“Ask Me Anything” about External Collaborations

Academics sometimes struggle to establish and maintain partnerships with non-academic organizations including community centers and industries among others. Here we provide expert recommendations for effective partnerships.

What are some best practices toward forming respectful, mutually beneficial, and potentially long-term relationships with external collaborators? The Design Lab at UC San Diego includes a collection of labs and teams that regularly partner with external collaborators, from public officials to community-based organizations and residents throughout the San Diego region and beyond. Forming a respectful, mutually beneficial, and potentially long-term relationship with external collaborators requires a set of skills and sensitivities not often “taught” in graduate school.

Last summer, we asked three Design Lab members to reflect on the following questions during an “Ask Me Anything” panel discussion on External Collaborations:

1. How do you identify potential partners and evaluate your fit with them for potential collaborations?
2. How do you establish and hold collaborating partners accountable?
3. Why would external collaborators want to work with Design Lab members?
4. When conflicts or missteps occur, and we know they do, what steps do you recommend toward repairing relationships with a collaborator? With an organization? With a community?
5. How do we debrief/unpack/evaluate an external collaboration after it has ended or at specific benchmarks in an ongoing relationship that we are working to maintain?

The Ask Me Anything session was the second in a series of panel discussions hosted by the Cultivating Culture Working Group (CCWG), which was created to investigate opportunities for the Design Lab community to reflect on and promote a healthy lab culture. The Cultivating Culture Working Group includes faculty, staff, trainees and students. Those involved in planning our 2021Ask Me Anything series included: Camille Nebeker, Brian McInnis, Elizabeth Eikey, Steven Rick, Maryam Gholami, and Emily Knapp.

This article is a synopsis of key insights drawn from the panel discussion on External Collaboration. The panel included Colleen Emmenegger, Head of the Design Lab’s People Centered Automation Lab, Lilly Irani, Associate Professor of Communication & Science Studies, Director, Feminist Labor Lab and Co-Director, Transitional Ecologies Studio, and Blanca Melendrez, Executive Director, Center for Community Health at the UC San Diego. The hour-long discussion was facilitated by Steven Rick and Maryam Gholami managed questions from the audience.

Through this series of panel discussions, we are working to identify best practices and strengths — as well as challenges and areas for growth. The overarching goal is to enable resilient and supportive research environments. For us, cultivating the research culture of the Design Lab is an opportunity to turn inward, applying the community-centered and community-driven design practices we strive for in our projects to our own day-to-day practices.

In addition, we want to learn — both from people within the Design Lab but, also beyond this Design Lab community. To promote online discussion, we have included an extended list of questions related to External Collaboration at the end of the article and encourage you to use the Medium commenting features to share your thoughts, experiences, and beliefs. Follow this link for instructions about how to share a comment using Medium.

Bridging the Community — Academy Gap

There are many benefits to community and academic partnerships but, these partnerships take time to form and maintain. Advocating for shared goals and working on solutions together is a strong motivation for building such collaborative relationships.

“Nobody really leads alone. When I identify partners and fit it’s about connecting with people and community and making sure that we have a shared goal.”

The panelists suggested a few strategies on how to identify potential partnerships from which both the academic and the community members could benefit.

Attending academic/industry conferences and community events/meetings. The panelists asserted that actively engaging in conferences and events is an important factor for initiating community-academic collaborations. Giving talks in diverse settings and attending different presentations is a great way to get to know people and start building relationships.

“The importance of showing up, not expecting the community to come to us. Getting to know the community, going to their meetings first.”

One of the panelists shared that a lot of their collaborations started by building the relationship with the organization by first focusing on their needs and shared goals. Another panelist shared that they started a large-scale community project by attending a meeting that someone from a related coalition was attending and they talked about a shared topic of interest.

Inviting community organizations to academic conferences. The panelists strongly recommended to invite community members who are interested in a specific issue to conferences and campus events. Where ideas, concerns, or research studies are being presented, academics need to make sure those meetings are accessible for the people who are part of that community. Panelists asserted that there is a need to make room for community members to attend, to be on panels, to engage in the academic conversation as stakeholders, and be involved in research projects that are related to the communities.

Asking for introductions to meet community organizers. Another strategy that panelists agreed on was to ask for introductions to community leaders. They believed it is equally important to proactively engage with diverse group of colleagues across the university in order to broaden the network of people and expertise. To get the most out of this strategy, researchers need to make sure that people with whom they connect, also understand the work, and know what the researchers are specifically interested in. This brings in opportunities such as directing people toward a researcher for future collaborations by simply being referred by one colleague or community leader who are familiar with the research.

Tips. The panel shared some questions to consider before starting a project with external collaborators:

● Do we understand their lived experience?

● Do we understand the jobs of the community partners?

● Are we willing to educate and inspire partners?

● Are we willing to be led?

● As academics are we going to be able to supplement scientific skills with humility?

● Are we willing to share partners?

● Can we be flexible with the agenda and to change gears as needed?

