Sarah's guest is impact consultant, Chris Pahlow. Based in Melbourne, Australia, Chris runs the consultancy business Amplifying Research and hosts the podcast of the same name.
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Relationships are at the heart of impact.
Chris Pahlow:You can't really do a whole lot just working away on your
Chris Pahlow:own in the lab or at your desk.
Chris Pahlow:We need connections.
Chris Pahlow:You don't have unlimited resources.
Chris Pahlow:You don't have unlimited time.
Chris Pahlow:So it's really important to think about for the life cycle of the
Chris Pahlow:project, who are the different types of people or organizations where
Chris Pahlow:your time is gonna be best spent.
Chris Pahlow:A personal mission is trying to create a better work environment
Chris Pahlow:for those professional staff who are working so, so hard.
Chris Pahlow:And I think they deserve a lot better a lot of the time.
Sarah McLusky:Hello there.
Sarah McLusky:I'm Sarah McLusky and this is Research Adjacent.
Sarah McLusky:Each episode I talk to amazing research adjacent professionals about what
Sarah McLusky:they do and why it makes a difference.
Sarah McLusky:Keep listening to find out why we think the research adjacent space
Sarah McLusky:is where the real magic happens.
Sarah McLusky:Hello and welcome to another episode of Research Adjacent.
Sarah McLusky:Chris Pahlow, my guest today, is joining us all the way from Australia.
Sarah McLusky:I first heard of and heard Chris through his excellent podcast
Sarah McLusky:Amplifying Research, and if you haven't listened to it yet, make sure you go
Sarah McLusky:and check it -out after you finish listening to this episode of course.
Sarah McLusky:Chris runs a consultancy business, also called Amplifying Research, where
Sarah McLusky:he helps researchers think through research impact, and importantly the
Sarah McLusky:relationships that underpin that impact.
Sarah McLusky:Chris didn't have the most conventional path into this work.
Sarah McLusky:He started out as an indie filmmaker and took on some teaching
Sarah McLusky:work to help pay the bills.
Sarah McLusky:This turned out to be a baptism of fire, but also the path that led him into
Sarah McLusky:research communications, and impact.
Sarah McLusky:Chris and I talk about why relationships are at the heart of the work he does,
Sarah McLusky:how being independent can help him be honest, even when it's not what people
Sarah McLusky:want to hear and the often invisible work of research professional staff.
Sarah McLusky:Listen on to hear Chris's story.
Sarah McLusky:Welcome along to the Research Adjacent podcast.
Sarah McLusky:Chris, it is fantastic to have you here all the way from Australia.
Sarah McLusky:Tell us a bit about who you are and what you do.
Chris Pahlow:Sarah, thank you very much for having me on the show.
Chris Pahlow:Big fan of what you're doing and the mission, of championing research
Chris Pahlow:adjacent folks is something I'm a big believer in and I'm looking
Chris Pahlow:forward to chatting about it.
Chris Pahlow:What do I do?
Chris Pahlow:I run a consulting company here in Melbourne, Australia
Chris Pahlow:called Amplifying Research.
Chris Pahlow:I work with academic teams, primarily focused on research
Chris Pahlow:centers and folks like that.
Chris Pahlow:And I think if I had to think of two words to sum up what my focus
Chris Pahlow:is, it's impact and relationships.
Chris Pahlow:I don't think the language the sector uses is always that helpful.
Chris Pahlow:Terms like comms and engagement, and dissemination and science
Chris Pahlow:communication get thrown around a lot.
Chris Pahlow:And so sometimes I get put into those buckets.
Chris Pahlow:But the way I think about it if someone says, Hey Chris, we wanna do a podcast
Chris Pahlow:series to disseminate our research, or we wanna hold an event, or we
Chris Pahlow:need to update our branding or update our website, inevitably when we are
Chris Pahlow:thinking about external audiences that researchers need to work with, whether
Chris Pahlow:that's practitioners, whether that's industry, whether that's the dreaded
Chris Pahlow:general public in quotation marks.
Chris Pahlow:Ultimately, when we start talking about things we end up talking about the team
Chris Pahlow:within the research center or within the department or whatever it is.
Chris Pahlow:And it's all about relationships.
Chris Pahlow:I'm thinking about something Sarah Morton said, Sarah Morton, from
Chris Pahlow:Matter Of Focus, basically saying that relationships are at the heart of impact.
Chris Pahlow:You can't really do a whole lot just working away on your
Chris Pahlow:own in the lab or at your desk.
Chris Pahlow:We need connections.
Chris Pahlow:And so what I do, when I'm working with researchers and academic
Chris Pahlow:teams, I help them think about.
Chris Pahlow:What do they want to do?
