Friday Focus: We are in this together

Jan. 5, 2024

— By Nettie La Belle-Hamer, vice chancellor for research

Last year, we at the VCR Office decided we needed to zhuzh up the foyer area of our VCR Office Suite in the West Ridge Research Building. We wanted it to be a welcoming place where people feel comfortable and not feel like a dentist's office waiting room without the old magazines. The team did a great job executing an affordable makeover; all they wanted from me was a quote to put on the wall. That is when the project stalled. What quote should I use? Who should I honor, above all others, and put their handwriting on the wall, literally? The pressure!

It was our youngest team member who said, why don’t you choose the quote you use in your presentations? To my blank stare, she read back to me from my own presentation, "If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together," the African proverb. I do use that a lot! It is very meaningful to me in many aspects of my life and I think it is the key to our success at UAF. Not just for 2024, but moving into the future.

Big goals in life are achieved in collaboration with others, even the ones that may look like solo achievements. Take running marathons, where I first encountered the proverb. While the six marathons I have completed I have technically done alone, I trained with a team. We ran together. Those long runs are rarely surreal with that much-touted runner’s high, mostly they are just long days of hard work. Having a teammate putting in the time on the trails with you helps in ways that are hard to articulate. Even when you do not run side by side – just knowing that someone is on the trail, in front of you or behind, makes the miles feel doable.

At UAF, we have big goals. Some are focused on individual projects and some on larger projects with established teams. Some involve creating new, larger teams. Even the individual projects, whether they are in classrooms, laboratories, or out in the field, require teamwork to make the dream work. Support staff, students, and even us administrators are a part of your winning team. Teaching at its best is a collaborative process. Working with your peers to develop new programs such as the Earth Systems Science or sharing new ways to instruct your students such as Tamamta creates a sense of camaraderie. We also have UAF researchers focused on taking the quantum leap to a large collaborative effort across disciplines, colleges, or universities. For those especially, there is no doubt we need to run together to be successful.

What do we need to build a successful collaboration? People coming together with a common goal, a desired outcome, and a toolbox of important collaboration skills. The first two seem obvious, maybe even easy. However, it has been my experience that both need to be articulated and agreed upon at the very beginning. What may feel obvious to you, may not be for some of your teammates from different disciplines, backgrounds, or cultures. At the onset, you need to make it explicit and clear what you are working towards and what success looks like. This brings me to the first indispensable tool in your toolbox – communication. Communication is to collaboration as location is to real estate! Communicate. Communicate. Communicate.

An important part of communication is listening, which brings us to the next collaboration tool: open-mindedness. Listening with an open mind and staying curious will lead you to innovations and new ideas not found by sitting alone with your thoughts. While you must begin with the end in mind with articulated goals, you should not enter into a collaborative project thinking you have all the answers. Listen and learn. Engage in long-term thinking as you brainstorm with your team to build the common vision. Be open to the possibilities. Be curious about differences of opinions.

This curiosity will lead you to the last tool I will discuss here: debate. What?! Disagreement you ask? Yes. If there is trust, there can be fruitful discussion even when you disagree. Disagreements can lead to discoveries if you are willing to stay curious, ask questions, and respectfully debate the ideas with your teammates. Keep to the point, keep it professional, and be willing to adapt a different point of view if the case is made. Be flexible enough to cede the point and do not create a grudge to carry along the way.

I am sure there are other tools that are important as well. I’d love to talk about it over coffee some time. Come visit us in WRRB 212 and we can sit in the comfy blue and gold chairs, right under the quote on the wall. After all, we are all in this together.