Establishing reliable collaborations

It is important to intentionally work on adding capacity for including external collaborations and focus on mutual benefits. Recommendations for adding the capacity includes respect and humility towards the community and identifying the right person who leads with humility and demonstrates respect for maintaining connections with the community. One panelist mentioned that researchers can be perceived as elitist and tokenizing. An example is research jargon — — using technical concepts that not everyone can understand nor relate to. Another panelist asserted that ideally the right representative from the academic setting could be someone who comes from that community or can relate to that community.

Establish longer term goals with external collaborators. Applying for grants or working towards mutual benefits can be longer term goals to set with potential collaborators. These kinds of activities are mutually beneficial for the academic and community partners. Panelists agreed that community organizations welcome grant writing and see it as an opportunity to build capacity and infrastructure.

“I build strong relationships by giving back to the community, with creating new services, with writing grants, that’s how I establish strong relationships.”

Panelists believed that along the strategy of adding capacity to academic teams, researchers should build teams that add capacity to the community organizations as well. For example, paying students to help with what a community needs or is working on. Another example is that graduate students need to publish research and it is important that the community understands those goals. Capacity building can also involve collaborating on a written summary of the value that comes from the experience of working together.

Synchronize with the needs of community in the shorter term. All panelists strongly recommended to meet frequently — weekly and biweekly — in open meetings. They believed that it is important to keep the momentum going. People are busy, therefore regular check ins and meetings will remind the partners that the work at hand is of interest to everyone. Collaboration is where everybody commits to meet and coordinate regularly to get synced up together, which creates accountability. Moreover, regular communication helps understanding of the process and, how the partnership is going to lead to the shared goals.

“We meet weekly with the community organization and then biweekly with a software team as well as another research meeting that everyone is welcome to join. So that we don’t separate the community from the academic research.”

One panelist noted that researchers might have assumptions going into a collaboration, but as they meet with the partners, they learn that some assumptions may be inaccurate. It is important to be open and flexible, because one could learn a lot about expectations, what’s important, what they can let go. When working with community partners or commercial businesses, it could take a long time to establish a relationship.

“If we could get some funding for the early syncing process that would be amazing.”

Evaluating collaborations and building sustainable partnerships

Panelists believed that although program evaluation is important. It is also crucial to make sure that researchers and the community are building accountable and sustainable relationships. The panelists expressed concerns that researchers have the tendency to see collaboration and feedback as an informational process, but that does not substitute for building the trusting relationships with the community. One panelist mentioned that sometimes researchers make decisions in meetings using science and logic but asking about emotion can be useful for bridging the academic and community partnership.

“It’s a feedback mechanism that I have found valuable.”

When the research project ends, our partnership doesn’t have to end. It is helpful to debrief after each research collaboration with the community to learn about their experience.

“I think debrief should be mandatory- this is when you learn the most about what went well, what could be improved for next time.”

Researchers should proactively try to enhance the experience for the community members and organizations, so they feel welcomed and valued. Asking what they recommend for future collaborations and whether they are interested to partner in future work is also considerable way of letting them know that they are valuable part of the work that academics are doing. To maintain the partnership and collaboration, panelist recommended asking ourselves the following questions:

● Is our team more accepted within the community?

● Are we a new resource for the community?

● Did we make any new friends?

● Were we successful at building trust?

● Was there any big change in the community?

● Did we have a good time doing the work?

● Did both groups learn something?

● Do we want to continue the relationship?

Opportunities for Collaboration with the Design Lab

The Design Lab at UC San Diego is a resource with many exciting projects that involve partners from all over the globe. We asked panelists how external partners benefit from working with the Design Lab specifically, and they shared their thoughts.

Access to students. Students are creative and full of energy for learning new skills. Research labs and industries usually benefit from fresh perspectives and entry level workforce who are enjoy hands on experience. This of course benefits the academia and the students more than communities.

“Both community organizations and universities value the student body as a force for creativity. Some industries see students as a cheap resource, but we don’t allow those partnerships to go forward.”

Skills are another reason for wanting to work with UC San Diego. One panelist commented that the value that anyone brings from academia depends on who they are and the skills they bring to the community. For example, technology and science is an area where a lot of community organizations don’t specialize in or see how it aligns with their concerns. Therefore, a lot of the work that academic partners contribute to is handling the scientific aspects of projects. In line with technical skills, sometimes the labor of doing statistical analysis is a reason for community organizations to rely on UC San Diego.

“If you present yourself as a resource for the community, they are going to welcome us.”

Credibility of UC San Diego is sometimes why community organizations want an academic representative to be part of their projects. Panelists believed that partnering with UC San Diego is a tactic for community organizations to demonstrate credibility. One panelist shared an example that a community organization request for funding was rejected because they needed the credibility of partnering with UCSD.

“When those opportunities fail, we as an academic community stand by the community organizations in trying to get them what they want.”

