Fast Track Impact

This week, Mark discusses how to transcend the labels we often hide behind as academics, so we can embrace failure and mistakes as a necessary part of who we are, sitting with discomfort and being able to feel the full range of human emotions. By accepting and living with the less comfortable emotions that failures bring up, we unlock the capacity to feel more of every feeling, including joy, peace and inspiration. What is your failure trying to teach you?The episode finishes with an audio chapter of Mark's new book, Impact Culture, which is available, as a hardback, e-book and audio book: https://www.fasttrackimpact.com/books. Find out more about the book and join free training and discussion groups at: https://www.fasttrackimpact.com/impactculture.

Anxiety is baked into many academic cultures, but for some that fear can be debilitating. In this episode Mark talks about his own struggle with anxiety after a failed attempt to return to face-to-face work post-COVID, and brings a message of hope and healing for anyone struggling to give themselves the self-compassion they need to move through difficult times. Trigger warning: this episode includes references to sexual and spiritual abuse.Impact Culture is available now, as a hardback, e-book and audio book: https://www.fasttrackimpact.com/books. Find out more about the book and join free training and discussion groups at: https://www.fasttrackimpact.com/impactculture.

Person who recently told me the most transformational moment in their career was when a famous professor confessed to imposter syndrome because it meant she wasn't alone and her hero was as human as she was - if he could do what he did and feel the same way as her then she could do what he was doing too.What I do in trainings - everyone experiences this, or perfectionism/people-pleasing at some point, many of us regularly, and it affects both early career and senior staff - new profs in particular, as the gulf between our perception of ourselves and the world's perception of us increases. Realising that you are not alone in this is the first step towards self-compassion according to Kristin Neff from University of Austin Texas. We need to talk about these issues and normalise them, and in so doing we can reduce their power in our lives and create a more compassionate culture that is more resilient as we empathise and act to help others struggling in the same way as us.Recent examples from my experience - offe

Why do we say "yes" to things we later regret, or struggle to share early drafts of our work with collaborators? Why we get upset when colleagues ask for help and then don't follow our advice? Are you really driven by a desire to help others, or are you seeking external validation? Why do we need to make sure we've got everything right - can you have a healthy level of perfectionism or are you expressing a deeper need to "be right"? This week, Mark explores some of the common ways in which researchers experience people-pleasing and perfectionism, and how you can harness these challenges to learn more about yourself and the decisions you make. In so doing, Mark argues, it is possible to regain control of your work-life balance and start making decisions that make time for the most important things in your career and life. The episode ends with an excerpt from his new book, Impact Culture, available now, as a hardback, e-book and audio book: https://www.fasttrackimpact.com/books. Find out more about the bo

In this episode, Mark considers the difference between influential versus manipulative impact, and shares insights and practical tips that can help you identify early warning signs that you might be about to cross a line and say or do something you might later regret. He builds on previous episodes about leadership for impact and his chapter on empathic leadership in his new book, Impact Culture.Read the blog version of today's episode hereImpact Culture is available now, as a hardback, e-book and audio book: https://www.fasttrackimpact.com/books. Find out more about the book and join free training and discussion groups at: https://www.fasttrackimpact.com/impactculture.

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 runs workshops to help ECRs think about how they can balance the competing demands of their roles, or whether they need to start thinking of an exit strategy.Download her full paper here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/fs7jdbzawoyzet4/Cidlinska_et_al-2022-Higher_Education.pdf?dl=0Impact Culture is available now, as a hardback, e-book and audio book: https://www.fasttrackimpact.com/books. Find out more about the book and join free training and discussion groups at: https://www.fasttrackimpact.com/impactculture.

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 before it happens, rather than picking up the pieces after everything has gone wrong.  Get group coaching from Fast Track Impact: Read Mark's blog for Times Higher Education on "Why every researcher needs a coach"  Get your copy of "What works in executive coaching" by Erik de Haan  Find out more about health coaching via the NHS (UK only)

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 Dawn about how they developed their strategy, which features as an example of good practice in the paper. Read the pre-print of the paper: https://www.fasttrackimpact.com/impactstrategiesMark, Saskia, Jen and Dawn are running a free training workshop based on the paper and the PML case study on 27th June - book your place here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/how-to-write-an-impact-strategy-tickets-233733472107Impact Culture is available now, as a hardback, e-book and audio book: https://www.fasttrackimpact.com/books. Find out more about the book and join free training and discussion groups at: 

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.pdfYou can get in touch with Gemma to share your grimpact case studies at gemma.derrick@bristol.ac.uk.Impact Culture is available now, as a hardback, e-book and audio book: https://www.fasttrackimpact.com/books. Find out more about the book and join free training and discussion groups at: https://www.fasttrackimpact.com/impactculture.

