Tagged / BRAD

‘I just don’t have time’: How to improve your work life balance, prioritisation skills and time management

This is a phrase I hear most often at work – we all have increasing pressures and often struggle to be as effective as possible in a shorter period of time to ensure we have a healthy work-life balance.

We have hired the services of an external facilitator to offer support in this for academic staff as part of the BRAD programme. Dr Margaret Collins has a 20+ year academic career background and uses her experience and subsequent training in theories such as Neuro-Linguistic Programming to deliver advice on how to increase personal effectiveness in these areas.

When I undertook the CROS and PIRLS surveys with staff back in the Summer and when consulting on what sessions would be most valuable for our academic community via the blog, the recurrent theme was better time management to improve work life balance.

You sometimes have to invest a little time to free up more later on – the session on Weds 16th October 1-5 on Talbot campus is a worthwhile investment. There are limited spaces so please do ensure you get one by booking on the Organisational and Staff Development webpages.

Have you encountered BRAD yet?

Last month in response to requests from staff, we launched the BU Researcher/Academic Development (BRAD) programme. This is a tailor made framework of development sessions based on the Vitae Researcher Development Framework (RDF) which you can dip in and out of, undertaking only those sessions you would find helpful.

This holistic framework provides professional and personal development in the key areas of:

A. Knowledge & Intellectual Abilities

B. Personal Effectiveness

C. Research Governance & Organization

D. Engagement, Influence & Impact

The programme comprises of a wide range of facilitated development sessions held on campus (by internal and external presenters), online research modules from Epigeum (so you can learn in your own time) and the Vitae’s RDF. The facilitated sessions cover everything from research skills to personal effectiveness, from using SPSS to creating impact through your research. The online training covers a range of topics from getting published to managing your research career which you can undertake at your own time. On the 16th of this month, we have ‘Personal Effectiveness’ facilitated by Dr Margaret Collins, which will deliver development in work-life balance, keeping focused, prioritisation and time management.

Undertaking the ‘My Academic Development Needs: Self-Assessment’ (MADNSA) will allow you to se your strengths an any gaps in your skills which you need to address in order to get where you want to be in your career (you can also use Vitae’s jazzy Excel version which is more detailed). 

You can read case studies of real academics to see how using the planner based on this assessment has helped transform their careers if you still need a little convincing to complete this and also the top 10 tips from researchers on using the framework.

Why not take some time for yourself and complete the MADNSA and sign up for some facilitated sessions, through the Staff Development webpages and log into myBU  BRAD community to view the online sessions?

BRAD can help you to develop your research career

What is the aim of BRAD?  The BU Researcher/Academic Development (BRAD) programme is a tailor made framework of development sessions for you, our BU researchers, based on the Vitae Researcher Development Framework (RDF). This holistic framework provides professional and personal development in the key areas of:

A. Knowledge & Intellectual Abilities

B. Personal Effectiveness

C. Research Governance & Organization

D. Engagement, Influence & Impact

How did we consult you in creating BRAD ? A poll was posted on our blog to explore which training areas you would like us to host and this was followed by an online survey to explore the training needs of early career researchers (ECRs) in particular. The results concluded you would like training in a wide range of development areas from specific methodology to an academic career path. Feedback also clearly said sessions should be about two hours and that Wednesdays were the preferred date for sessions and the framework follows this structure. There are a few sessions which run for longer than two hours and this is because of the subject matter.

What kind of sessions are we running? The programme comprises of a wide range of facilitated development sessions held on campus (by internal and external presenters), online research modules from Epigeum (so you can learn in your own time) and the Vitae’s RDF. The facilitated sessions cover everything from research skills to personal effectiveness, from using SPSS to creating impact through your research. The online training covers a range of topics from getting published to managing your research career which you can undertake at your own time. You can identify which sessions to attend by undertaking the simple ‘My Academic Development Needs: Self-Assessment’ (MADNSA) or use Vitae’s jazzy Excel version which is more detailed.  You can read case studies of real academics to see how using the planner based on this assessment has helped transform their careers if you still need a little convincing to complete this and also the top 10 tipsfrom researchers on using the framework.All academic staff at BU have access to this programme and you can attend whichever sessions you are interested in; you don’t have to attend the whole programme. For facilitated sessions, just book through the Staff Development webpages and for online modules, simply log into myBU  and search the BRAD community to view all courses and to get started!

Who can be part of BRAD? Any BU academic member of staff can sign up to the BRAD programme; there is no commitment required as to the number of sessions you undertake. We simply want to keep a record of those who are taking part in some of the BRAD facilitated and online sessions, so we can get your feedback on how useful they were.  You will be automatically added to the list when you sign up for a session with Staff Development.

How are you going to develop YOUR career as a researcher?

Back in March I launched the CROS and PIRLS surveys to gather your views on what life is like at BU. Having analysed the responses, some fantastic insights were gained from this and a working group is being established to address the common issues and make improvements; more information on these actions will be released on the blog in time.

One finding in particular grabbed my attention however which is and linked to our on-going work as part of our EC HR Excellence in Research Badge award and is a favourite subject for me; the development of an academic career path. When I finished my PhD I would have loved a structured training plan, useful guidance and some literature around this, and from the survey results it seems many of your (at various stages of your career) would also find this incredibly helpful.

I am currently putting the finishing touches to an optional and open to all set of development sessions you can undertake at BU and also some online training too. This programme will include assessing your current strengths and areas for further development as a researcher to help shape your skills and experience to build your career as you wish. More details on the ‘BRAD’ programme will be announced soon…

In the meantime, for anyone interested in developing your career as a researcher, Vitae’s new publication The Career-Wise Researcher is a really useful read. They also have guides on The Balanced Researcher, The Creative Researcher, The Engaging Researcher, The Leading Researcher and The Informed Researcher. As with all Vitae publications, they are short (around 10 pages each), easy to read and incredibly useful.  

 

Book writing: essential information for researchers

Training

Coming soon is essential training on book writing. A must for researchers, especially those looking to write their first book.

Facilitated by Professor Stuart Allen, this session will provide advice on the following topics:

  • writing for book publications
  • submitting chapters
  • Intellectual property rights
  • copyright
  • attribution
  • co-authorship

Facilitated by: Professor Stuart Allan, The Media School

Aimed at: Academic Staff

Date: Wednesday 22nd January 2014

Time: 14.00-16.00

Location: PG22, Ground Floor, Poole House, Talbot Campus

To book your place on this workshop, please email staffdevelopment@bournemouth.ac.uk