Fast Track Impact

This week, Mark interviews Dr Katerina Cidlinska from the Institute of Psychology at the Czech Academy of Sciences about research she conducted with Early Career Researchers (ECRs) who left academia. Her work identifies four trajectories and impact could be part of the problem as well as part of the solution. There were unique challenges for women and researchers in STEM subjects, and Katerina now...

In this episode, Mark is joined by Dr Joyce Reed, health coach and CEO of Fast Track Impact, to talk about the transformative power of coaching for academics, and how it can increase both productivity and resilience. They talk about individual and group coaching, and the benefits of upgrading from a mentoring to a coaching programme in schools and departments, and how coaching can tackle burn-out...

Mark interviews Saskia Gent (Insights for Impact) and Jennifer Locket and Dawn Ashby (Plymouth Marine Laboratory) to learn from research that reviewed over 70 impact strategies from around the world. The research suggested there are just two types of impact strategy to choose from - enabling impact and achieving impact strategies. Mark discusses the paper with Saskia before interviewing Jen and Da...

Mark interviews Professor Gemma Derrick from University of Bristol about her work to understand the characteristics and drivers of negative unintended consequences from research, what she calls "grimpact". Read the paper Gemma led on her work here:  https://ressh2019.webs.upv.es/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/ressh_2019_paper_9.pdf You can get in touch with Gemma to share your grimpact case studi...

This week, Mark concludes his series on empathic leadership for impact by considering evidence from studies of expert negotiators that suggests empathic leaders can be significantly more influential. As he revises the empathic leadership model to move beyond service, he suggests that the third and final pillar of empathic leadership is about our ability to both influence and serve others by unders...

In this episode, Mark discusses how leaders that want to facilitate impact need to cultivate bridging expertise to bridge ideas and networks, bringing people and solutions together to make a difference. Read the blog version of today's episode here In the episode Mark refers to an earlier episode on working with conspiracy theorists, which you can listen to here:  https://podcasts.apple.com/u...

In this episode, Mark discusses how leaders need to have a deep understanding of their impact, to be authentic and therefore be able to connect empathically with their teams, drawing people to impact. Read the blog version of today's episode here  Impact Culture  is available now, as a hardback, e-book and audio book:  https://www.fasttrackimpact.com/books . Find out more about the...

In this episode, Mark looks at a range of leadership models and discusses the sort of leadership needed to drive impact, drawing on his new book, Impact Culture. He presents a new leadership model, empathic leadership, based on purpose, bridging expertise and service, and discusses the tools and approaches of an empathic leader, and how this can inspire impact. Read the blog version of today's epi...

This week, Mark interviews Dr Ged Hall about an innovative rolling 3 month programme for researchers to build skills and community around impact, giving them permission, accountability and support to achieve impacts that align with their values, whether or not they are valued by funders or governments. The programme arose as a direct response to the perception that the impact culture at University...

Following his Reading Group appearance earlier this month, I'm interviewing Professor Jonathan Grant about his new book, The New Power University. He argues argues that universities must embrace “new power” values that focus on participation, networked governance and transparency, to put social responsibility at the core of the academic mission. I ask him how he tried to put what he wrote into pra...

In the fourth and final episode that includes an audio chapter from his new book,  Impact Culture , Mark discusses how to build capacity for impact, including the leadership and skills needed, as well as a discussion of the role that impact strategies can play, based on his recent pre-print with accompanying blog and database which you can read here:  https://www.fasttrackimpact.com/impa...

In the third of four episodes that include audio chapters from his new book,  Impact Culture , Mark discusses the importance of working strategically to foster relationships with institutional and disciplinary networks as well as stakeholders. In the introduction, he describes a new stakeholder analysis tool. The chapter that follows considers the role of trust, different types of connection,...

In the second of four episodes that include audio chapters from his new book,  Impact Culture , Mark discusses some of the literature on purpose, and how researchers derive meaning from their work. In the introduction, he discusses the role of mentors versus coaches in academia, and the chapter that follows focuses on practical ideas that can help researchers prioritise and spend more time on...

My new book,  Impact Culture , is released on 25th March, and this is your opportunity to  join the launch team  and get involved in the  impact culture community of practice , which launches today! Get involved in the impact culture community Today I'm launching a  new website  for anyone who wants to improve their research culture and put impact at the heart of what...

In the first of four episodes that include audio chapters from his new book,  Impact Culture , Mark introduces the first of four components of a healthy impact culture: rigorous, ethical and action-oriented research. In the introduction, he discusses some of the common ethical traps researchers inadvertently fall into when attempting to generate impact from their research. In the chapter that...

In this episode, Mark is joined by his wife, Dr Joyce Reed, former hospital doctor turned health coach and Managing Director of Fast Track Impact. They talk about some of the hopes and fears of returning to in-person work, and how you can stay resilient in body and mind, whether you are staying at home, going back to work or exploring hybrid ways of working. Find out more about burnout and how to...

In this episode, Mark delves into some of the assumptions and world views that can prevent us doing research that is genuinely coproductive. He draws on a realisation that some of his own early work was far from coproductive, and instead could be characterised as "helicopter research" that included elements of white centering and epistemic racism. He also draws inspiration from work with local com...

This week, Mark shares his top 5 lessons for co-producing impact with limited time, based on his forthcoming book,  Impact Culture Find out who’s interested in your research; Next, start with their needs, not your ideas; Give as much as you get; Base action on bodies of work rather than your latest findings; and Be curious about what works. Follow Mark at  @fasttrackimpact  and&nbsp...

In this episode Mark introduces Season 4, discusses why we need to think harder about the culture in which we do our work, and unpacks what a healthy impact culture looks like. To do this, he draws on his new book, Impact Culture, and provides some practical examples of how he is putting the ideas into practice as he builds a new research centre at Scotland's Rural College. Read the peer-reviewed...

Bella Reichard and Mark Reed discuss how their new paper analysing high- versus low-scoring impact case studies from REF2014 can be used to write more effective case studies, drawing from their experience advising Universities across the UK on their REF submissions.

Bella Reichard and Mark Reed read from their new paper analysing high- versus low-scoring impact case studies from REF2014.

Bella Reichard and Mark Reed read from their new paper analysing high versus low-scoring impact case studies from REF2014

This week, Mark asks how you can make room for the most important work of your life. What priorities most authentically express your identity and values, that you need to make time for? The systems that hold you back and demotivate you might not be about to change. But you have the capacity to make small changes that can have a big impact on your motivation, and make your working life easier. Lear...

In a bonus episode this week from the climate conference in Madrid, Mark provides a worked example of how to use a policy seminar to generate and build relationships that have the potential to deliver long-term impacts from research. There are lots of methods available to find out who attends a policy seminar and engage with them after the event. To see Mark's approach this week, view this tweet w...

In this second part of his episode on evidencing impact, Mark reads the final sections of his forthcoming co-authored paper, describing five types of impact evaluation and a methodological framework to guide the selection of methods for evidencing impact. See the figures from the paper in this summary presentation .