Greetings, dear friends -
Clear Water Science Consulting is relocating within Hong Kong, from East to West. We also just took an important 2-week holiday. Capacity for some things may seem shorter this month, but there is no shortage of learning in any massive transition.
In this exploration, I’ll ask you some questions first.
Recall the last time you relocated. How long had you lived there? What did the relocation process involve?
What did you give up while relocating?
What opportunities opened up for you after the relocation?
Sit quietly for a moment. Maybe a whole minute if you can.
Let the recollection of relocation come to you. Perhaps it comes in images. Perhaps words, sensations, emotions, and/or energy.
Perhaps it includes specific people, some who helped you leave, some you said goodbye to, some who helped you settle in.
Perhaps it includes possessions, some you parted with, some you had to take with you.
Perhaps it includes movement in your body – carrying something, rushing for something, up and down and back and forth many times, being in an airplane, at sea, on tracks, or on the road.
Pausing, just notice the thoughts, words, images, emotions coming with the recollection of relocating. How are you reacting? What are you learning about yourself?
My last relocation involved moving a modest set of belongings and some second-hand furniture into my current apartment, 6 years ago. Six years is the longest time I have lived at any address in my adult life.
My relocation before that involved two suitcases, a giant backpack, and a major flight delay of 3 hours, giving us a take-off time of 4:30 am. Yes, 4:30 am from New York City to Taiwan, then a quick jump to Hong Kong.
The night I left, my parents rented an Airbnb near Chinatown in New York City. We drove up there for dinner, checked in, and got a few hours of shut-eye before waking up at 2:00 am to get me to the airport check-in counter where my mother negotiated with the airline staff to allow my carryon that remained overweight despite having just unloaded a couple shopping bags of belongings to go home with my parents instead of with me to my new life.
Negotiation successful, I said goodbye to my parents more bleary-eyed than teary-eyed. Waiting at the gate, I wrote on social media that my US phone number would be disappearing with my international move. A former colleague, miraculously awake at 4:00 am US Eastern time, posted that I could port my number to Google. Like that, I spent my last minutes residing in the US performing administration to save my phone number.
In Hong Kong, my Auntie met me at the airport and rode with me to my Airbnb, an entirely new concept for her. I had 13 days to find a new place to live before my new job started. Surprisingly, I settled an agreement within 3 days and moved in the following weekend.
I thought my Hong Kong gig would last 3-4 years. The job itself lasted 3.5 years. I didn’t know that I would build a life here for 7 years, now going on 8.
I do know I miss my parents and other US-based relatives and friends like hell. It’s easy to wish that I had spent a few more days with my parents during that summer of unemployment instead of having them drive me 3 hours to New York City on their first day free of teaching obligations to send me far far away for a long long time.
But how could I have known that my settling in would turn out so smoothly? And how could we have known that I would feel a calling of value-driven work incubated perfectly here?
Every move comes with loss, and gains. I’ve loved being closer to my grandma, supposedly turning 92 (many people in this age group have uncertain ages). I’ve loved learning that, despite living the first 31 years of my life a continent away from her, I have inherited some impactful personality traits and financial habits from her.
As I recall that big relocation, it’s making a lot more sense why this next relocation – which involves moving a household of furniture on stairs, a truck, a boat, a mountain, and finally stairs – feels complicated, logistically and emotionally.
It also feels exciting – what growth, what hitherto untapped sides of myself will come alive as a result of this change?
Here are my learnings:
Relocation, like every growth phase, comes with loss, and with loss comes grief for what I think I could have had but did not. There’s more to it than ‘growing pains’.
Relocation, comes with opportunity, expansion, and homecoming. While I may have gotten farther from some aspects of my life, I became aware of sides of myself I hadn’t known.
The relationships meant to grow will grow if I feed them. Thank you, technology, for making this easy from far far away.
Over to you – what are you learning about yourself as you recall a time you relocated?
What did you give up? What opportunities opened up for you after the relocation?