Chris Pahlow:What impact do they want to contribute to, and what are the different relationships
Chris Pahlow:they need to build and strengthen over time to make that impact possible?
Sarah McLusky:I think that sounds very much aligned with
Sarah McLusky:my take on things as well.
Sarah McLusky:And I agree that the language that we use around it is not always helpful.
Sarah McLusky:Where I find myself talking about, oh, I do things like communications, but
Sarah McLusky:it's but that isn't really what I do.
Sarah McLusky:Yeah.
Sarah McLusky:Yeah.
Sarah McLusky:It is.
Sarah McLusky:As you say, much more about people.
Sarah McLusky:So tell us a bit about, so you're based in Australia and I think
Sarah McLusky:impact, as we said, thinking a little bit about the language, impact is
Sarah McLusky:a really big deal here in the UK.
Sarah McLusky:I'd love to hear about whether that understanding of impact in
Sarah McLusky:Australia is the same or whether it's slightly different and what are
Sarah McLusky:the priorities there around impact.
Chris Pahlow:I think we're probably still a little bit behind where
Chris Pahlow:things are at in the UK, but impact is becoming increasingly important.
Chris Pahlow:If we think about things like grant applications, the government funding
Chris Pahlow:bodies, the big funding bodies, they do want to see some sort of
Chris Pahlow:evidence of impact if they're gonna be awarding taxpayers, money to to
Chris Pahlow:research projects, they want to see it.
Chris Pahlow:I think.
Chris Pahlow:I'd like to think it's becoming more and more something that's
Chris Pahlow:on the radar of academics.
Chris Pahlow:Certainly the people that I work with regularly and the people that
Chris Pahlow:inspire me and even inspired me to completely change my career are
Chris Pahlow:the ones who are focused on impact.
Chris Pahlow:And yeah, I feel super grateful to be working with people like that every day.
Sarah McLusky:Oh, that's brilliant.
Sarah McLusky:And I think what I particularly love about, I know the concept of impact.
Sarah McLusky:It isn't, sometimes it's a little bit of a tricky thing for
Sarah McLusky:people to get their head around.
Sarah McLusky:Sometimes it's a bit of a love hate thing.
Sarah McLusky:I know here in the UK it's all become very incentivized, which
Sarah McLusky:has become a little bit difficult.
Sarah McLusky:But the general concept of it that it's, it is about not just let's randomly put
Sarah McLusky:stuff out into the world, but thinking through really carefully who you want
Sarah McLusky:to reach and why you want to reach them.
Sarah McLusky:So tell us a bit about your process your kind of thinking of when
Sarah McLusky:you're working with somebody.
Chris Pahlow:That's a great question and you've caught me
Chris Pahlow:at a very interesting time.
Chris Pahlow:If I can share a little bit about, I guess me and my motivation, something
Chris Pahlow:I've been saying a lot recently is.
Chris Pahlow:I just get really cranky sometimes and I've I've ended up doing the work that
Chris Pahlow:I do and indeed focusing on trying to develop new ways of working and thinking
Chris Pahlow:about impact and thinking about the relationships academics need to have.
Chris Pahlow:It's just because I get too cranky and too frustrated with
Chris Pahlow:the way things have been done.
Chris Pahlow:And I can give you some specific examples at varying levels of
Chris Pahlow:infuriatingness, that's not even a word, but various levels that can make
Chris Pahlow:my blood boil or, make your eyes roll.
Chris Pahlow:And for a long time.
Chris Pahlow:I was consulting specifically on academic videos and podcasts, 'cause we can,
Chris Pahlow:maybe we can talk about this later, but I have a long background in the
Chris Pahlow:film industry and so I ended up working with academics almost by accident.
Chris Pahlow:And so yeah, people would come and say, Hey, we finished our research
Chris Pahlow:project, or we're almost finished.
Chris Pahlow:And let's disseminate it and then you'd be like, okay, well it would've been nice
Chris Pahlow:if you came and talked to us at the start of the project that you're here now.
Chris Pahlow:That's good.
Chris Pahlow:That's a start.
Chris Pahlow:Let's talk about
Sarah McLusky:That's such a recurring theme.
Chris Pahlow:I know.
Chris Pahlow:I know.
Chris Pahlow:And the thing is, everyone's trying their best.
Chris Pahlow:So there's a, I hope, a happy ending to this story.
Chris Pahlow:Certainly.
Chris Pahlow:I'm very optimistic, but people would come and they know they need to do
Chris Pahlow:something with their research, whether it is because on a personal level
Chris Pahlow:they have a, an impact driven mission or whether it's just because the
Chris Pahlow:incentives are changing, as you say.
Chris Pahlow:But then you'd start to ask them questions about, do you have any behavioral goals?
Chris Pahlow:Do you want people to change what they do?
