

relevant research questions,

2. Discern the most strategic ways to utilize limited

resources (e.g., which hypotheses, experiments or

patient populations may be most fruitful to pursue),

and

3. Apply cutting-edge technologies/methodologies to

address existing research questions.

Benefits of Team Science

For More Information:

Kathryn.Nearing@ucdenver.edu

www.the-evaluation-center.org