October 5, 2016, by Lisa Chin
Working in an Interdisciplinary Team
This post is written by Dr Maysoun Mustafa, CFF-UNMC Doctoral Training Programme Manager.
Interdisciplinary teams comprise of individuals with unique skills, expertise and knowledge, collectively forming a research team that aims to address a research problem that requires extensive expertise. Such expertise cannot be easily garnered from a single field, or even a single institution at times. As such, interdisciplinary teams arise as a key facilitator in today’s organisational settings, offering an effective and economic solution to complex scientific concerns.
However, such collaborations rely heavily on successful communication between all parties involved. It is of utmost importance to ensure that you are understood and that you can trust your team-mates – whom are carrying out work you may not understand at all. Moreover, engaging with scientists from a different field offers an opportunity to discuss your discipline’s science with intellectual novices, which may present a new way of tackling a research question.
Interdisciplinary communication is a very generic term and can refer to communication across institutes (albeit within similar disciplines), or may refer to communication between internal and external team members. All in all, effective interdisciplinary team communication is paramount to avoid errors and ensure an effective working environment. Forming an interdisciplinary team requires a lot of effort and investment – monetary and time-wise. Thus, with a lot at stake, team building and communication has become a subject of numerous studies. Following are a few principles for designing effective team communication:1
- Leadership and management
Decision making is complex in such teams, such having a clear leader with clear direction and management is essential. Moreover, leadership needs to be democratic and receptive to input from all team-members. Negotiation can be used to support the decision making process in reaching consensus.
- Communication skills
Individuals with strong and effective communication skills are best for such engagements, and it can be helpful to make use of appropriate communication tools and systems.
- Personal rewards, training and development
Incorporating rewards and opportunities for development within the project can serve as a good motivating drive for your team-mates. Additionally, it is also important to encourage participation in theoretical, as well as practical, training and development programmes.
- Appropriate resources and procedures
As a dedicated team-member, it is important to ensure the appropriate structures and procedures are established and in place, such as regular meetings, suitable communication platforms, clear language with minimal jargon etc.
Managing interdisciplinary teams requires a set of skill that ranges from management of unhelpful communication habits to the ability to make the most of team-mates’ backgrounds. Academic (and non-academic institutes) are increasingly turning towards training on team management and collaboration.
Have you taken part in such training programmes, or do you feel you could benefit from one?
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1Nancarrow, S.A. et al (2013). Ten principles of good interdisciplinary team work. Human Resources for Health, 11:19
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