Strengths, Managing Conflict and Effective Communication in Research Teams/Groups
 

Interdisciplinary Collaboration for Graduate Students (ICOGS) – NSF IGE Grant 1735017 

This in-person interactive workshop is for graduate students, post-docs, and other researchers. This ICOGS* workshop is offered by the Georgia Tech Effective Team Dynamics Initiative and will be facilitated by Prof Mary Lynn Realff (MSE). * (ICOGS) Interdisciplinary Collaboration for Graduate Students

Working as part of a team, or group, comes with both benefits and challenges. The benefits include interacting with people who bring different viewpoints, expertise and experiences to the table. However, the challenges include communicating effectively with people who have different backgrounds and dealing constructively with conflict due to different viewpoints.

The workshop will explore how diversity in a team can strengthen it, different approaches to dealing with conflict, how to have a “difficult conversation” with both peers and your supervisor, and strategies for avoiding communications problems. Take home tools to improve your team skills will be provided. 

The Effective Team Dynamics Initiative at Georgia Institute of Technology (USA) 

The Effective Team Dynamics Initiative has been funded by the US National Science Foundation and Georgia Institute of Technology to equip people to work better in interdisciplinary research teams. Teams are more innovative when they work effectively together. They are more creative and can come up with something that is different and more impactful than people working alone. This highly interactive workshop will equip students to work more effectively together and build skills to improve communication in teams.

Module 1: Contributions and Values

Module 2: Communication

Module 3: Conflict Management

Module 4: Conflict Resolution

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Dr. Mary Lynn Realff is the Associate Chair for Undergraduate Programs in the School of Materials Science and Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, Georgia and also Cox Faculty Fellow, Co-Director of the Center for Women, Science, and Technology, and a Fellow of the Center for Deliberate Innovation. Dr. Realff (GT BS Textile Engineering 1987) has served on the faculty at Georgia Tech for 29 years and is currently leading the Effective Team Dynamics Initiative. Dr. Realff is the founding director of the Effective Team Dynamics Initiative (ETD) which delivers on the vision that Georgia Tech will be a community where everyone's unique contributions are recognized. ETD cultivates a supportive, productive, and harmonious learning community grounded in strengths-based collaboration. Her operational leadership and strategic oversight has resulted in the initiative impacting 6500 undergraduate and graduate students and 1600 post docs, faculty, and staff in just the past five years. The initiative partnered with the Center for Teaching and Learning to develop the curriculum and train faculty and staff as certified facilitators to deliver its content. Dr. Realff has disseminated this program to other institutions. She directs an NSF sponsored grant in innovation in graduate education which draws on best practices in team work to develop leaders in engineering practice. She has revamped the MSE UG lab experience and MSE curriculum with an emphasis on integrating assessment and including post-doc and graduate student development.