Positive change is a long road. Hang in there, and thank you for your consistent support!
What’s happening in business?
New course coming soon!
Leadership in Science & Technology: A Short Course in Knowledge & Practice
Are you a scientist, engineer, or technologist hoping to lead better, or to experience a healthier working environment? How can this start with you?
At the core, these fields require us to master subject matter knowledge and technical skills to discover or innovate on something that advances the edge of knowledge or capabilities of humans.
Those of us working in research are expected to execute intellectually challenging projects with rigor and integrity, communicate our work to the scrutiny of others, while meeting high standards for performance metrics and institutional service.
Anyone in these work environments faces a special set of leadership challenges.
"Leadership in Science & Technology: A Short Course in Knowledge & Practice" is a 3-week short course designed to help you define your role as a leader and begin to make changes, however small, that can support our advancement as leaders.
Who is this course for? You will be able to choose from two versions of the course:
The Advancing Leader Course is designed for anyone who with an advanced degree, such as a master's degree or a PhD, in a science or engineering field. That includes postdocs, research associates, faculty members, and advanced-stage PhD candidates.
You are already a leader in your area of research and are managing people, leading projects, pioneering visions, and balancing a lot of different professional and personal responsibilities.
You may be facing:
Pressure to publish
Questionable job security
Competing priorities between yourself and your organization
Limited resources
Delicate work-life balance
…and other pressures while leading your projects and managing your team with rigor and integrity.
This course will offer you practices and perspectives easy to incorporate in your day-to-day work and life.
The Becoming a Leader Course is designed for students, undergraduates, and early PhD candidates who are making the transition from student to leader. You are likely within the first one or two years of a research project and are working closely with a mentor or supervisor.
You may be facing:
Doubt - Am I on the right track?
Uncertainty - Where is this going?
A really full schedule - I have lots to do for my professor or mentor, as well as all these courses and other activities
Questioning - How do I know what to do?
The practices in this course will help you become more clear about the kind of mentor or supervisor you want to work with and want to become.
Led by an experienced coach and facilitator with a Ph.D. in chemistry and 17 years of research experience, you will be able to reflect on the real and human challenges of your work and life.
Each course will be conducted through three consecutive weekly sessions on Zoom, each lasting 90 minutes with interactive breakout rooms.
You will:
Explore your definition of leadership and identify the principles and values you wish to uphold as a leader
Examine what makes leadership challenging and name some difficulties you may have encountered
You'll identify areas in your life and work where you need to lead more effectively and learn how to transform small, specific behaviors to become a more effective leader.
Gain a deeper understanding of what makes leadership challenging and how to overcome those challenges.
Does this sound like an opportunity you want to make the most of?
We are still ironing out the exact dates and enrollment logistics. We are expecting to run these courses in the early part of the Fall 2023 semester/quarter.
In the meantime, sign up to receive updates about the course and enrollment opportunities by replying to this email with subject line: “Leadership!”
Leadership in Science and Technology: A Short Course in Knowledge and Practice
Sessions: 3 consecutive weekly sessions, 90 minutes each
Where: Online
When: Fall 2023
Times and dates: TBD
This month’s science post
Continuing on our series theme of leadership and research culture, we raised the question: How do the interpersonal skills of research supervisors influence research integrity?
We then explored a pilot study in Holland: “Superb supervision: A pilot study on training supervisors to convey responsible research practices onto their PhD candidates” published in 2022 in the journal called Accountability in Research.
In their mission to fortify research integrity, researchers from Germany and the Netherlands identified two main supervision skills—interpersonal skills and Responsible Research Practices (RRP), that must exist in combination to facilitate research integrity among PhD students. Not only should supervisors be well-versed in RRPs, but also possess the necessary interpersonal skills to communicate them and to create the open atmosphere is where students feel safe to speak out and raise questions about RRPs.