Chris Pahlow:Do you want people to change their beliefs and who?
Chris Pahlow:What type of people do you need to be engaging?
Chris Pahlow:And sometimes they would say, I don't, I dunno, I didn't think about that.
Chris Pahlow:And sometimes they would give you a very long list of my grandma, every person
Chris Pahlow:in the village I grew up in, scientists, you people in space, alien, the general
Chris Pahlow:public like I was saying before, right?
Chris Pahlow:And again I don't put any blame on any of them, and this is something I've been
Chris Pahlow:thinking about a lot the last few years.
Chris Pahlow:I just don't think there's been nearly enough support.
Chris Pahlow:Certainly not what I've experienced here in Australia.
Chris Pahlow:I'm yeah, keen to hear what it's like in your experience over in the UK,
Chris Pahlow:but I just saw so many researchers doing incredible stuff in all sorts
Chris Pahlow:of fields and some of it very moving.
Chris Pahlow:I felt really humbled to be just sitting in on some of the meetings where people,
Chris Pahlow:they're dedicating their life to really trying to make a positive difference
Chris Pahlow:and it just didn't seem like they were getting the support they needed to,
Chris Pahlow:to drive that impact and the longer I got to work with people like that and
Chris Pahlow:was kicking around the universities here in Melbourne, it just seemed like
Chris Pahlow:there are some big structural issues.
Chris Pahlow:And on the one hand, universities are trying to take lessons from industry,
Chris Pahlow:whether, that's something like the film industry or podcasting is increasingly
Chris Pahlow:big in the academic world now.
Chris Pahlow:So whether they're trying to take lessons from those kind of folks, or whether
Chris Pahlow:it's from consulting firms or whether it's from, advertising and marketing.
Chris Pahlow:There's a lot of great stuff there, but the way it's applied,
Chris Pahlow:in my opinion, in the academic world really has a lot of gaps.
Chris Pahlow:And so that's what I'm trying to tackle now.
Chris Pahlow:And so to go back to your question of what's my approach when it comes
Chris Pahlow:to helping people think about who they work with, this is hot off the
Chris Pahlow:presses I haven't even published it on my website yet, but I feel
Chris Pahlow:like people need to prioritize.
Chris Pahlow:That's a really big thing, I understand.
Chris Pahlow:Your work is super important and you're dedicating your life for
Chris Pahlow:a huge part of your life to it.
Chris Pahlow:But you don't have unlimited resources.
Chris Pahlow:You don't have unlimited time.
Chris Pahlow:So it's really important to think about for the life cycle of the
Chris Pahlow:project, who are the different types of people or organizations where
Chris Pahlow:your time is gonna be best spent.
Chris Pahlow:And there's been some great thinking done like Professor Mark Reed and his
Chris Pahlow:team developing the three I framework, encouraging people to think about
Chris Pahlow:not just influence and interest, which those are two criteria that
Chris Pahlow:have been used for a very long time.
Chris Pahlow:But we also need to think about who are we potentially impacting with our work.
Chris Pahlow:So people have been doing great thinking about that, but I also think on top of
Chris Pahlow:prioritizing, we also need to do a bit of categorization and differentiation.
Chris Pahlow:Because in my experience on the ground, working with research teams, when
Chris Pahlow:I'd asked them, okay, who are the stakeholders or who are the relevant
Chris Pahlow:parties you think are most important?
Chris Pahlow:We end up with a huge list or a huge Eisenhower matrix just
Chris Pahlow:with so many different names and so many different cards.
Chris Pahlow:And we'd look at them all, and people would ask, I think, very legitimate
Chris Pahlow:questions of how are we supposed to choose between community members who might be
Chris Pahlow:affected by our work and a funding body, or the faculty executive or, a peak
Chris Pahlow:body, like they're just categorically different types of relationships.
Chris Pahlow:And what I'm trying to do at the moment is to get teams thinking about
Chris Pahlow:not just the dissemination or the translation or knowledge mobilization.
Chris Pahlow:It's really good to think about the beneficiaries or
Chris Pahlow:end users of the research.
Chris Pahlow:But you also gotta think about what I'm calling ecosystem enablers.
Chris Pahlow:So who are the people or organizations that are gonna set up your team
Chris Pahlow:for success and if you're in a university that probably is gonna be
Chris Pahlow:decision makers in the faculty or in chancellery or something like that.
Chris Pahlow:It's really important that you understand the strategic
Chris Pahlow:priorities of the funding bodies.
Chris Pahlow:Increasingly I'm talking with people who are looking for philanthropic
Chris Pahlow:funding or, or, industry partnerships.
Chris Pahlow:So they're not just thinking about funding on a project level, but
Chris Pahlow:they're thinking about the future of their center or their organization.