How to Build a Stronger Partnership

It is normal to face challenges during a project or when developing a partnership. Misunderstandings or conflicts are a part of human nature and inevitable part of work in groups. Therefore, preparing for these situations and welcoming them as growth opportunities could strengthen the partnership. Panelists recommended few strategies to prepare for and resolve those situations.

Talk with them. Even though meeting every two weeks is helpful for keeping all partners on the same page, still miscommunications happen. Therefore, meeting one on one and spending time communicating with people is very helpful. What works is knowing that all partners/collaborators feel comfortable coming forward, therefore, it is important to create a process to elicit feedback, formally and informally. There’s always a good reason for a mistake to happen, how to deal with that situation and learn from it can have a great impact on the quality of the collaboration.

Talking about difficult situations is crucial because by establishing an ongoing conversation with the partners, allows for some cushion to recover from the mistakes, which can happen on both sides.

“I have never not been able to resolve something, I’ve been embarrassed, and I’ve scrambled at the end to accomplish things, but a relationship makes you more resilient to things.”

Pay attention to expectations. It is important to be specific about the requirements and expectations from all the collaborating partners and try to have clear and transparent discussion about the budget from the beginning. Build around a kernel of what is working rather than try to create something new or build from something that is not yet working. If collaborations are grant based, community organizations need to be involved from the initial development of proposal ideally to help shape how the project can be most useful for the community.

Racism and structural racism. Having those sensitive conversations about race and equality and making sure that all our partners are heard helps to bring attention to these existing issues and encourage people to be mindful of these matters. Issues arise when we don’t recognize the community and do not know their everyday struggles.

“We’ve been using terms like “marginalization,” but a Black Lives Matter organizer came up and said, calling people vulnerable oversimplifies people’s lived experiences, don’t refer to people as vulnerable and marginalized, vulnerability is an experience it doesn’t mean that our community is vulnerable.”

Key take aways from this article

1. Show up to meetings and events and proactively engage with those who have similar interests.

2. When building a partnership with the community, focus on long-term goals and mutual benefits.

3. Regular communication is important for keeping everyone engaged and informed.

4. Transparency and clear expectations as well as communication are important in conflict resolution.

Background on the Panelists

Colleen Emmenegger, is the Head of the Design Lab’s People Centered Automation Lab. She works with people in public health, robotics, computer science, etc., and does exploratory studies of how people interact with high tech devices. She is generally funded by industry such as car companies and medical device companies and has some grants from government as well.

Lilly Irani is Associate Professor of Communication & Science Studies, Director, Feminist Labor Lab and Co-Director of Transitional Ecologies Studio. She received a Kaufman Foundation grant for taxi worker research. She also works for the trust coalition, a surveillance oversight coalition, and she wrote the ordinance that the city council passed last year. She is interested in questions of labor but coming at in an angle that is focused on feminism, critical race studies, urban studies.

Blanca Melendrez is Executive Director of the Center for Community Health (CCH) at the UC San Diego Altman Clinical and Translational Research Institute. Blanca has been instrumental to CCH’s growth and development over the past 20 years. CCH is dedicated to promoting protective factors and addressing the social determinants of health that impact the healthy development of every child, youth, and family in San Diego. Their work includes health and racial equity, food security, access to healthy foods, obesity prevention, oral health, breastfeeding, education access and school health.

Panel Discussion Questions

This article was co-authored by members of the cultivating culture working group — with feedback from the panelists — and will be used to inform community-centered design work to enhance our lab culture starting in the Fall 2021. We decided to share this article broadly, because we felt that the insights as well as the panel discussion questions might help other lab groups at other universities to reflect on and promote a healthy and sustainable lab culture.

What steps will your lab take to promote a healthier culture? We encourage you to pick up some of the questions that we considered for the panel (copied below) and facilitate a similar conversation within your own lab group (please share what you learn!). We also want to encourage you to comment directly on the questions below, by using the Medium commenting features. Please share your thoughts and beliefs about managing external collaborations, so that other readers can learn from your experiences.

1. Initiating partnership outside academia: How do you identify partners and evaluate fit for potential collaborations, and when you do, how do you approach to establish interest? What are the biggest challenges in forming new relationships (e.g., partnerships, transactional collaborations)?

2. Maintaining partnership outside academia: How do you establish and maintain good relationships and set clear expectations? What steps do you take to learn about the culture of an industry or community partner/organization? How do you develop trust and report with new partners? How do you demonstrate trust and justice?

3. Overcoming challenges with partnership outside academia: Conflicts and missteps happen. When they do, what steps do you recommend toward repairing relationships with a collaborator? With an organization? With a community? When do you define a situation as an issue that needs to be resolved? When you notice there is a mistake or issue, how would you address it?

4. Exchanging value in collaborations: How do we debrief, unpack, or evaluate an external collaboration after it has ended or at specific benchmarks in an ongoing relationship, we are working to maintain? What does it mean to deliver something of value back? Avoiding the pitfall of taking from and instead move to working with?