A Social Story for Working With Research Professionals

A social story is a simple narrative made to illustrate specific situations and is used to help people with autism understand social norms and learn how to appropriately communicate with others. As an autism mom, I have relied on these simple stories for years and find myself using the strategies they teach to bring people into my world and step into the world of those around me, both personally and professionally.

Connecting with people is a basic building block for learning and development (L&D) success, among being important in many other aspects of life. Those tasked with mandating training or implementing professional development programs due to risk mitigation and audit findings aren’t always the “cool kids” who peers want to hang out with at the water cooler, especially if their roles are also of regulatory professionals who work in research compliance, the institutional review board, legal, risk management, or similar areas. Here is a “social story” (with some added details) for working with research professionals that may help you connect with others.

I’m waiting for the meeting to start and all the researchers are talking to each other except me. I want to be able to talk to my colleagues, but they don’t like me because they think I’m annoying and waste their time with all these mandatory trainings and due dates.

I can take the first step in building camaraderie and partnerships.

Social anxiety can get the best of us, especially if we are in a room full of high-profile researchers, executives, or other bigwigs. Take a deep breath and say hello first. Ask interested questions on what others do and their opinions on common interests, give honest compliments on someone getting that big grant, and do small acts of kindness like offering to help. Remember to connect and not impress. While it is great to amaze people and tell them about all your talents, credentials, and what you can do for them, the initial focus should be on connecting and not impressing. You can impress them with your fabulous L&D skills once you have established a camaraderie and partnership.

I can take a step back to keep camaraderie and partnerships.

Do you ever get the feeling that the investigator you emailed three reminders to do their mandatory training is annoyed at you? Maybe the grants manager who is your subject matter expert (SME) keeps rescheduling your meeting with her? Perhaps the biostatistician who is faculty and a professor is not accepting of your idea to incorporate a polling exercise in the middle of his lecture? Take a step back and notice stop signals. It is important not to be pushy and overwhelm your colleagues, SMEs, or target audience. Have a conversation (or two, three, or more) to explain why new processes, requirements, and trainings are being done. Provide your stakeholders with the opportunity to ask questions, give input, and buy-in before implementing L&D. You may not be able to concede on many things since research L&D can be highly regulatory focused, but there may be times where you can give in and loosen control, do things differently, and be empathetic.

I can blend in to learn from my colleagues and their conversation.

Use the “watch and blend” strategy to join a discussion. Be an active listener. Being the last to speak can help inform you with powerful data such as barriers, root causes, unbiased perspectives, and possible solutions to build successful L&D. Learn from listening to research colleagues on their experiences and practices as mentors, faculty, and professors who can serve as instructors and facilitators of L&D activities; they have their own ideas of adult learning methodologies and how to conduct a class that may be different from yours. Likewise, when these same people are the “students,” they may have specific learning preferences due to the ways physicians, nurses, or postdocs typically learn. These people are valuable extensions of your L&D team. Watch how research professionals naturally learn and blend these into L&D initiatives to connect, engage, and help research professionals retain knowledge and improve the conduct of research.

I can speak up and share my ideas.

Do not be afraid to set expectations early on so that you are working in a partnership and not as an order taker. Speak your mind, be credible and reliable, and focus on motivation. Find out what your research professionals care about; then show them how L&D can get them more grants and have less audit findings; finally, help them bring their discoveries to market. Say no when you need to but put effort into finding a compromise when you can.

I can be professional and let things go.

It is not easy to connect with everyone, and there are vast personality differences and work dynamics that can be challenging when trying to connect with researchers, doctors, nurses, and others in the healthcare field. Use conflict resolution skills to deal with difficult personalities and challenging situations. Model professional behavior and have difficult conversations to move past conflict. The research L&D professional is thick-skinned. Shake it off and move on to putting out the next fire with your expertise and partnerships with research colleagues.