Summary
The speaker opens by acknowledging the difficult climate of layoffs affecting the research community, including themselves, and emphasizes that despite these challenges, researchers must seize this moment to increase their value within organizations. Drawing from personal experience of previous layoffs, the speaker advocates for researchers to move beyond merely informing decisions and instead become active drivers of change. The talk outlines the structure of the conference day, which bridges broad societal concerns with practical research advancements. It introduces key speakers: Priorinal and Rita Khadri on using qualitative research and participatory methods to humanize AI innovation; Sarah Fatala presenting a nuanced framework to move beyond binary views of participatory research; Scott Please offering an unorthodox method to combine qualitative and quantitative thinking using conceptual mathematical models to enhance insights dissemination. Further, Mamgani discusses maintaining integrity in generative workshops, Carl Turner shares frameworks for diagnosing and reviving troubled projects, and Kristen Guth presents workshops for stakeholder alignment. Finally, Mike Oren proposes transforming research practices to mirror pharmaceutical industry models. The unifying theme is for researchers to leverage their unique position at the nexus of insight and action to fundamentally shift how organizations learn, think, and operate.
Key Insights
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Layoffs in research fields, though disruptive, present opportunities for researchers to increase their organizational value by becoming changemakers.
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Moving from informing decisions to actively driving change is critical for researchers to remain relevant and indispensable.
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Participatory research should not be viewed as binary; frameworks like Sarah Fatala's help navigate degrees of participation.
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Combining qualitative and quantitative research via mathematical conceptual models can make insights spread more viral within organizations.
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Generative workshops like design sprints risk devolving into political theater without proper facilitation.
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Understanding organizational culture with diagnostic frameworks can help revive apparently doomed projects.
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Workshops that clarify and align stakeholders are vital tools for researchers acting as changemakers.
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Qualitative research plays a key role in centering humans in AI innovation, especially through participatory methods.
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Researchers occupy a unique position at the intersection of insight and action, which they must leverage to lead change.
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Adopting models from other industries, like pharmaceuticals, can inspire transformative changes in research practice.
Notable Quotes
"This is a weird time for research. Layoffs have torn through our field. I've been laid off too."
"There's no better time to advance research than now."
"We don't just need to do a better job of articulating our value. We need to become more valuable."
"We need to step out from informing decisions and into becoming changemakers."
"Participatory research always seems like something you’re either doing or not doing—but more often than not, not doing."
"The talks today start more societal and foundational and end with advancing our day-to-day research practice."
"Researchers are positioned at the nexus of insight and action."
"What got us here won’t get us where we want to go."
"Generative workshops such as design sprints can devolve into political theater if we’re not careful."
"Let’s shake s*** up."
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