Chris Pahlow:How can it last more than those first five years?
Chris Pahlow:So I guess that's just an example yeah.
Chris Pahlow:Prioritization, but categorization and thinking about the fact that
Chris Pahlow:not all relationships are the same.
Chris Pahlow:They do have different purposes in the lifecycle of your project or your
Chris Pahlow:organization or indeed your career.
Chris Pahlow:And I guess I'll say one other thing.
Chris Pahlow:I really like the word relationships 'cause I think it has some
Chris Pahlow:really helpful connotations.
Chris Pahlow:And if we go back to my criticism of the existing language it's very common
Chris Pahlow:for me to hear people say things like, oh yeah, comms is one way.
Chris Pahlow:I'm just gonna be broadcasting out my ideas, which I think
Chris Pahlow:is based on a fundamental and very unhelpful misconception.
Chris Pahlow:And they talk about engagement is two ways.
Chris Pahlow:So comms is one way.
Chris Pahlow:I'm just gonna be shouting into the void and hoping someone listens.
Chris Pahlow:Engagement, I, maybe I'll do some listening and I'll do some
Chris Pahlow:talking and we'll split it 50 50.
Chris Pahlow:But when people think about engagement, I think that can still
Chris Pahlow:have some pretty heavy limitations.
Chris Pahlow:They might think about consultation.
Chris Pahlow:Like I, I'll go and do a focus group with some representatives
Chris Pahlow:from a community group.
Chris Pahlow:And it could just be a one-off or a short term kind of situation.
Chris Pahlow:Whereas I think relationships suggest something that's ongoing, something
Chris Pahlow:that's reciprocal something that requires, investment and even like
Chris Pahlow:love and care from all parties.
Chris Pahlow:And I think those things are all really important.
Chris Pahlow:I guess just for life and just for being a person, but especially if you really
Chris Pahlow:do want your work to have lasting impact.
Sarah McLusky:Yeah, I think it's so true.
Sarah McLusky:I think when you say they're shouting into the void there's many
Sarah McLusky:a research communication thing I've seen that it just felt like that.
Sarah McLusky:It's just yeah, we've got some money.
Sarah McLusky:We're just gonna create this thing and then we don't quite
Sarah McLusky:know what we're gonna do with it.
Sarah McLusky:I think it's so interesting is always when it's a tagged on part of the
Sarah McLusky:research, there's always that people always say, I haven't got the time.
Sarah McLusky:Whereas if you think about it as just an integral part of how the research
Sarah McLusky:is done, as you say, not just thinking about it as like a one-off thing,
Sarah McLusky:but like an ongoing relationship that runs, all the way through, that's just
Sarah McLusky:threaded through everything that you do.
Sarah McLusky:And then in those cases, you are gonna have considerably more impact
Sarah McLusky:than chucking thousands of pounds in animation that you're gonna
Sarah McLusky:post once on social media and then it's gonna disappear without trace.
Sarah McLusky:And actually so much of that impact really is about the difference
Sarah McLusky:that we make to people, isn't it?
Chris Pahlow:A hundred percent.
Chris Pahlow:Yeah.
Chris Pahlow:Yeah.
Chris Pahlow:I would be so happy.
Chris Pahlow:I'd be overjoyed if I, if anyone listening who's a researcher.
Chris Pahlow:I know we're pro Sarah, we're probably preaching to, to the choir
Chris Pahlow:here because it is, I know you
Sarah McLusky:I think probably the people who listen to this.
Sarah McLusky:Yeah.
Chris Pahlow:I guess what I would, what I'd love to see in the future is if
Chris Pahlow:folks working in research organizations could just take one day a quarter.
Chris Pahlow:Just take stock of where are your current relationships at, the
Chris Pahlow:important ones, and just do a bit of thinking about what relationships
Chris Pahlow:might be most important next quarter.
Chris Pahlow:If we could just do that four times a year, I think that would
Chris Pahlow:already make a big difference.
Sarah McLusky:Yeah.
Sarah McLusky:Well maybe you're giving yourself something to organize there, to a
Sarah McLusky:kind of online little retreat thing.
Sarah McLusky:Yeah.
Sarah McLusky:Get people to come and talk about it.
Sarah McLusky:I think, as you say, I think our, most of our audience for this podcast
Sarah McLusky:are, will be on board with you.
Sarah McLusky:But yeah, maybe if that message.
Sarah McLusky:Even if people, I think sometimes I find with this podcast, even if it just helps
Sarah McLusky:people feel that they're not alone, I think that can be really helpful.
Sarah McLusky:And even if the conversations they're having are challenging it know that
Sarah McLusky:other people are facing the same challenges, I think can be really helpful.
