Why Team Coaching Matters in Research
Breakthroughs in research don’t happen in isolation, they rely on collaboration. Yet for many teams, collaboration is as complex as the science itself: brilliant minds, but stalled progress; silos between disciplines; tensions that drain energy; ambition outpacing delivery.
The cost? Lost time, weaker outputs, missed opportunities for innovation and weaker evidence for REF People, Culture & Environment (PCE).
Team coaching changes this. It works with your team in real time, strengthening communication, breaking silos, and building the trust that drives innovation. The result: faster progress, higher-quality outputs, stronger bids, and culture improvements you can evidence.
How I Help Research Teams Succeed
I work with research teams and leaders to navigate the complexities of interdisciplinary collaboration, without adding to their workload. My coaching approach enhances what’s already working, while addressing the hidden barriers that slow progress, create silos, or limit innovation.
Through evidence-based tools and strategies, I help teams:
✅ Build Trust – The foundation for resilient, high-performing teams.
✅ Resolve Tension – Turning friction into productive dialogue.
✅ Develop Leadership Practices – Supporting distributed and emergent leadership models.
✅ Enhance Inclusive Collaboration – Ensuring all voices are heard and valued.
✅ Adopt Light-Touch Tools – Improving alignment and clarity without extra burden.
I am currently partnering with large-scale research collaborations to co-create and test models that improve team performance, strengthen innovation, and deliver strategic impact.
📌 Strategic Benefit for Leaders: This work not only helps teams collaborate more effectively, it also generates triangulated evidence of culture and collaboration that directly supports the People, Culture & Environment (PCE) element of REF. My interventions enable leaders to demonstrate inclusive practice, effective team development, and cultural improvements in ways that are credible, practical, and measurable.
The Challenge
A large, interdisciplinary research team, combining data scientists, theorists, and social scientists — was struggling to integrate their expertise.
🔹 Meetings were fragmented, with different disciplines speaking past one another.
🔹 Silos created duplication of effort and slowed delivery.
🔹 Team members hesitated to challenge assumptions, limiting innovation and creativity.
The risk? Lost time, weakened funding competitiveness, and declining morale, despite the team’s collective expertise.
The Coaching Intervention
Instead of imposing rigid structures, I designed a coaching-led approach that built trust and alignment while surfacing hidden dynamics:
✅ Perspective-Sharing Exercises – Each member explained a colleague’s work as if it were their own, breaking down silos.
✅ Structured Dialogue – Safe spaces for curiosity and constructive challenge across disciplines.
✅ Collaboration Blind Spots – Identifying unspoken assumptions and misalignments undermining progress.
The Transformation
💡 What began as discomfort shifted into genuine collaboration:
Theorists refined concepts using real-time data insights.
Data scientists deepened models by engaging with theoretical frameworks.
Silos dissolved, conversations became fluid, and trust accelerated progress.
🚀 Strategic Impact: The team became a high-functioning, cohesive unit, producing more innovative findings, saving time, and strengthening their competitiveness for future funding.
Why This Matters for Leaders
This case shows that team coaching is not a “nice to have” - it’s a strategic lever. When collaboration is unlocked:
Research outputs are stronger and more impactful.
Teams deliver more efficiently, reducing duplication and delays.
Cultures of trust and psychological safety improve retention and attract top talent.
Why This Matters for Leaders
This work shows that team coaching is a lever for REF readiness. Coaching-led interventions not only improve culture, but also provide triangulated evidence (qualitative + observational + output-level) for:
PCE environment statements (demonstrating inclusion, wellbeing, collaboration).
Culture improvement trials (piloting, evidencing, and scaling interventions).
Interview-readiness (equipping leaders and teams to articulate cultural practices credibly).
What I’m Working On Now
I am actively developing evidence-based team coaching models to support:
🔹 Inclusive research strategies – integrating diverse perspectives to enhance outputs.
🔹 Emergent leadership capacity – equipping teams to adapt quickly in complex systems.
🔹 Transformative workshops – fostering cohesion and interdisciplinary innovation.
🔹 Qualitative insights into practice – translating research culture findings into leadership strategies.
🙌 I collaborate with research teams, leaders, and institutions who want to strengthen research culture, collaboration, and strategic impact.
📩 If you want to reduce friction and maximise the impact of your research teams, let’s talk.