Thought Experiments: getting deeper feedback on ideas

Scientists at the BioAirNet project were exploring the idea of producing a position statement on biological particulate matter as a component of healthy air.

“As a team we were agreed about the benefits of writing such a position paper but we were conscious of the dangers of being an echo chamber and before we developed it further we wanted to invite others from the global community to comment on the idea”

Professor Sean Tyrrel, Cranfield University, Co-Investigator BioAirNet

Co-Designing a Process

At this point the team engaged the services of Christine Bell, an independent facilitator at Centre for Facilitation, to co-design how they might approach this engagement.

The process needed to be:

• Short – the target group would be senior scientists, researchers and policymakers who would be time poor.
• Virtual – participants would be invited to join the session from around the world.
• Secure – it was important to create an environment where people felt safe to share their opinions without the risk of being shouted down by others or having their opinions shared beyond the session.

The facilitator proposed a simple dialogue method and mapped out and developed the process with the team using a digital planning tool. The process included a short piece of preparation activity focused on reading and reacting to the position paper using a simple digital whiteboard (Google Jamboard)

“It was great to see that colleagues choose to engage with the Jamboard and this helped to deepen the conversation during the virtual session where time is at a premium”

Professor Sean Tyrrel

The Thought Experiment Session

The virtual session, termed the Thought Experiment, lasted two hours and featured Professor Tyrrel as project leader, so he could set the context and address any technical questions. The session was recorded, and a viewing session set up for the rest of the team for later in the day.

“Having a facilitator moderating the session was invaluable because it meant I could focus on listening to the comments without needing to respond or steer the conversation. Having developed the process with Christine, she knew what we needed from the conversation and made sure that the conversation was inclusive”

Professor Sean Tyrrel

The experts attending this event appreciated the professional facilitation and how this supported them to contribute and build on ideas thoughtfully and in a structured manner.

“A tremendously useful meeting. Good progress was made to understand the different perspectives we all have – and most importantly – how to move ahead”

Gareth wYN GRIFFITH – Chair in Mycology, Aberystwyth University

Results

As a result of the Thought Experiment, the team spent time discussing the issues raised. The experiment threw up mostly predictable challenges, BUT the team were struck by the intensity in the discussion at times.  

“The fact that the BioAirNet team was not steering the discussion was invaluable”

Professor Sean Tyrrel.

The participants gave more focus on outputs and next steps than had been originally planned, and this helped to shape the BioAirNet team’s response. The team recognised that what was important to them was the establishment of a shared consensus in the network that most felt able to support.

Photo by Riccardo Annandale on Unsplash

Co-Designing with Stakeholders

Many research projects seek to involve external stakeholders in the later stages of the research proposal process, often very near to the funding submission date. This means that the projects often miss out on their valuable input.

However, our recent project with Dr Angelina Sanderson Bellamy, Associate Professor of Food Systems of the Department of Applied Sciences at the University of the West of England (UWE) sought to bring stakeholders involved with the co-design of the proposals at a much earlier stage.

Dr Sanderson Bellamy enlisted the Centre for Facilitation, in her words, “to access expertise to help with planning the workshop activities so that we could achieve our objectives and then again help with the actual running of the event, so that I could focus on the content of what was happening, rather than the smooth flow of the activities.”

The project team from UWE worked hard to convince stakeholders to participate in what was an innovative structure for this kind of work.

Co-Design in Action

The project

After two virtual collaboration sessions that helped to scope out the project outlines, fourteen researchers and 12 food system stakeholders, including community activists, farmers, and representatives of the city council, joined us in co-design on the first day of a residential, with an open invitation to stay over and continue refining the work on day two.

One notable learning insight from a unanimously positive first day involved one of the research teams agreeing to rethink an original idea following insight from stakeholders who had already seen a similar approach fail. This was only possible thanks to the process providing enough time and space for all attendees to share their ideas, concerns and experiences.

The outcome

This inventive approach engaged stakeholders in a way in which they had never been involved before, developing proposals rather than being asked to support a pre-written proposal without time to properly scrutinize what is being suggested.

The client was delighted to have the benefit of professional facilitation, stating that one major advantage of using a facilitator was that they could “shoulder the burden of moving us through the agenda of activities and keeping participants on task.”

Dr Sanderson Bellamy reported that the sessions helped the stakeholders appreciate the value of working with UWE, whilst the University itself “now understands the value of the process that I proposed…and the value of building stronger connections between researchers across the network.”

The future

The projects resulting from the sessions are being developed, supported by small funding pots, with a view to growing and achieving further funding in the future. Of working with the Centre for Facilitation, Dr Sanderson Bellamy said it was “brilliant. Loads of experience to draw from based on what works and lots of ideas of different ways to organise activities to achieve objectives.”