Sarah McLusky:So you've hinted there that you're, this isn't a world
Sarah McLusky:that you've always worked in.
Sarah McLusky:You came from a very different background.
Sarah McLusky:Tell us a bit about how you've ended up doing what you do
Sarah McLusky:now, what you did before.
Chris Pahlow:It's a pretty long and unusual story.
Chris Pahlow:I imagine I'm probably quite far from the average listener of this podcast.
Chris Pahlow:I imagine a lot of them like yourself, probably went and did PhDs
Chris Pahlow:and had this period where they were considering are they gonna continue
Chris Pahlow:on the academic path or are they gonna do something research adjacent?
Chris Pahlow:That's not my story.
Chris Pahlow:I didn't go to, I didn't even go to film school.
Chris Pahlow:I went to art school, so I'm really coming at it from a different angle.
Chris Pahlow:And um, there's a lot of like little steps in my journey, which
Chris Pahlow:at the time just seemed like really strange, almost random and at times
Chris Pahlow:really frustrating kind of things.
Chris Pahlow:And I. Only now I look back and be like, oh, they all make sense now.
Chris Pahlow:They all contributed.
Chris Pahlow:And so one of the things that happened when I was doing my Bachelor of Creative
Chris Pahlow:Arts here in Melbourne was the university very kindly decided to delete the
Chris Pahlow:degree when I was halfway finished it.
Sarah McLusky:Oh, goodness.
Chris Pahlow:Yeah, I know.
Chris Pahlow:It's great.
Chris Pahlow:I know.
Chris Pahlow:But it meant I did a bunch of philosophy subjects just from the arts faculty
Chris Pahlow:and really enjoyed that and got along with one of my lecturers really well.
Chris Pahlow:And I was, at the time I was pursuing being a screenwriter and director
Chris Pahlow:and I was already working on a bunch of short films and documentaries
Chris Pahlow:and having some pretty good success in festivals and stuff like that.
Chris Pahlow:And so I just needed some money to live while I made
Chris Pahlow:independent uh, films because if.
Chris Pahlow:If anyone listening knows anything about the film industry, it's a terrible,
Chris Pahlow:terrible way to make any kinda living.
Chris Pahlow:And I real, I thought teaching would be fun and I thought it'd
Chris Pahlow:be something I would enjoy.
Chris Pahlow:So I just asked one of my philosophy lecturers like, Hey,
Chris Pahlow:can I come work for you as a tutor?
Chris Pahlow:And he's no I don't need anyone, but I just got offered this
Chris Pahlow:job at another university.
Chris Pahlow:I don't think you're qualified, but why don't you just give them a call
Chris Pahlow:and see, and I wasn't qualified.
Chris Pahlow:It was teaching a master's course in a graduate school of business,
Chris Pahlow:and the subject was critical thinking and communication.
Sarah McLusky:Oh.
Sarah McLusky:Oh, wow.
Chris Pahlow:I'd only really done continental philosophy.
Chris Pahlow:I hadn't studied any formal logic or anything, but you know what it's
Chris Pahlow:like in university sometimes they just need someone to start next
Chris Pahlow:week, and if you show up at the right time they'll give you a job.
Sarah McLusky:You're just the one that's there.
Sarah McLusky:Yeah.
Chris Pahlow:And so I went in and had my interview and they're like, okay, great.
Chris Pahlow:Have you read these books on the reading list?
Chris Pahlow:And I'm like, no.
Chris Pahlow:But I certainly could read them like, terrific, go to this tute now
Chris Pahlow:you can watch what this tutor does and then you can do it tomorrow.
Chris Pahlow:And, already I, that's already strange enough as my kind of
Chris Pahlow:induction into the, a academic world.
Chris Pahlow:But then I went to the tute and teaching is now my friend Ashley Barnett, and
Chris Pahlow:he starts the class pretty normally talking about what critical thinking is.
Chris Pahlow:And then he starts doing magic tricks.
Chris Pahlow:He's like literally like pulling things out of his sleeves and making
Chris Pahlow:things appear behind people's ears.
Chris Pahlow:And I'm like.
Chris Pahlow:I'm like looking around what the, am I supposed to learn how
Chris Pahlow:to do magic to teach this class?
Chris Pahlow:And no, that wasn't the expectation.
Chris Pahlow:He just happened to be an academic who was like a magician in his part-time and he
Chris Pahlow:was like an exceptionally good teacher.
Chris Pahlow:Yeah.
Chris Pahlow:But if I look back at that was, a real baptism of fire, but it's really paid off
Chris Pahlow:because so much of what I've done over the last few years has been, challenging
Chris Pahlow:folks to think about different ways of communicating stuff and not just
Chris Pahlow:going to the obvious kind of situation.
