Things we learned from participating in a collaborative inter-disciplinary working

Factors which helped the project:

• Meeting regularly face-to-face on a weekly basis
• Finding shared language and common themes – explaining what these mean to each of us from the perspective of our own disciplines
• Having a clear vision of the project and SMART goals and objectives
• Identifying end outputs that will be of professional and personal use for the future with an emphasis on impact
• Sharing of each other’s PhD projects both in terms of content and research methodology
• Finding a middle ground applicable to both people for win-win
• Maintaining focus on the specific goals agreed initially but narrowing the topic down to be manageable and feasible within a short timeframe
• Looking beyond the project for output to be applicable to our future careers and research interest
• Establishing specific deliverables each time we met with actions written down to be done before the next meeting
• Using close -loop communication to ensure we are working towards the same goals (ending each meeting confirming what was achieved at that meeting and what we will both do before the next meeting)

Challenges faced during the project:

• Difficult finding the time for weekly actions while also working on PhD (needed to make sure this project did not delay PhD timeline or other work and personal commitments)
  • Overcame this challenge by making small tasks each week, splitting up the overall workload between us and being flexible with the schedule when unexpected responsibilities came up
• Initial topics chosen were quite broad and it was difficult to begin writing the journal article and plan a potential research study when topic was still quite open and unfocused
  • Overcame this challenge by using mind-maps to see various possible ideas – each week we narrowed the topic down further until a more specific plan was feasible for the journal article and proposed research study (blog was helpful in uploading notes from each meeting and sharing resources between meetings)
• Difficult to initially see how to plan end outcomes which would have authentic ‘impact’ during such a short time to work on the project
  • Overcame this challenge by reviewing guidance given from Opposites Attracts organisers and using SMART objectives to plan out goals which were measurable (also considered what would be mostly likely publishable for the journal article and a potential research project that would be feasible for both of us once our PhDs are finished)