How to improve PhD Team Dynamics at work? The HSR-Team Dynamics collaborative has started collaborating!

The juniors of HSR come together on a monthly basis to discuss PhD content and process-related themes. In the past year, they used various strategies (e.g. a core-quadrant exercise and a SWOT analysis) to discuss topics such as self-reflection at work, burnout prevention, team dynamics, and collaboration and supervision within PhD teams. The experiences of PhD students regarding these topics were quite divergent; however, many PhDs experienced challenges in their teams to a greater or lesser extent. Frequently mentioned challenges included: team organization (e.g. dissatisfaction with team composition or expertise), team functioning (e.g., hierarchy, not feeling safe to express emotions, no personal click), and team involvement (e.g. lack of feedback or communication, little discussion or argumentation). These challenges sometimes had a major impact on the functioning and wellbeing of PhDs. 

The juniors wanted to see change regarding these challenges on team dynamics, hoping this would benefit their wellbeing and work pleasure. Hence, the junior chairs discussed these challenges with the head of their department. They also thought about strategies on how to improve the team dynamics in their department. Since they wanted to create more awareness on team dynamics among colleagues, they developed a questionnaire based on the abovementioned challenges to get insight into the opinions of all PhD students within HSR. Forty PhDs completed the questionnaire. As a next step, the junior chairs discussed the results of the questionnaire in a junior staff and a senior staff meeting. Many seniors appeared to be unaware of the team dynamics challenges that PhDs experienced, and the impact that these challenges had (for instance, on PhDs wellbeing). Just like the juniors, the senior staff felt the need to further elaborate on and secure these topics within our department. Therefore, the junior and senior staff jointly decided to establish a HSR working collaborative on Team Dynamics.

Our collaborative consists of Robin Peeters (junior), Svenja Cremer (junior), Teuni Rooijackers (junior), Daan Westra (senior), Aggie Paulus (senior), and Hilde Verbeek (senior). We aim to empower a general learning culture and a supportive work environment within HSR to encourage both PhDs as well as senior staff who supervise PhDs to reflect on their ways of working and collaboration within PhD project teams. We intend to work towards concrete actions for PhDs and senior staff to facilitate team dynamics and support PhD research in general. We hope that this will contribute to a better wellbeing, more work pleasure, and further personal and professional development of PhDs and senior staff. We do not act as a confidential advisor or as a mediate in specific conflicts between individual PhD students and their supervisors, as CAPHRI, the University, and HSR already have well established channels to deal with these challenges. We do hope to inspire other departments to facilitate openness and strengthen collaboration between junior and senior staff, so that we can support PhD wellbeing within CAPHRI.

If you have any suggestions or comments, or if you want to establish a similar initiative within your own department, please feel free to contact us.

All the best,
Robin Peeters, Svenja Cremer, Teuni Rooijackers, Daan Westra, Aggie Paulus, and Hilde Verbeek.

Text: Teuni Rooijackers