Chris Pahlow:And I did that for about six and a half years, and then I taught another
Chris Pahlow:couple of unis in their film schools, which made a lot more sense at the
Chris Pahlow:time when I was making my first movie.
Chris Pahlow:And yeah, like I said, the film industry's a terrible way to make money, so I
Chris Pahlow:just kept hanging around universities and eventually got asked to consult
Chris Pahlow:at the University of Melbourne on a bunch of different media projects and I
Chris Pahlow:worked off and on with them for a very long time, and it was some of those
Chris Pahlow:situations I described before seeing just how hard researchers were trying
Chris Pahlow:and how big their impact goals were.
Chris Pahlow:And again, I just didn't feel like the structures were set up to help them.
Chris Pahlow:And I felt like I was getting involved too late.
Chris Pahlow:Like I said, it might be the end of a project but even the fact that I was
Chris Pahlow:consulting with a video and media team and kind of like you said, it's good to
Chris Pahlow:think about who your audience is and what you want them to do differently before
Chris Pahlow:you spend all the, all that money on an animation or a podcast or whatever it is.
Chris Pahlow:And I found myself in the very awkward position of, the video and media team
Chris Pahlow:at this university would say, Hey Chris, can you come and take a look at these
Chris Pahlow:podcast projects, these video projects, and we wanna know what you think about
Chris Pahlow:it and what you think they should do.
Chris Pahlow:And I'd have to say, I don't think they should make a video, or I don't
Chris Pahlow:think they should make a podcast.
Chris Pahlow:And eventually that led me to basically just consulting on comms strategy,
Chris Pahlow:and then the more I work with these organizations, like I said at the
Chris Pahlow:start of the episode, very often it would be like, yeah, great, let's
Chris Pahlow:communicate with your external audiences.
Chris Pahlow:But right now you've got a team of amazing people who don't even know what each
Chris Pahlow:other do, and they don't know how to, talk about their work in the same way they
Chris Pahlow:have potentially fundamental disagreements about what they're doing, and how
Chris Pahlow:they should talk and think about it.
Chris Pahlow:This is I think, probably particularly challenging when we talk about
Chris Pahlow:interdisciplinary research, but I guess a long story sorry, hopefully
Chris Pahlow:there was some LOLs along the way.
Chris Pahlow:But yeah a long, strange journey of going from teaching in universities
Chris Pahlow:when I probably shouldn't to working on podcasts and movies to, yeah, eventually
Chris Pahlow:like consulting on research strategy, particularly about stakeholders.
Sarah McLusky:Yeah.
Sarah McLusky:That is a very unusual and very interesting journey, but
Sarah McLusky:you are reminding me of Yeah.
Sarah McLusky:I've certainly been the person in the room where I've just
Sarah McLusky:gone, no, you really shouldn't be spending your money on this thing.
Sarah McLusky:And that is quite a brave thing to do sometimes, especially when it's
Sarah McLusky:potentially like putting you out of a job.
Sarah McLusky:I've certainly been there, but when you think Yeah.
Sarah McLusky:But this is the right thing to do.
Sarah McLusky:How do you approach situations like that?
Chris Pahlow:You're right.
Chris Pahlow:It is hard and there's definitely been a lot of emotions over the years,
Chris Pahlow:particularly in the early years when I was finding my feet with this stuff.
Chris Pahlow:I used to joke it's lucky that I'm a consultant 'cause I can just throw a
Chris Pahlow:hand grenade into the room and if, if people don't like what I say, I can, I
Chris Pahlow:just don't have to show up to the office for a few days 'cause I don't work here.
Chris Pahlow:And I'm joking, but I do think that's actually been a bit of a superpower.
Chris Pahlow:Like I, I'm thinking of one particular meeting where a project
Chris Pahlow:was, had really gone off the rails.
Chris Pahlow:It was like six months overdue.
Chris Pahlow:All the stuff that can happen in any big organization like staff have changed.
Chris Pahlow:And, the briefs been changed five times and everyone's trying their best, but the
Chris Pahlow:circumstance is just not really working.
Chris Pahlow:And I could go into the call and say Hey, this project's not
Chris Pahlow:working, we need to finish it.
Chris Pahlow:These are the things we need to do.
Chris Pahlow:And if we can't do that, I think we just need to stop and start again from scratch.
Chris Pahlow:And.
Chris Pahlow:That was quite a shocking thing for someone to say when there's been what I'm
Chris Pahlow:struggling to remember from my critical thinking days, the sunk cost bias.
Chris Pahlow:Yeah, that's what I'm trying to think of.
Sarah McLusky:Sunk cost fallacy.
Sarah McLusky:Yeah.
Chris Pahlow:Everyone's been working it for so long.
Chris Pahlow:They've invested so much time and money and energy, but it's just not working.