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 understanding their positions and needs more deeply.Impact Culture is available now, as a hardback, e-book and audio book: https://www.fasttrackimpact.com/books. Find out more about the book and join free training and discussion groups at: https://www.fasttrackimpact.com/impactculture.

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 at: https://www.fasttrackimpact.com/post/empathic-leadership-part-4-bridging-expertise-being-an-expert-at-finding-expertiseIn the episode Mark refers to an earlier episode on working with conspiracy theorists, which you can listen to here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/how-to-deal-more-effectively-conspiracy-theorists-on/id1095867924?i=1000457169707Impact Culture is available now, as a hardback, e-book and audio book: https://www.fasttrackimpact.com/books. Find out more about the book and join free training and discussion groups at: https://www.fasttrackimpact.com/impactculture.

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 at: https://www.fasttrackimpact.com/post/empathic-leadership-part-3-the-purpose-of-an-empathic-leaderImpact Culture is available now, as a hardback, e-book and audio book: https://www.fasttrackimpact.com/books. Find out more about the book and join free training and discussion groups at: https://www.fasttrackimpact.com/impactculture.

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 first part of Mark's empathic leadership blog here: https://www.fasttrackimpact.com/post/empathic-leadership-part-1Impact Culture is available now, as a hardback, e-book and audio book: https://www.fasttrackimpact.com/books. Find out more about the book and join free training and discussion groups at: https://www.fasttrackimpact.com/impactculture.

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 of Leeds had been shaped too much by the Research Excellence Framework. It uses peer to peer support and tutor input to embed an approach to impact that is heavily influenced by Theory of Change tools. This approach is built on, institutionally, as academic Schools are supported to develop ‘bottom-up’ impact outcomes and strategies that aim to deliver those outcomes.Join Mark and Ged for a training session on the 25th of April to learn more about what University of Leeds is doing in this space, and find out more from the Impact Culture book about how to motivate researchers to engage with impact on their own terms:

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 practice when he was a Vice Principle at Kings College London, and discuss some of his more controversial ideas, including the idea that blue-skies research should be deprioritised, universities should take strong stances on controversial issues and celebrity researchers should give up tenure so early career researchers can get long-term positions.Get your copy of The New Power University now.Follow Mark at @fasttrackimpact and @profmarkreed or on LinkedIn.Impact Culture is available now, as a hardback, e-book and audio book: https://www.fasttrackimpact.com/books. Find out more about t

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/impactstrategies.Follow Mark at @fasttrackimpact and @profmarkreed or on LinkedIn.Impact Culture is released as a paperback, e-book and audio book on 25th March 2022. Find out more at: https://www.fasttrackimpact.com/impactculture.

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, social norms and power in the generation of impact, before considering a number of actions, including building boundary organisations and fostering a more compassionate culture in your workplace.Follow Mark at @fasttrackimpact and @profmarkreed or on LinkedIn.Impact Culture is released as a paperback, e-book and audio book on 25th March 2022. Find out more at: https://www.fasttrackimpact.com/impactculture.

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 impact.Follow Mark at @fasttrackimpact and @profmarkreed or on LinkedIn.Impact Culture is released as a paperback, e-book and audio book on 25th March 2022. Find out more at: https://www.fasttrackimpact.com/impactculture.

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 communityToday I'm launching a new website for anyone who wants to improve their research culture and put impact at the heart of what they do. It includes:A programme of free training events and discussion groups run by members of the impact community. The first event is on impact monitoring and evaluation on 28th February and already has over 300 people booked, so book now to avoid disappointment. Our second event is a more intimate reading group with Jonathan Grant on his new book, The New Power University, on 14th MarchSign up for a new JISCMail impact culture email discussion group to keep the discussion going between eventsFree content from the book - over 90% is available open access via the website, i

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 follows, he uses the poet John Keats' creative process to explain how researchers can generate original ideas that can solve real-world problems, and the episode concludes with practical ideas to transform your research so it can underpin impact.Follow Mark at @fasttrackimpact and @profmarkreed or on LinkedIn.Impact Culture is released as a paperback, e-book and audio book on 25th March 2022. Be the first to find out how to join the launch team and get an exclusive signed copy over a month before the rest of the world by joining the Fast Track Impact mailing list.