Collaborating with Mennen Training and Consulting—a Dutch coaching company for leaders in science—the researchers developed a first-of-its kind three-day training program emphasizing three main themes:
Building optimal relationships with PhD candidates
Conveying research integrity
Upholding responsibility as a supervisor
Then, 21 supervisors from universities and university medical centers were invited to take part in the pilot training program. The effect of the pilot training program was analyzed in four parts:
A pre-program evaluation survey was sent to both supervisors and their PhD candidates
At the end of each training day, supervisors completed a pen-and-paper evaluation form
A post-program interview was conducted with each supervisor
The same pre-program survey was sent to supervisors and their PhD candidates once again
After the pilot training program, many supervisors noted meaningful improvements in their interpersonal skills. Rated on a scale of 1 to 5, the survey ratings supervisors provided on their ability to provide clear and constructive feedback improved by 0.64 points, from 3.74 prior to the program to 4.38 after the program, one of the most significant differences measured in the survey. Providing an opportunity to reflect on their interpersonal skills, the training program challenged many participating supervisors, for example:
“because you don’t get asked about these questions a lot of times, like, and all kinds of emotional questions as well, like the first morning I remember talking and listening to someone, so these exercises I never did that before so it was pretty intense for me.” (male postdoctoral researcher).
Supervisors also displayed improvement in their RRP skills, with both supervisors and their PhD candidates providing higher ratings after the program. In particular, on a scale of 1 to 5, supervisors rated their ability to influence their PhD candidate to preregister their study, a best practice in their field, 0.57 points higher, one of the most noticeable differences measured in the survey. The rating PhD candidates gave on their supervisor’s ability to influence them to preregister their study also improved by 0.14 points, from 3.56 prior to the program to 3.70 after the program, though this change is within the standard deviation.
Though the pilot training program seemed to improve supervision skills, most participants agreed that the program should be highly recommended but not compulsory, as a mandatory training program may risk a counterproductive attitude. Even so, voluntary training programs may have limited systemic impacts if enrollment is small. Thus, there are further considerations around this dilemma.
This study demonstrates that a training program can increase awareness and willingness among participants to change their behavior. Although a larger-scale study is still necessary, this pilot study make promising strides towards improving supervision. This study represents the first strides in potentially uncovering a more effective method of promoting research integrity.
This post was written by Angelina Wang and edited by Liane Siu Slaughter.
You can access and share this post separately through the Clear Water Science Consulting LinkedIn page.
Human Resources – the most important resource in any enterprise
The Human Resources department is taking a well-deserved summer break this month.
Interesting Read
Birds Are Using Anti-bird Spikes to Make Their Nests published in New Scientist, 11 July 2023 - “Magpies and crows have been seen making nests using spikes placed on buildings to deter birds from nesting.”
Interesting Watch
The Whale - 2022 film directed by Darren Aronofsky, starring Brendan Fraser who plays a severely obese English professor who lives and teaches in isolation and tries to connect with his estranged teenage daughter. The entire film is shot in and around what appears to be a dimly lit cluttered apartment in Idaho.
Free lunchtime concert on August 9th!
La Eufonia - the tiny chorus I have been singing with - will perform at St. John’s Cathedral in Central, Hong Kong - August 9th, 1:15 - 1:45 pm
By the way - the group could use some more members, especially altos, for the upcoming performances around Christmas time. If interested, reply to this email to connect!
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About
The Clear Water RoundUp is Clear Water Science Consulting’s regular newsletter – a collection of sharable business updates and insights, news from select locales, and features of interesting people and media.
Clear Water Science Consulting provides coaching and communication solutions to bring clarity to complex and often confusing situations. Lately, we are focused on leadership - especially empowering the leader in each of us through personalized coaching, workshops, web content, and academic publications.
Our coaching services are personalized - we bring curiosity, inquiry, patience, and persistence to helping people help themselves become more empowered actors in their own lives. We are now listed with the Hong Kong International Coaching Community (HKICC).
Visit our website to learn more about our vision, services, portfolio, and reviews.
For our regular content, check out our updates and science posts, many of them about COVID, on LinkedIn.