Chris Pahlow:And if we keep going, they're just throwing good money after bad.
Chris Pahlow:And I realized when I said that I was the only one on the call who could say that
Chris Pahlow:and the senior manager, she paused for a moment and she looked at me and she said.
Chris Pahlow:You don't work for the university, do you?
Chris Pahlow:And I was like no, I don't.
Sarah McLusky:Yeah.
Chris Pahlow:And I found, even though those moments were scary and there were
Chris Pahlow:times I was like, oh, that's it i'm getting kicked off that project now.
Chris Pahlow:I think people, I. Trusted that I was being honest because yeah, I
Chris Pahlow:think it is scary and I don't know, I just couldn't sleep at night if
Chris Pahlow:I just went along with this stuff.
Chris Pahlow:And like I said, I just got too cranky and if I think if I wanted an easier
Chris Pahlow:life I wouldn't be doing anything I'm doing, but I just can't, I can't bear
Chris Pahlow:the frustration sometimes, Sarah.
Chris Pahlow:I just, we gotta do something about this.
Sarah McLusky:Oh, I can completely relate to that.
Sarah McLusky:And I think, again, I do think it is powerful.
Sarah McLusky:I don't think I could have made this podcast and said some of
Sarah McLusky:the things I've said if I had been employed in an organization.
Sarah McLusky:So yeah it can be a very powerful place to, to be.
Sarah McLusky:Power that needs to be used with responsibility, as you say, when doing
Sarah McLusky:it, when you feel it's the right thing.
Sarah McLusky:Yeah.
Chris Pahlow:Yeah and like I don't want us to just be congratulating
Chris Pahlow:ourselves too much, but like I said at the start, I really do believe in your
Chris Pahlow:mission and I think what you're doing is really important because while I
Chris Pahlow:could make a joke and say, yeah, I'll just not turn up to the office for
Chris Pahlow:a few days 'cause I don't work here.
Chris Pahlow:Everybody else still did work there.
Chris Pahlow:And it really made me upset to see how often professional staff and
Chris Pahlow:universities were treated like second class citizens and bossed around.
Chris Pahlow:And as my, a big part of my mission is trying to help amazing researchers
Chris Pahlow:drive impact, but I, a secondary mission, a personal mission is
Chris Pahlow:trying to create a better work environment for those professional
Chris Pahlow:staff who are working so, so hard.
Chris Pahlow:And I think they deserve a lot better a lot of the time.
Sarah McLusky:Yeah.
Sarah McLusky:Couldn't agree more.
Sarah McLusky:And I think well perhaps that nicely leads us onto a question I like to ask
Sarah McLusky:all of my guests, which is, if you had a magic wand, what would you change
Sarah McLusky:about this world that you work in?
Chris Pahlow:The whole world or just the academic world?
Sarah McLusky:Just, just your little impact, research impact little corner.
Sarah McLusky:Although, it can be something connected, but it's your choice.
Sarah McLusky:If money and time were no object.
Chris Pahlow:I mean there's a million things, but something
Chris Pahlow:that's, I think a personal bug bear.
Chris Pahlow:I think the academic world needs to put a lot more money into, yeah,
Chris Pahlow:what would come under professional staff or professional services?
Chris Pahlow:I'm biased because most of what I have done over the years has been communication
Chris Pahlow:sort related, but I've just been in too many meetings where the leaders
Chris Pahlow:of a department or a center are saying like, we don't understand what's wrong
Chris Pahlow:with our operations, or why does it take so long to get any anything done?
Chris Pahlow:And I have to point out again and again, this is a multimillion dollar
Chris Pahlow:operation you're running here.
Chris Pahlow:And if we looked at a commercial business who had the same yearly revenue.
Chris Pahlow:They would have it's not even a comparison I don't know, 10 x, a hundred x in terms
Chris Pahlow:of the spend and amount of staff they'd have working on things like marketing
Chris Pahlow:and sales and all that kind of stuff.
Chris Pahlow:And so I feel like I, it's, there's just, it's just a lose lose situation.
Chris Pahlow:It's bad for academics 'cause they get frustrated.
Chris Pahlow:And it's also not fair to the professional staff who are working so hard and
Chris Pahlow:they're trying to do five people's jobs and they're not getting paid enough.
Sarah McLusky:Yeah.
Sarah McLusky:And I think that is very much what we're about is just making it
Sarah McLusky:apparent this work that is being done, because I think so often it is
Sarah McLusky:invisible unless there's a problem.
Sarah McLusky:And if there's a problem, suddenly yeah, it explodes.
Sarah McLusky:And I think also that really genuinely valuing the professional staff
Sarah McLusky:who work in these organizations is the secret to almost everything.
