Building a Research Team

Building a Research Team

by Oriana Damas, Diana Morillo and Namrata Chandhok

Multiple Choice

Describe three things you liked about your past job. What were key ingredients that made those situations so agreeable?

• Value-based interview based question

• Performance based interview question

• Behavioral-Based interview question

Multiple Choice

One project of importance to the team is the development of a fancy mouse technology that can take over the world. How would you approach it?

• Value-Based Interview Question

• Performance-Based Interview Question

• Behavioral-Based Interview Question

​Tuckman's Model

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Open Ended

A junior investigator at your institution is joining a multicenter study that will be collecting specimens and clinical data. She will be the main PI at your institution. She also has a personal investigator initiated study in the same patient population whom she will preferentially enroll to. What are topics worth discussing with the investigators prior to joining the multicenter study?

Open Ended

A new med student is joining your lab. He is very enthusiastic about learning but he is very intimidated by the knowledge of the team members and doesn't ask many questions. He is assigned a topic and 3 weeks later the project is not done. What could you have done or what can you still do to improve this team dynamic?

​Last example:

​Two senior investigators are on a team and do not agree on the approach to the next analyses. It is a team of 14 people composed of students, post-grads and junior faculty. You are worried that they dynamic between the two senior investigators is overpowering the team dynamics and affecting the goals that need to be met for your team. What can you do and how can the team work through this?

​What makes a succesful team

​ Goals x 2. Roles x 3. Norms

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•Clear communication (group and individual dialogues) and be explicit about the 3x3

•Revisit these often: “checking in” and re-evaluate

•“Close the gap” between saying what you want to do and actually doing it: targeting really specific changes.