Sarah McLusky:So when academics are saying, oh, we're too busy and we can't, and now you
Sarah McLusky:expect us to do all this other stuff on top of our jobs, it's like well, no, we
Sarah McLusky:don't necessarily expect you to do it.
Sarah McLusky:You could put other people in place who can do these other things that feel
Sarah McLusky:like it's, another demand on your time.
Sarah McLusky:And yeah.
Sarah McLusky:So I think the secret to making things better is bridging that
Sarah McLusky:divide between this kind of sense of academic and professional staff
Sarah McLusky:research adjacent, whatever you want to call them, and thinking about
Sarah McLusky:how we can get them working together because that's what they're doing.
Sarah McLusky:They're all working together for a shared aim, but at the moment,
Sarah McLusky:doing it in very different ways.
Chris Pahlow:And look, I empathize, like I know things are hard.
Chris Pahlow:I know.
Chris Pahlow:The structures aren't set up to make what I'm suggesting easy.
Chris Pahlow:And a lot of people would say it's not even possible, but I guess it's
Chris Pahlow:the magic wand question and I hope
Sarah McLusky:Absolutely.
Chris Pahlow:If we have this conversation again in 10 or 20 years, I really
Chris Pahlow:hope things have started to shift.
Sarah McLusky:Yeah.
Sarah McLusky:Me too.
Sarah McLusky:Me too.
Sarah McLusky:Saying then that, we haven't really talked about this, but we're seeing
Sarah McLusky:what you can see on this podcast.
Sarah McLusky:Part of the reason we're thinking about that is 'cause you have
Sarah McLusky:a podcast as well, don't you?
Sarah McLusky:So would you like to tell the listeners a little bit about your
Sarah McLusky:podcast and where they can find it?
Sarah McLusky:The sorts of things you cover?
Chris Pahlow:I'd love to.
Chris Pahlow:So the pod is called Amplifying Research, just like my company and I have the
Chris Pahlow:great pleasure of talking to amazing people from all around the world people
Chris Pahlow:who are passionate about impact, and we talk about how research organizations
Chris Pahlow:can communicate more effectively, how they can engage more effectively, and how
Chris Pahlow:they can collaborate more effectively.
Chris Pahlow:Um, Incredible guests, like people talking about how can you co-design
Chris Pahlow:research projects with different communities, people talking about stuff,
Chris Pahlow:more like what we've been talking about.
Chris Pahlow:How can you work in comms or engagement and embed the right
Chris Pahlow:kind of approach in your center?
Chris Pahlow:Yeah, I feel really grateful just to get to talk to super, super cool people
Chris Pahlow:who yeah, they're trying to share everything they've worked on and all the
Chris Pahlow:knowledge they've got with the world.
Chris Pahlow:Yeah, so check it out.
Chris Pahlow:You can find it on Spotify, Apple Podcasts.
Chris Pahlow:Just type in Amplifying Research.
Sarah McLusky:Yeah, I would definitely recommend it for anybody who is in
Sarah McLusky:this kind of comms engagement impact kind of space you've had some fantastic
Sarah McLusky:guests on and really talking about this, more the strategic piece, isn't it?
Sarah McLusky:It's the whys and where fors of doing things better.
Sarah McLusky:So yeah, definitely recommended.
Sarah McLusky:And if people want to get in touch with you personally or find out
Sarah McLusky:more about your company, where would you have them go and look?
Chris Pahlow:You can find me on amplifyingresearch.com or just come look
Chris Pahlow:me up on LinkedIn and shoot me a message.
Chris Pahlow:Yeah, very happy to have a chat if you care about impact and any
Chris Pahlow:of the things we've talked about.
Chris Pahlow:Very happy to have a chat.
Sarah McLusky:Fantastic.
Sarah McLusky:So it just remains to say thank you so much for coming along and sharing
Sarah McLusky:what you do and sharing your story.
Chris Pahlow:Sarah, thank you very much for having me.
Chris Pahlow:Again, huge fan and it's yeah, it's like an honor and a pleasure to be on the show.
Sarah McLusky:Oh, thank you.
Sarah McLusky:That's really kind.
Sarah McLusky:Thanks for listening to Research Adjacent.
Sarah McLusky:If you're listening in a podcast app, please check your subscribed and then
Sarah McLusky:use the links in the episode description to find full show notes and to follow
Sarah McLusky:the podcast on LinkedIn or Instagram.
Sarah McLusky:You can also find all the links and other episodes at www.researchadjacent.com.
Sarah McLusky:Research Adjacent is presented and produced by Sarah McLusky,
Sarah McLusky:and the theme music is by Lemon Music Studios on Pixabay.
Sarah McLusky:And you, yes you, get a big gold star for listening right to the end.
Sarah McLusky:See you next time.